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

12 More Cubs Pitchers Go "Live" at Fitch

12 Cubs pitchers threw "live" BP this morning at Fitch Park in Mesa. Each pitcher threw 25 pitches, and each hitter saw five or six pitches befiore rotating out of the batting cage.

The "live" BP was fairly uneventful, as no batters were hit by pitches, no hitters knocked a ball over the fence, and no pitchers were shut-down in the middle of an "inning."

Starlin Castro (who played winter ball) had the best swings.

Aramis Ramirez did not take "live" BP (he did not take "live" BP last year, either), and the hitting group consisting of Jim Adduci, Matt Camp, Brad Snyder, and Max Ramirez did not get a chance to face "live" BP today. However, M. Ramirez did put on quite a power display in a later BP session on Field #2 with a coach throwing "soft toss."

Priior to the "live" BP session, Aramis Ramirez did take infield practce on Field #3, and Marquez Smith was worked out at 2B and Scott Moore at SS on Field #2. Although Moore was drafted as a SS (1st round pick by DET in 2002 out of the same HS that produced Josh Vitters) and played there his first year in pro ball, he lacks the range to play there except in a pinch. And M. Smith both lacks the range and fluidity needed to be an everyday 2B, although playing 2B in addition to 3B could help to get him to the big leagues if he is unable to make it to the bigs as an everyday 3B.   

PITCHERS

FIELD #2

1. Randy Wells
2. Andrew Cashner
3. Casey Coleman
4. Esmailin Caridad
5. Justin Berg
6. John Gaub

HITTING GROUP #1
Marlon Byrd
Tyler Colvin
Alfonso Soriano

HITTING GROUP #2
Reed Johnson
Bobby Scales
Geovany Soto
Josh Vitters 

HITTING GROUP #3
Starlin Castro
Blake DeWitt
Koyie Hill
Scott Moore
Carlos Pena

FIELD #3

PITCHERS
1. Kerry Wood 
2. Todd Wellemeyer
3. Robert Coello
4. Thomas Diamond
5. Marcos Mateo
6. Jay Jackson

HITTING GROUP #1
Steve Clevenger
Brett Jackson
Marquez Smith

HITTING GROUP #2
Kosuke Fukudome 
Bryan Lahair
Lou Montanez
Fernando Perez (batted LH)

HITTING GROUP #3
Jeff Baker
Darwin Barney
Welington Castillo
Augie Ojeda
Chris Robinson

Comments

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/3928036-419/cowley-hendry-deserves-chanc… Soriano, Fuku deals not Hendry's fault " Insiders have said those deals, which happened on Hendry’s watch, were out of Hendry’s hands. " Not his style to speak up about it (hello Brian Cashman) but sure is his style to collect the GM paycheck for which he was not obvisouly due. F'him and F'Crane Kinney Get these clowns out of here!!!!!!!!

[ ]

In reply to by jacos

i don't get it. should we assume zell was trying to blow his load and get a trophy before he sold the team or something? he was the man on point leading into 07 and through 08. i know hendry and crew wouldn't make friends calling out anyone, especially some guy in a suit who's already gone...and one who took a f'n bath on buying the tribune co...but it's a weird hand washing of the situation.

[ ]

In reply to by jacos

i'm not defending anyone because the rumors didn't come from anyone who bothered to be named...especially hendry. it's known that hendry has always had a hard-on for soriano except when he soured on him in WAS. i imagine hendry wanted bradley, though...as flaky as his attitude and health has proven to be, he is (was) a good ob% guy with a good bit of pop and an arm to play RF. that said, i can't imagine anyone else pulling those strings except for zell. i had the impression he was a hands-off guy that for some reason was pumping money into the team, though. rumors aside, zell's legacy did include bumping the payroll...though it really didn't "bite" until the 2009 season.

[ ]

In reply to by jacos

Soriano rumor was the deal was finished by Kenney and McDonough, while Hendry was on a plane somewhere else. They allegedly tacked on another year or two to the deal then what Hendry thought was fair. And since the universal cry from just about everyone was, "that's too fucking long", I kind of buy it. Fuku not so much... That being said, doubtful Hendry didn't like either player, just probably (like Cashman) didn't want to overpay by as much as they did on Soriano. Rumor on Fukudome was White Sox offered more anyway, Cubs just promised him RF...at least for a year.

[ ]

In reply to by jacos

BTW, the Suntimes article Jacos linked to is written by Joe Cowley, who has covered the White Sox for years and publicly ripped the Cubs on The Score (a local Chicago sports radio station for you out of towners). The Suntimes swapped their baseball reporters this year, Cowley is now covering the Cubs. This is the first of many articles Cowley will write that 'stirs things up'. He had a long history of doing the same crap with the White Sox, emphasizing on Ozzie's cursing, Ozzie's kids ripping the team, etc. He loves to write negative articles.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Sorry, my bad, digging around, Cowley is now a columnist, I thought they had flipped his beat, like newspapers do every few years (Sullivan has covered the Sox before). So now Cowley can write about all the low life crap he loves so much. Here's a great quote from a Sox fan about Cowley: "His constant name calling and little attacks on people he doesn't like or actually have the audacity to one up him on a story are extremely unprofessional for someone in his line of work." That's from the link I posted above/below, wherever it goes.

seeing a number of "positive" stories this morning on b.webb (tex) throwing long toss and it being a good sign for him. they should probably look at a little video of him actually doing that tossing. it was hard to watch and honestly kinda amazing they didn't shut him down immediately. aside from barely-to-not-at-all being able to make those 200ft. tosses, he was in obvious pain and his form was awful. at this point im glad the cubs didn't take that bait.

head over to deadspin to read about how marlon byrd is getting his supplements from victor conte and how he wants to restore his good name and gives props for him not being a snitch. i guess thats good for us right?

