Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

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

42 players are at MLB Spring Training 

31 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE at MLB Spring Training, and nine players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 
11 players are MLB Spring Training NON-ROSTER INVITEES (NRI) 

Last updated 3-17-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 17
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
Daniel Palencia
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

NRI PITCHERS: 5 
Colten Brewer 
Carl Edwards Jr 
* Edwin Escobar 
* Richard Lovelady 
* Thomas Pannone 

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

NRI CATCHERS: 2  
Jorge Alfaro 
Joe Hudson 

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

NRI INFIELDERS: 3 
David Bote 
Garrett Cooper
* Dominic Smith

OUTFIELDERS: 5
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

NRI OUTFIELDERS: 1 
* David Peralta

OPTIONED:
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, RHP 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, RHP 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

 



Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Cubs Visit Bahstan in 2011

The 2011 schedule is out and the Cubs get a mix of the AL East and Central during interleague play. Ben Affleck* can mug for the cameras between May 20-22(fine by me as long as he brings his wife with him) as the Cubs wrap up a 7-game road trip with a trip to Fenway. Good luck getting tickets. It's the first Cubs trip since Babe Ruth beat them in the 1918 World Series.

*Go see "The Town" though, 90% of it is excellent.

Speaking of May, the Cubs get 17 home games that month and 11 on the road, which seems like some sort of important milestone in how the season should be going.

Other highlights include:

- The season starting on a Friday(April Fool's to be exact) and it will be the season and home opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates, followed by a three game set versus the Diamondbacks. Hope it's warm.

- Cubs wrap up their home/road series for the year versus the D'Backs and the Rockies in April.

- The friendly home May schedule turns quickly into a 10-game road trip through St. Louis, Cincy and Philadelphia.

- The Yankees visit Wrigley Field June 17-19, then the Cubs "travel" to play the White Sox and Kansas City Royals. They'll finish up their home and home with the White Sox the first weekend in July.

- The season ends with three at St. Louis and then three in San Diego with the final game on Wednesday, September 28th. The shift in starting and ending days of the season is an attempt by the league to make sure the post-season doesn't go into November again.

The rest of the Cubs news fit to print after the jump...

- Tom Gorzelanny is supposed to throw a simulated game game Sunday in Florida and could return to a 6-man rotation to finish out the season. Dempster, Coleman and Ninja will pitch the non-simulated games against the Marlins this weekend.

- Carlos Silva will get some treatment on his elbow over the next week and is still trying to return for a start or two before the season finishes.

- The Double A Tennessee Smokies took game one of their best of five in the Southern League championship last night over the Jacksonvile Suns (Marins affiliate). Captain Archer (hat tip to Dr. Hecht for the nickname) dominated with 6 shutout innings, giving up 4 hits, 1 BB and racking up 8 K's. Aaron Shafer, Blake Parker and Esmailin Caridad finished off the 5-0 shutout. Brett Jackson went 1/3 with a BB and a 2B (and a K).  Robinson Chirinos and Brandon Guyer went deep.

- Wittenmyer confirms that a Bob Melvin interview will happen and also says Hendry is flying to Arizona to have a second chat with Ryne Sandberg. As mentioned numerous times in the comments yesterday, Fredi Gonzalez turned down the interview offer by the Cubs, apparently confident he'll be Bobby Cox's successor in Atlanta. Quade and Eric Wedge seem to be the other candidates at the moment and of course the pipe dream that the Cubs will get the honor of paying Joe Girardi $3-4M is still out there. Quade is 13-7 by the way, since Lou rode off into the Florida sunset.

- Starlin Castro should be back in the lineup tonight...my heart's a flutter.

- Week 1 recap at The Bear Truth as well if you're interested...actually, you don't have to be interested, just go ahead and read it.

Comments

[ ]

In reply to by Arizona Phil

HAHA! That's right PHIL. We will expect no less than some killer on-the-scene reporting from you! Anyway - what would a Bob Melvin bring to the table over Quade, Sandberg, and Wedge? Interestingly, both Melvin and Wedge have career losing records. After thinking about it - maybe that is a great fit for the team. :D

Campana-CF, Jackson-RF, Guyer-LF, Lalli-1B, Chirinos-C, Canzler-3B, Thomas-2B, Gonzalez-SS, Carpenter-SP. pardon my ignorance, but is Guyer considered a possible CF'er in the majors? (defensively of course)

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Last I heard he's a plus corner outfielder and probably a notch below average as a CF. I'm not positive where I heard that, though. I'm sure AZ Phil will come around with an eye-witness report soon.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

