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 
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Game #63 recap: Cubs 1, White Sox 0, Lilly Almost

Addendum: In cycling through Cub no-hit history, ESPN's Jon Miller mentioned that the Cubs have not been on the short end of a no-hitter since Sandy Koufax tossed a perfect game against the Cubs back in 1965. That was the game that saw Cub loser Bob Hendley allow the Dodgers just one hit. Joe Morgan intoned that he heard the ninth inning of that game on the radio as he and his Houston Astro teammates drove into the city from the L.A. airport; they were scheduled to play the Dodgers the next night. Morgan said he specifically remembered Koufax striking out Ernie Banks in the 9th to preserve the perfect game. Would it surprise you to know that Morgan was wrong? Nope. Didn't surprise me either.

 


 

The Cubs held on to beat the White Sox, 1-0, Sunday night at Wrigley Field. The game saw Ted Lilly and Gavin Floyd locked up in a double no-hit duel until Alfonso Soriano collected the game's first hit, a double inside the leftfield line with two out in the Cubs seventh. Chad Tracy then followed with a sharp ground-ball single that plated Soriano with the game's only run.

Lilly maintained his no-hitter into the top of the ninth, at which point Juan Pierre rapped a clean line single to centerfield to break up the no-no and send Lilly to the showers in favor of Carlos Marmol. Marmol's shaky ninth inning included a walk and a balk, which left the Sox with men at second and third and none out. But the Cub closer came back to fan Alexei Ramirez and, following an intentional pass to Alex Rios, he induced Paul Konerko to hit into a force out and retired Carlos Quentin on a fly ball to short centerfield.

All in all, great drama for the third and final game in this Cubs/White Sox series; so great, it was momentarily possible to forget that we were watching two desperately mediocre teams that between them, couldn't put together a first-rate pennant contender.

Sad to see Lilly lose his no-hit bid so late in the game. The ESPN boys pointed out that this would have marked the first no-hit game thrown at Wrigley Field since Milt Pappas's near-perfect game against the Padres in 1972. I guess that means the good news about Lilly missing out on the no-hitter is that we won't have to listen to Milt Pappas remind the Chicago radio audience tomorrow morning how Bruce Froemming jobbed him out of a perfect game.

Comments

Speaking of Joe Morgan...did anyone else hear when he said that Zambrano's no-hitter in 2008 was played in Miller Park because of hurricane Katrina? Just not even close....3 years off.

i heard miller invoke katrina...only thing that would ever surprise me about morgan would be if he ever shut up...wish we didn't play the sox; can't stand ozzie, can't stand harrelson, can't stand their uni's, etc.

It was a perfect game, and there was no way Banks batted in the bottom third of the order. Koufax did strike out all the batters he faced in the eighth and ninth innings, including, of course, Banks in the eighth.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Thanks for the link, Rob. Just to clarify the little chart, it doesn't show where the Cubs rank relative to the rest of the NL, defensive position-by-defensive position. It just shows the order of offensive output by position. For example, league-wide, the most productive offensive players are the first basemen, the rightfielders, and then the third basemen. For the Cubs, the most productive offensive players have been the leftfielders (primarily Soriano) the centerfielders (primarily Byrd), and the catchers (mostly Soto). Third base (i.e., Ramirez) and second base are where the Cubs have fallen most short of the rest of the NL.

[ ]

In reply to by Cubnut

I think it'd be fun to take a moment to fully appreciate the lack of production at 2nd base: Ryan Theriot as a SS this year: .764 OPS Mike Fontenot's overall 2010 OPS: .780 Jeff Baker's overall 2010 OPS: .705, despite a dismal .247 batting average. Ryan Theriot as a 2B this year: .517 OPS. Fontenot and Baker still seem like the best option at 2B to me as a platoon. Fontenot can put up average-ish offensive numbers, and Baker has hammered lefties in his career. Castro is putting up a .660 OPS so far. A little disappointing, but not terribly surprising. If the Cubs are playing for 2011, they need to deal Theriot at some point and go with the cheap platoon at 2B. If the Cubs think they are contenders still, Theriot needs to hit or sit. An ice cold Ryan Theriot helps no one.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

For the first 26 games Theriot had a .799 OPS. Over the next 25 it was .384. But over his last 8 games he's had an .828 OPS. Those 4 weeks he struggled so badly might have just been a slump or it might have been the position change, or a little of both. My guess is that if he hadn't just been moved he would have sat much more during that horrendous stretch. The move from SS to 2B was like being demoted so Lou naturally wants to make sure he knows that he will be the everyday second basemen. He also wants to get him reps at the new position, not sporadic play, so he can adjust. And he wants Castro to work with the same DP partner as much as possible as he adjusts to the big leagues. Anyway, my guess is that Theriot will end up with an OPS right around .700 by the time the season ends, with above average defense at 2B, and 25 stolen bases or so. All of which makes him about 12th-15th as far as MLB second basemen go.

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.