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

That link is actually quoting Dusty from a story on Fox, who can't even get their facts straight. The Fox story says, "In 2006, he was fired." No, he wasn't fired. His contract ended and he wasn't offered a new one. There's a difference, and any fact-checking journalist would know that, but Fox doesn't even check facts for sports stories. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/mike-quade-chicago-cubs-excited-but-… In the Fox story, Dusty continues to rip the Cubs...(but he's moved on!) =============== He said the team “didn’t have the personnel” to win in the second half of his four-year tenure, citing injuries to stars Aramis Ramirez (2005) and Derrek Lee (2006). “It really hurt my reputation,” Baker said. “Ever since then, all of a sudden, ‘I don’t know how to manage. I don’t know how to handle pitchers. I don’t like young players.’ … They don’t even have a clue about it. I never heard that in San Francisco. “I was one of the top managers around, supposedly, and then all of a sudden I don’t know (expletive), know what I mean? They (the critics) were always looking for something critical, ever since I went there (to Chicago).”

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

One, the first things journalists are taught is, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." You fact check EVERYTHING. Two, if you're going to write an article bashing a team by a former manager who keeps claiming he's "moved on", yet 5 years later is still bringing up new shit (no pun intended), I would want to double fact check everything. Dusty Baker wasn't fired. In fact, I'm sure you'll remember, Hendry told reporters around the All-Star break in 2006 that Dusty would finish out the season, despite constant rumors he was going to be fired at any minute. Manager and player jobs are not the same as everyday normal working class stiff jobs. Was Carl Crawford fired by the Rays? Was Jayson Werth fired by the Phillies? No, their contracts expired and the teams chose not to resign them. Dusty Baker became a free agent and the Cubs chose not to resign him, because he had 3 crappy years in a row.

The right to depreciate player's value is extremely important when a franchaise is sold, but that has nothing to do with the player's contracts, which are allowed to be expensed in the year incurred. The depreciation they are referring to is the portion of the total price of the transaction that is allocated to the value of the current players. This is the value of the player system that is over and above the cost of the individual contracts, and represent the value of that part of the team as a "going concern". Giving Soriano a couple of extra years on his contract had no tax ramifications other than to increase the perceived value of the team to a prospective buyer if he looked upon having Soriano tied up for that period of time as a good thing, rather than a bad thing. What Veeck was referring to was essentially the "goodwill", which in general is the amount of the purchase price that is in excess of the book value of the corporation, which can generally be depreciated. To take a oversimplified example. Assume that the Cubs had NO assets other than the ball park and it's real estate, and the player's contracts. And assume that the ball park could be sold on the open market for 100,000 dollars. And finally assume that the capital and retained earnings of the corporation were 100,000 million dollars. If the corporation was sold for 1 billion dollars, 100,000 million dollars would be assigned to the real estate, 100,000 million would be assigned to the capital and retained earnings, and 800,000 million would be assigned to "goodwill". This goodwill can be depreciated over the estimated life of the goodwill, which can be written off against the annual profit. If the corporation is not sold, there is no goodwill to be written off, and the tax burden is much higher.

[ ]

In reply to by DavidP

I am not sure I agree. Player salaries are not goodwill because the players are in fact assets and the value of that asset can be calculated, in the same way the value of the real estate and other assets are determined during an acquisition. Additionally, the value assigned to the players’ salaries is depreciable, and I believe at a faster that the goodwill is amortized. Thus, assume a fixed purchase price, the buyer would prefer a higher payroll or rather the impact of the high payroll has lessened by its beneficial tax effect. I also believe this also explains why the Cubs aren’t in a big hurry to eat player salaries. They aren’t in fact experiencing the full impact of those contracts, and writing them off would create a negative tax effect.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob Richardson

Payroll is not depreciated. It is expensed. Player's salaries are not goodwill. The value of an ongoing business sold at a value over book value assigned to the value of the player's contracts IS goodwill (actually, it isn't really goodwill, since goodwill is no longer able to be depreciated), and is depreciated based upon the estimated future life expectancy of all the players' value. Players contracts are valued on the books at their face value for the current year as a current liability and future year's obligations are simply noted as a footnote in the liabilities section. In short, signing Soriano to a long term contract had no effect on this depreciation, and was of value to the selling company only to the extent that the presence of that player at that salary for a specific period of time. In the case of Soriano, by the time the team was sold, he was performing at a level below that which was probably expected of him, and probably caused a decrease in the selling price, rather than an advantage to the seller. Players are no more assets of a ball club (in the bookkeeping sense) than are the salaries payed to any employees.

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    LHP Blake Weiman appears to have been the last cut from the AAA Iowa roster. He is with the Tennessee group at Minor League Camp.

     

  • crunch (view)

    bruce bochy is hobbling rather badly for a guy who's had 2 hip replacements.  his gait is extremely wonky taking the lineup card to the ump.

  • 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.