All I know is the same stat info you have, plus the usual impressions and biases. But I think Guyer, Jackson and Campana are all centerfielders (which creates an interesting situation re Marlon Byrd). Last year, when both were at Daytona, Campana played mostly center (86 games, with 22 in left), Guyer mostly right (49 games, with 18 in center). Then when Guyer moved up to AA, he played center almost exclusively (54 games, with 1 in left). Campana has to play center, since he doesn't hit like a corner OF, so the other two guys end up yielding the position to him.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

In 46 games after the all star break Guyer hit .424 with an OPS of .1183 compared to Starlin Castro's .376 and .990 in 26 games before being promoted. Could he be ready next year if we found a way to get rid of two big salaries?..... although I haven't the faintest idea how that could be done.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Submitted by Rob G. on Wed, 09/15/2010 - 2:27pm. Campana-CF, Jackson-RF, Guyer-LF, Lalli-1B, Chirinos-C, Canzler-3B, Thomas-2B, Gonzalez-SS, Carpenter-SP. pardon my ignorance, but is Guyer considered a possible CF'er in the majors? (defensively of course) ============================================ ROB G: Yes. Guyer is an athletic defender and can play all three OF positions (CF is his best spot, IMO, because he has plus-range), and he played 3B in HS (getting pushed to OF at UVA only because Ryan Zimmerman was there), so he should be able to handle 3B and 1B, too. And the Cubs actually drafted him as a second-baseman in 2007, although he hasn't played there (yet). The big problem with Guyer is staying healthy. He spends too much time on the DL.

from Muskat's blog Carlos Zambrano heads into Wednesday's game at Busch Stadium with a 5-0 record and 1.85 ERA in six career starts at the Cardinals' home. He's one of 16 pitchers in the ballpark's history with at least five wins and the only non-St. Louis pitcher on the list. This data is for the new Busch Stadium, which opened in 2006. No other non-Cardinals pitcher has more than three wins on the list. Zambrano's 1.85 ERA is the best by any pitcher in the history of the ballpark. Next closest is St. Louis' Jaime Garcia (2.20 ERA).

In looking at the home page of the Globe online sports, the lede was that "Adrian Gonzalez and the Padres..." are coming to the Fens. The Cubs got lumped in w/the Brewers thusly: "In addition to the Padres, the Sox will host the Cubs and Brewers in interleague series." That's it. No "Its been since 1918!" or "The hot ticket next summer will be when the Cubs come to Beantown!"

Az Phil or whoever the cubs have won two thirds of games played since lou retired if given the choice would it be because 1.lou is gone 2. quade is running the show 3. playing better because there is no pressure.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

After 8/28 I don't think Albert will allow #4 above to happen. He is superman. # 3 is partial reason, also new kids showing they learned well under Sandy. Unless Girardi is available, Ryno will be given a shot. And I will back him right until the first loss! Then, when he gets kicked out of a game, I will be right behind him again. Passion is the name of the game!

Rob -- I'm getting a malware warning when I navigate to the site. This is new as of this evening -- I visited earlier today with no warnings. The warning reads, "Warning: Visiting this site may harm your computer! The website at www.thecubreporter.com contains elements from the site rpc.blogrolling.com, which appears to host malware – software that can hurt your computer or otherwise operate without your consent. Just visiting a site that contains malware can infect your computer. For detailed information about the problems with these elements, visit the Google Safe Browsing diagnostic page for rpc.blogrolling.com." Obviously, I came here anyway but I thought you should know.

After earning his sixth straight victory in the Cubs 7-3 victory over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium, Zambrano announced again he was retiring after his contract ends.
"Because I told you the other day, or last year, or this year, whatever, this will be my last contract," he said. "So I don't think I will be playing any more. …
"Life is short. Believe me. And sometimes you miss things with your family. … Sometimes you miss things in life because of baseball that you shouldn't miss, and I don't want to (miss) any moment for my daughter, any moment for anything that happens, especially in my family.
"Believe me, baseball takes a lot of time from us. So I think, depending on what happens in my career, I think this will be the last contract."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0916-cubs-car…

I disabled the blogrolling site, as of 8:30 am CST. Let me know if you still get it.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    SF snags b.snell...2/62m

  • Cubster (view)

    AZ Phil: THAT is an awesome report worth multiple thanks. I’m sure it will be worth reposting in an “I told you so” in about 2-3 years.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The actual deadline to select a post-2023 Article XX-B MLB free agent signed to 2024 minor league contract (Cooper, Edwards, and Peralta) to the MLB 40-man roster is not MLB Opening Day, it is 12 PM (Eastern) this coming Sunday (3/24). 

