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

Cubs Assign Six Prospects to Arizona Fall League

Tentative rosters for the 2008 Arizona Fall League (AFL) were announced yesterday (they are incomplete and also subject to change), and six of the seven Cubs prospects who will be playing for the Mesa Solar Sox this fall have been named:

SS Darwin Barney
RHP Justin Berg
OF Tyler Colvin
RHP Rocky Roquet
2B Nate Spears
LHP Donald Veal

Berg and Roquet were assigned to the AFL last year, too, although Roquet had his AFL season cut short after sustaining a sports hernia. Berg was likely assigned to the AFL again to help the Cubs decide whether to add him to their 40-man roster post-2008 (or risk losing him in the Rule 5 Draft). Berg has a power sinker similar to Jeff Samardzija's, but has had command problems throughout his career. A native of Antigo, WI, the now 24-year old Berg pitched at Triton CC in suburban Chicago before being signed as a "Draft+Follow" by the Yankees in May 2004. He was acquired from the Yankees for Matt Lawton in August 2005.

25-year old Rocky Roquet was signed as a NDFA 5th year senior in May 2006 out of Cal Poly, where he was teammate of Cubs 3B prospect Josh Lansford. Roquet is one of the hardest throwers in the Cubs organization, with a 96-97 MPH fastball and mid-80's slider.

23-year old Donald Veal was the Cubs 2nd round draft pick in 2005 out of Pima CC, and is already a virtual lock to get added to the Cubs 40-man roster post-2008. So he is likely going to the AFL mainly to get more work. Veal has had problems with his mechanics (mainly an inability to repeat his delivery and find a consistent arm slot and release point) throughout his career

Tyler Colvin played briefly in the AFL last year, too, as a member of Team USA (which spent a week playing in the AFL before leaving for the 2007 World Cup in Taiwan). The Cubs #1 draft pick out of Clemson in  2006, the 22-year old Colvin is expected to move up to Iowa in 2009. He will not need to be added to the 40-man roster until after next season.

23-year old Nate Spears is another Cubs AA prospect who is expected to make the jump to AAA next season. Spears was one of the players the Cubs acquired from Baltimore in the Corey Patterson deal in January 2006. Like with Berg, the Cubs probably want to use his performance in the AFL to help determine if Spears should be added to the 40-man roster post-2008. Spears really doesn't have the versatility to play mulitple positions, so if he makes it to the big leagues, it will probably have to be as an everyday second-baseman.  

Darwin Barney was the Cubs 2007 4th round pick out of Oregon State, and made the jump from Boise to Daytona out of Spring Training. While the 22-year old Barney has struggled some with his bat, he is a good defensive shortstop, and will likely be the #1 SS at AA Tennessee next season. .

The Cubs have only assigned three pitchers so far, so they will need to select one more. Each MLB club is required to send four pitchers and three position players to their designated AFL team, and each MLB club also has the option to assign up to three additional position players to its AFL club's "taxi squad." Members of the "taxi squad" are position players who are eligible to play only on Wednesday and Saturday, and when they do play, they temporarily replace another position player on the AFL club's active list.

In addition to the six (eventually seven) Cubs prospects who will play for the Mesa Solar Sox in 2008, Peoria Chiefs manager Ryne Sandberg will serve as the Solar Sox bench coach. (Each of the five MLB clubs associated with a given AFL club contribute either the manager, the bench coach, the pitching coach, or one of the two athletic trainers, and the assignments rotate every year).

As usual, the Cubs are the "host" team of the Mesa Solar Sox, as the Solar Sox play their home games at HoHoKam Park, the Cubs Spring Training stadium. While the Cubs are always one of the five MLB clubs associated with the Solar Sox, the other four clubs associated with the Solar Sox rotate from year to year. This year, the Tigers, Phillies, Marlins, and Braves will be the other four organizations providing players and staff to the Solar Sox. (Last year, the Cubs, Astros, Cardinals, Brewers, and Red Sox provided players and staff to the Solar Sox).    

The AFL is rated AA+, and is primarily designed for AA players making the transition to AAA, although it is not unusual for a few AAA players to play in the AFL, too. Each MLB club is allowed to assign a maximum of one player who has not played in AA or AAA(and Darwin Barney is the Cubs player with no AA or AAA experience assigned to the AFL this year).  

