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

Polishing the Silva

carlos y carlosLast year I traveled to Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend to see the Cubs and Cardinals do battle. My companion was a neighbor friend who also happens to be a Redbird fan.

I discovered too far out of town to turn back that I’d forgotten the tickets for the Friday afternoon game. Luckily we overcame that absentmindedness at the Wrigley Field ticket window when I was able to verify that I had indeed purchased the seats in question and duplicate tickets were issued. But that snafu on top of the clogged vehicular traffic in downtown Chicago and the really clogged human traffic on the CTA Red Line left us barely enough time to scramble into position down in the right field corner ahead of the first pitch.

Six batters, 16 pitches and six hits later the Cubs’ starter that day, Randy Wells, was already finished and the visitors were well on their way to an easy win. I’m not sure I’d even caught my breath by the time the game was effectively over.

The next day we got to the ballpark early and were able to score club boxes behind the St. Louis dugout. This time the Cub starter was Carlos Silva and he did a little better than Wells had managed the day before. He threw exactly 100 pitches in his seven scoreless innings and gave up only two harmless hits. He didn’t walk anyone and fanned 11. I also recall the Cubs’ other Carlos coming in from the bullpen for the second straight day and the two triples legged out by Mike Fontenot as the Cubs evened the series.

In the rubber game on Sunday Albert Pujols belted a hat trick of homers and our rivals coasted again.  My only consolation was that we were listening from the road on the car radio, much to the chagrin of my driver. Ryan Dempster labored through 125 pitches in 6+ innings and broke the sweat that neither Wells nor Silva had.

That weekend was rock bottom for Wells and as good as it got for Silva. They have since passed each other headed in opposite directions. Meanwhile the workmanlike Dempster has ascended through attrition to staff ace and the Cubs have replaced one beefy, erratic Carlos with another. I hope the one named Zambrano is anywhere near as good in 2011 as the one named Silva was that day last year.

And if he can do it against the Cardinals, so much the better.

 

Comments

"That weekend was rock bottom for Wells" Understatement of the year. He was probably hung over for that day game.

Silva was truly a cancer in the clubhouse. Right out of the gate he was blaming everybody but himself for being out of shape and full of suck. Worse: He had both Zambrano and Garza inventing excuses when they had problems in spring training. Not good. On the other hand, there are a lot of self-styled pundits, especially from Seattle, pretending that Silva's release means that they won the Bradley-Silva trade. All I can say is, THINK about it. The Cubs gave you Bradley knowing that Silva went 5-18 with a 6.81 ERA for the previous two years. They didn't care, they just wanted Bradley gone. What's more, the dirty little semi-secret is Seattle is picking up almost half of tubby's salary. And, even better, he won 10 games last year! That's all the Cubs could have reasonably expected for two years of Silva. So, basically the Cubs got their money's worth in six months and were able to dump him, but Seattle is still stuck trying to get some value out of MB for aonther season. The nightmare continues. Elsewhere, JAKE FOX just hit his 10th spring training home run.... Still not guaranteed a job.

w.castillo optioned to AAA for those still crossing their fingers on that one. and so his future march back to the bigs begins...

Max Ramirez on waivers, per Ken Rosenthal. Ken_Rosenthal Ken Rosenthal On waivers: #Diamondbacks' Tony Abreu, #Mets' Luis Hernandez, #Cubs' Max Ramirez, #Royals' Gregor Blanco. #MLB

[ ]

In reply to by Jace

i just wonder what the plan is if k.hill puts in 50-100 crap ABs and they decide a mid-season change is in order. wonder what the cubs will do with max ramirez position-wise in AAA if he passes through waivers and the cubs have the option to keep him.

because people are keeping track... "Mark Prior is expected to stay back in Tampa to participate in extended spring training."

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

Hill is undoubtedly a symptom and not the problem, however when you go to the doctor, they typically treat the symptoms first. Hendry and now his manager too, despite their vast years of experience don't understand the difference between superstars and stars, between useful bench players and flotsam, and fluke seasons and consistently good performers. They made four changes to the roster during the off-season and only one of them is what a more enlightened management team would have done - and they didn't address Hill, even though they had in house options to do so.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 03/29/2011 - 11:38am. But that voodoo hex they put on the NL central is working wonders ========================================== ROB G: Apparently you haven't heard about the Hometown Buffet hex Carlos Silva put on the Cubs after he was released. So the big question is, which hex will have more power? Will the hexes cancel each other out, or will one trump the other?

I don't have a handy link available. However I seem to remember Elton John making a similar transition several years ago? Not 100% a new mode of development.

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Javier Assad started the Lo-A game (Myrtle Beach versus Stockton) on the Cubs backfields on Wednesday as his final Spring Training tune-up. He was supposed to throw five innings / 75 pitches. However, I was at the minor league road games at Fitch so I didn't see Assad pitch. 

  • crunch (view)

    cards put j.young on waivers.

    they really tried to make it happen this spring, but he put up a crazy bad slash of .081/.244/.108 in 45PA.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.

  • crunch (view)

    dbacks are signing j.montgomery to a 1/25m with a vesting 20m player option.

    i dunno when the ink officially dries, but i believe if he signs once the season begins he can't be offered a QO...and i'm not sure if that thing with SD/LAD in korea was the season beginning, either.

  • crunch (view)

    sut says imanaga getting the home opener at wrigley (game 4 of the season).

  • crunch (view)

    cubs rolling out the who's who of "who the hell is this guy?" in the last spring game.

  • videographer (view)

    AZ Phil, speaking of Jordan Wicks having better command when he tires a bit, I remember reading about Dennis Lamp 40 years ago and his sinker that was better after 3 or 4 innings when he would tire a bit and get more sink with a little less speed on the pitch.  The key for Lamp was getting to the 4th inning.