Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full) 

28 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 

Last updated 3-26-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 15
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, P 
Alexander Canario, OF 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Game Preview: Cardinals (27-21) @ Cubs (23-25)

UPDATE: Aramis Ramirez, who received a cortisone injection in his aching left hand yesterday, is back in the Cub lineup. Here's the batting order: Fukudome 9, Theriot 4, Lee 3, Ramirez 5, Soriano 7, Byrd 8, Soto 2, Castro 6, Wells 1


It's such a spectacular day in Chicago today, it's easy to imagine I live somewhere else.

As for this afternoon's matchup at Wrigley, if it seems late in the year for the Cardinals and Cubs to be meeting for the first time, that's because it is. Not since 1999 have the clubs gone this deep into the calendar without looking directly into each other's hate-filled eyes.

Our Cubs, winners of 8 of 11, seem to have dodged two injury bullets: Jeff Baker's problem yesterday, which included the loss of vision in his right eye, has been diagnosed as an ocular migraine. According to @CarrieMuskat this morning, he is now fine and is uniform. Also, Carlos Zambrano has fully recovered from whatever he had yesterday that seemed like it might be appendicitis but turned out not to be, and he is also ready to go. (BREAKING NEWS: Z's problem was "food-related." Do you really need to know any more?)

Derrek Lee, who could teach Albert Pujols a thing or two about how to slump (see below), looked like a different hitter in the L.A. series. He's 8-for-12 in the last four games and is also a .326 lifetime hitter against this afternoon's St. Louis starter, Chris Carpenter.

About the visitors...

After charging out of the gate 18-8 and building a five-game lead in the NL Central, the Cardinals have gone 9-13 and currently sit second, a game behind the Reds. They had lost four in a row before winning yesterday in San Diego. They have two starting pitchers hurt and unfortunately neither one of them is named Carpenter or Wainwright, who will go Sunday.

On offense, the great Pujols has looked very nearly mortal lately. He homered yesterday in San Diego, his first long ball in roughly two weeks—TWO ENTIRE WEEKS WITHOUT A HOME RUN!—but I think we can all agree that he still scares the crap out of us, can't we?

Oh, one more thing—Tony LaRussa is in a bad mood:

La Russa reiterated his frustration with a schedule that had his team start Thursday's game at 5:35 p.m. St. Louis time. The Cardinals then had to board a charter [from San Diego] for Chicago, then open a series against the Cubs at 1:20 p.m. today. La Russa said he voiced his displeasure over the scheduling with Padres chairman Jeff Moorad.

We don't like TLR when he's mad. Actually, we don't like him at all.

Friday's pitchers: Carpenter (5-1.3.09) v. Randy Wells (3-2, 3.99)

Carpenter is coming off a game he should have lost but didn't (8 H, 4 ER, 6 IP v. the Angels) because the offense bailed him out with an extra-innings victory. He has been relatively vulnerable to the home run ball this year, having already allowed nine after serving up just seven through all of 2009.

Wells limited the Rangers to just three runs over 8 1/3 IP last time out, though he didn't get the win. It was the third solid effort, none of which have provided a victory for Wells, since that ugly game in Pittsburgh back at the beginning of the month.


Comments

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

You're usually the reverse of naive, but I think it's naive to think that a manager has the freedom to put any name he likes on the lineup card. You have to play your expensive players, if only to keep their trade value up. It's Hendry's job to trade Fukudome/Byrd/Soriano to make room for Colvin, who has been something of a surprise, otherwise they wouldn't have gone after Byrd last winter. I've said before that I think Lou dislikes Soriano as much as I do, but they owe the guy $84 million for this year and four more years, whereas Lou is still owed a couple million for this year and then that's it. Who has the power in that situation? Lou manages the Cubs, and Soriano is the Cubs right now, unfortunately. Fukudome has his own little Brinks job going, pulling down $13 million this year, $13.5 next year. The Cubs are transitioning to a team of mostly homegrown players--not a moment too soon for my taste--where at least the best people will be on the field.

[ ]

In reply to by VirginiaPhil

I think you're right that neither the GM nor the Manager ought to be devastating a player's trade value if it can be avoided, whether that player is high-paid or earns the minimum. But aren't you neglecting the responsibilities of both the GM and the Manager to protect and develop other resources, like good young players who good provide value while keeping costs low (and who have trade value of their own to be developed)? Colvin has been on the bench long enough to rot (and all the credit should go to him for not rotting in that time, I think). A 4-man outfield would not reduce the playing time of any of the now 3 starters to significantly damage what trade value they have. What to do with Nady then becomes the problem, I guess.

marlon byrd demonstrating how much you can get away with while angry when you're a respected player. 1/2+ the league would have been ejected at a couple points there after that called strikeout.

Who was the last free agent the Cubs signed to suck this much and this consistently? He is f***ing useless right now.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    yeah, for me this isn't about who's better at 3rd.  it's madrigal, period.  for me it's about who's not hitting in the lineup because madrigal is in the lineup.

    occasional play at 3rd for madrigal, okay.  going with the steele/ground-ball matchup...meh, but okay, whatever.

    seeing madrigal get significant starting time...no thanks.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Yeah I am very disappointed Madrigal is starting. He has no business as a starter. He is AAA insurance, a back up at best. Sure his defense looks fine because he plays far enough in that his noodle arm isn’t totally exposed. It comes at the cost of 3B range.

    He’s garbage, and a team serious about winning would NOT have him starting opening day.

  • crunch (view)

    in other news, it took 3 PA before a.rizzo got his 1st HBP of the season.

  • Eric S (view)

    With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    18-year old SS Jefferson Rojas almost made the AA Tennessee Opening Day roster, and he is a legit shortstop, so I would expect him to be an MLB Top 100 prospect by mid-season. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Among the relievers in the system, I expect RHRP Hunter Bigge at AAA Iowa and RHRP Ty Johnson at South Bend to have breakout seasons on 2024, and among the starters I see LHP Drew Gray and RHP Will Sanders at South Bend and RHP Naz Mule at ACL Cubs as the guys who will make the biggest splash. Also, Jaxon Wiggins is throwing bullpen sides, so once he is ready for game action he could be making an impact at Myrtle Beach by June.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I expect OF Christian Franklin to have a breakout season at AA Tennessee in 2024. In another organization that doesn't have PCA, Caissie, K. Alcantara, and Canario in their system, C. Franklin would be a Top 10 prospect. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The Reds trading Joe Boyle for Sam Moll at last year's MLB Trade Deadline was like the Phillies trading Ben Brown to the Cubs for David Robertson at the MLB TD in 2022.