The AFL season runs six weeks, and teams play six games a week (they don't play on Sunday). Each AFL team typically has 20 pitchers, three catchers, eight infielders, and four outfielders (plus "taxi squad" players) on its roster, and usually six of the pitchers are used as starters (each starter pitching once a week, throwing no more than five innings in any start, usually with a maximum of 30 IP accrued over the course of the AFL season).   

The AFL consists of six teams playing in two three-team divisions. The Mesa Solar Sox, Phoenix Desert Dogs, and Scottsdale Scorpions are in one division, and the Peoria Javelinas, Peoria Saguaros, and Surprise Rafters are in the other one. The two division winners meet in a single championship game the last Saturday of the season. 

Comments

Thanks, AZ Phil. I wasn't aware that players could repeat in the AFL (although Roquet had his previous season cut short). Who do you think will be the 7th Cub? I would think Casey Lambert would be a strong possibility. I was really hoping Mark Reed (injured for part of the season) or Marquez Smith (instead of Barney) would have made it. On a completely different (but still Arizonan) subject, I was wondering what your opinion is on Julio Pena is. You've mentioned in the past that he was one of the better teen pitchers on the AZL squad. He had another strong outing for Mesa last night and has put up great numbers at age 19. Does he throw hard? Or is it good offspeed stuff? He doesn't walk too many guys which is fantastic for a teenager. Is he advanced enough to make it to Peoria next season?

Submitted by Raisin101 on Wed, 08/27/2008 - 10:50am.

Thanks, AZ Phil.

I wasn't aware that players could repeat in the AFL (although Roquet had his previous season cut short). Who do you think will be the 7th Cub? I would think Casey Lambert would be a strong possibility.

I was really hoping Mark Reed (injured for part of the season) or Marquez Smith (instead of Barney) would have made it.

On a completely different (but still Arizonan) subject, I was wondering what your opinion is on Julio Pena is. You've mentioned in the past that he was one of the better teen pitchers on the AZL squad. He had another strong outing for Mesa last night and has put up great numbers at age 19. Does he throw hard? Or is it good offspeed stuff? He doesn't walk too many guys which is fantastic for a teenager. Is he advanced enough to make it to Peoria next season?

=============================

RAISIN: Hee Seop Choi and Eric Patterson, and (if I remember correctly) Jake Fox are other Cubs prospects who had two opportunities to play in the AFL.

As for the identity of the fourth pitcher, it could be Mitch Atkins, but the Cubs might be waiting to see how many innings he throws in the PCL playoffs before assigning him to the AFL. Otherwise, Casey Lambert or maybe Jose Ceda could be candidates (MLB clubs are allowed to send a maximum of only one Latin American player, because MLB doesn't want the AFL to have a negative impact on Latin Winter leagues).

And then guys like J. R. Mathes, Gregory Reinhard, Mark Holliman, and Jesse Estrada are (like Justin Berg) eligible for the 2008 Rule 5 Draft, so the Cubs might want to take one last look at one of them before having to make a 40-man roster decision.

As for Julio Pena, he is the hardest thrower among the Latin pitchers making their U. S. debut at Fitch Park (he throws 93-94), but his fastball is kind of straight so he doesn't get as many strikeouts as some of the pitchers who have more movement on their pitches. I would say Pena might have a shot at starting the 2009 season at Peoria, but if I had to make a guess, I think it's more likely that he'll start '09 at EXST and then go to Boise. Same goes for Jeffry Antigua, Miguel Sierra, and Yohan Gonzalez.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

Arizona Phil will likely do your question much more justice than I but I can at least answer the basic question. EXST includes guys who play for the AZL (Mesa) Cubs and the Boise Hawks. They do scrimmage against each other (AZ Phil calls those "camp days") but also play other EXST organizations in Arizona (the Angels, A's, etc...) and they start up after the other minor league teams break camp up until Boise and Mesa start their real season. These EXST games don't have standings and AZ Phil is pretty much the only person I've seen report anything on the games. The rookie league is the actual Arizona Summer League that Mesa takes part in. You'll find actual AZL box scores on MiLB.com and there are standings, etc.