    However, the Cubs could notify the player prior to the deadline that the player is not going to get added to the 40 on Sunday, which would allow the player to opt out early. Otherwise the player can opt out anytime after the Sunday deadline (if he was not added to the 40 by that time). 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Today is an off day for both the Cubs MLB players and the Cubs minor league players.  

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    For those of you keeping track, so far nine players have been called up to Mesa from the Cubs Dominican Academy for Minor League Camp and they will be playing in the ACL in 2024: 

    * bats or throws left 

    Angel Cepeda, INF 
    * Miguel Cruz, P
    Yidel Diaz, C 
    * Albert Gutierrez, 1B
    Fraiman Marte, P  
    Francis Reynoso, P (ex-1B) 
    Derniche Valdez, INF 
    Edward Vargas, OF 
    Jeral Vizcaino, P 

    And once again, despite what you might read at Baseball Reference and at milb.com, Albert Gutierrez is absolutely positively a left-handed hitter (only), NOT a right-handed hitter.

    Probably not too surprisingly, D. Valdez was the Cubs #1 prospect in the DSL last season, Cepeda was the DSL Cubs best all-around SS prospect not named Derniche Valdez, Gutierrez was the DSL Cubs top power hitting prospect not named Derniche Valdez, E. Vargas was the DSL Cubs top outfield prospect (and Cepeda and E. Vargas were also the DSL Cubs top two hitting prospects), Y. Diaz was the DSL Cubs top catching prospect, and M. Cruz was the DSL Cubs top pitching prospect. 

    F. Marte (ex-STL) and J. Vizcaino (ex-MIL) are older pitchers (both are 22) who were signed by the Cubs after being released by other organizations and then had really good years working out of the bullpen for the Cubs in the DSL last season. 

    The elephant in the room is 21-year old Francis Reynoso, a big dude (6'5) who was a position player (1B) at the Cardinals Dominican Academy for a couple of years, then was released by STL in 2022, and then signed by the Cubs and converted to a RHP at the Cubs Dominican Academy (and he projects as a high-velo "high-leverage" RP in the states). He had a monster year for the DSL Cubs last season (his first year as a pitcher). 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    DJL: The only players who definitely have opt outs are Cooper, Edwards, and Peralta (Opening Day, 5/1, and 6/1), and that's because they are post-2023 Article XX-B MLB free agents who signed 2024 minor league contracts and (by rule) they get those opt outs automatically. 

    Otherwise, any player signed to a 2024 minor league contract - MIGHT or - MIGHT NOT - have an opt out in their contract, but it is an individual thing, and if there are contractual opt outs the opt out(s) might not necessarily be Opening Day. It could be 5/1, or 6/1, or 7/1 (TBD).

    Because of their extensive pro experience, the players who most-likely have contractual opt outs are Alfaro, Escobar, and D. Smith, but (again), not necessarily Opening Day. 

    Also, just because a player has the right to opt out doesn't mean he will. 

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    I love the idea that Madrigal heads to Iowa in case Morel can’t handle third.

    The one point that intrigues me here is Cooper over Smith. I feel like the Cubs really like Smith and don’t want to lose him. Could be wrong. He def seems like an opt out if he misses the opening day roster

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Childersb3: Both Madrigal and Wisdom can be optioned without any restriction. Their consent is not required. 

    They both can be outrighted without restriction, too (presuming the player is not claimed off waivers), but if outrighted they can choose to elect free agency (immediately, or deferred until after the end of the MLB season).

    If the player is outrighted and elects free-agency immediately he forfeits what remains of his salary.

    If he accepts the assignment and defers free agency until after the conclusion of the season, he continues to get his salary, and he could be added back to the 40 anytime prior to becoming a free-agent (club option). 

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Phil, 
    Madrigal and Wisdom can or cannot refuse being optioned to the Minors?
    If they can refuse it, wouldn't they elect to leave the Cubs org?

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    In my opinion, the biggest "affirmative" mistake the Cubs made in the off-season (that is, doing something they should not have done), was blowing $9M in 2024 AAV on Hector Neris. What the Cubs actually need is an alternate closer to be in the pen and available to close if Alzolay pitched the day before (David Robertson would have been perfect), because with his forearm issue last September, I would be VERY wary of over-using Alzolay. I'm not even sure I would pitch him two days in a row!  

    And of course what the Cubs REALLY need is a second TOR SP to pair with Justin Steele. That's where the Cubs are going to need to be willing to package prospects (like the Padres did to acquire Dylan Cease, the Orioles did to acquire Corbin Burnes, and the Dodgers did to acquire Tyler Glasnow). Obviously those ships have sailed, but I would say right now the Cubs need to look very hard at trying to acquire LHSP Jesus Luzardo from the Marlins (and maybe LHP A. J. Puk as well).