Submitted by The Real Neal on Wed, 08/27/2008 - 1:09pm.

What's the difference between EXST and the rookie league? Is EXST just scrimmages against your own ogranization?

===========================

REAL NEAL: Extended Spring Training (EXST) is for the "Boise/Mesa" group from Minor League Camp, which are players who did not get assigned to a full season club (Iowa, Tennessee, Daytona, or Peoria) coming out of Spring Training. EXST is also where players who are rehabbing from injuries are assigned.

All MLB clubs have an Extended Spring Training operation at their minor league HQ, and the EXST Cubs play games against other Phoenix area EXST teams (SF, OAK, LAA, MIL, SEA, SD, TEX, and KC) about five times a week as well as a weekly intrasquad game (on Camp Day) April through the first week of June.

The Arizona League (AZL) is an actual short season minor league located in the Phoenix metro area that is (like EXST) based at the minor league HQs of the MLB clubs based in the Phoenix area (Fitch Park for the Cubs). The only real differences between EXST Cubs games and AZL Cubs games is that in the EXST games, there is no official scorer, innings are sometimes stopped early (before three outs) if a pitcher reaches his pitch limit for that inning, and teams are allowed to use two designated hitters (ten-man lineup). In that sense, EXST games are exactly like minor league Spring Training games in March, except Spring Training is EXTENDED into April, May, and June.

Az - It's obviously premature, but I'm interested in what you envision out of this group in the long run. My opinion is as follows: SS Darwin Barney - Augie Ojeda clone RHP Justin Berg - Won't make it OF Tyler Colvin - Very serviceable OF who has trouble against lefties. Will have good career but not an All Star. RHP Rocky Roquet - will surface in the bigs in a year or two but last as long as Rocky Cherry, Wuertz & Novoa did. 2B Nate Spears - won't make it. LHP Donald Veal - solid lefty out of the pen for a few years. I'd love your thoughts.

Cubs get their next 7 at home, then 9 on the road, 6 at home (brewers and cardinals), then 7 on the road to finish it off. Sure would be nice to clinch all this before that last road trip.

According to WSCR host, his sources at Cubs say Cubs brass not pleased with Z's shape and training regimen and that most of his problems is due to his back. File with rest of grain of salt gems we get from WSCR.

[ ]

In reply to by jacos

Z looks, outwardly, like he's in the best shape he's been in a long time. he was never fat (or too skinny), but he seems he's in his best outward physical shape he's been in years. no mini-gut or anything. maybe he needs a new chair. heh.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

Dave Kaplan on his postgame show said that he was with a former pitcher friend of his during the game and that the guy commented that Z was pitching like someone who had a tired arm and that he would benefit greatly from missing a start.

Brew Crew up 3-1 and Mather swings at ball 4 with 2 outs, bases loaded and Pujols on deck... pop out. *sigh*

Does anyone know how MLB.tv determines blackout areas? I'm living overseas for a few years for studies, but I've kept an American address as well for billing purposes. I'd like to purchase the remaining season from MLB.tv but I don't want to get blacked out of any games being shown back in my home area, i.e. the area I'm sending my credit card bills to. Does MLB.tv use your credit card billing zip code to determine blackout areas? Or is it based on something else, like IP address? Thanks.

The Cubs play only one sub .500 team (God Bless you, Dusty) until first round of playoffs when they play NL West winner. :-)

[ ]

In reply to by jacos

I'm thinking the Ass Trolls should be under .500 by the time we're done with 'em for the year, but yeah, it's going to be a challenging stretch. I look forward to that. Time for this team to get battle-hardened.

Andrew, Blackouts except for national games are done by billing zip code. To determine what teams you would be blacked out from, enter your billing zip code under the small print on the audio/video page. A list if any will pop up. In my case, I live in North Central Texas but the entire state of Texas games are blacked out, including Astros games at Wrigley. There are 2 things I would like to change with MLB.TV and those are the blackout policy (how do the Astros lose revenue when I am 5 hours away from their home games?) and I would like to change that the TV coverage is home team only. I have heard 40 times that Theriot and Fontenot played together at LSU, for example. Since WGN does not cover America with many games anymore, I am glad MLB.TV is there, as I get to watch every game except when they play the Astros. So check the zip code first, then go for it!

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.