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

Game 3 Recap - Garza Discovers What Being a Cub Is Like

Box Score | Video

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R H E
Pirates 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 2   5 16 0
Cubs 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 0   4 9 1

The Good: Let's start with Matt Garza's first start as a Cub. It wasn't perfection, frankly it was odd. The Pirates knocked 12 hits off him, all 12 being of the single variety and a handful of the pure 'effin luck variety including a check swing hit and run and jammed dribbler through the right side. Garza matched those 12 hits with 12 strikeouts though on 0 walks and threw 80 of his 106 pitches for strikes. I'm feeling confident the earned runs will look a lot beter if he can maintain that strikeout to walk ratio the rest of the year. Honestly it was a pretty epic start, if not for the seeing eye singles and some bad defense, most notably Ramirez botching a double play with a bad throw.

While the infield defense was a hot mess today, the outfield did a good job cutting off a few gap hits and keeping them singles and then of course Tyler Colvin's big throw in the top of the 8th and the face tag by Soto to preserve the Cubs lead.

Offensively, the Cubs got their first home run of the season by Soriano and Starlin Castro had himself another good day at the plate with three hits, two of them triples and a walk out of the leadoff spot. Carlos Pena looked like he had a grand slam that the wind kept in the park and got on-base with a walk and almost a bunt single to beat the shift if not for a great throw by Pedro Alvarez.

The Bad: The fan getting thrown out for obviously accidently knocking over his beer on Pena's double. Garza getting a little too much of the plate at times with 2 outs and 2 strikes. The infield defense, especially in the 9th. We know Marmol's going to get himself in trouble, but Castro had no good reason to try and make that throw that let the winning run score. And let's not forget Marlon Byrd still batting third and ending the game on a double play with the tying run at third base.

The Armchair Managing: Start with the lineup and Barney hitting second and Colvin hitting 8th. End with Reed Johnson leading off the 9th against Hanrahan instead of going to Fukudome. I was also a little surprised to see Garza come out for the 7th, but he was still hitting mid 90's and had just struck out the side, so I can't fault that decision too much.

Parachat Moment:

H_Vaughn: " Harry would love that backward it's atabat"

jumbo: 'gazra=azrag"

Diamondbacks come into town...Barry Enright vs. Randy Wells

Comments

Castro's gonna really start pissing me off if he keeps blowing up the infield that way. Hold on to that ball, kid. I sure like the way he hits though. Do the Cubs really have a #3 hitter? That's part of the problem. I didn't get to see much of the game but managed to see Colvin's nice throw, and then Soto practically tagging out the umpire.

Why do the Pirates beat the Cubs? Big mystery. Could it be that the Pirates are younger, faster, more aggressive? Yesterday the winning run scored from second on a squibber to the infield and a throw to first. Who on the Cubs even tries to score from second on that play? Castro, yes. Byrd, maybe. Barney, probably no. Colvin, no. Johnson, not at 34. Everyone else, don't be ridiculous. One yes and one maybe. Other teams take advantage of the Pirates' obvious weaknesses, like Doumit's arm, the pitchers' lack of command, the porous defense. But Doumit actually throws out Cub base stealers (Fukudome last year and Barney on Friday come to mind.) The Cubs are actually worse when the pitcher can't find the strike zone, because they swing anyway. After the first two hitters got on base in the fourth inning yesterday, Ramirez, Pena and Soriano each swung at two pitches well out of the strike zone. As for putting pressure on the defense, the inning ended with Soto and Soriano popping up with runners on second and third. Even the Pirates can catch those.

On Garza's start - I am not sure if "Epic" is how I'd describe it. You obviously want to pitch to the team you're facing, but if he throws those same pitches to the Reds, Brewers or Cards, he's giving up a lot more than singles. He was living high in the strike zone, and it worked out pretty well against a team with only one legitimate power hitter, and as mentioned one with their best hitter on the bench. Johnson PHing in the 9th was nothing short of bizzare with Fukudome on the bench. Holy shit, did anyone notice Hanrahan's K/9 numbers from last year? He's like a Marmol jr.

if you volunteered to help, check the email address you have associated with your TCR account or 2 thread below where I mentioned it for instructions. Thanks. crunch you're already good to go...

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

~shrug~ don't know why baseball has decided that the first games of the year shouldn't just start in warm weather and domed stadiums. But for some reason, they're not willing to do it. I understand you can't drag it out for too long since their would be uneven number of road games for those teams later in the year, but doesn't seem all that complicated to figure out. I assume teams even in warm weather stadiums get poor April attendance, so maybe that's the driving factor, that they have to switch it up every year. see if I can find 8 domed/warm weather stadiums in the NL Dodgers Padres Giants (sort of) Arizona Houston Marlins Brewers Atlanta make the Reds the 8th I guess since they start every year at home I guess if you want to start with some division NL West matchups, that makes it difficult.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

I don't remember this many empty seats at Wrigley since the early 80's. I might have told this story before, but back in April or early May of '82 I went to a game and the Cubs had been promoting Rag Ball day, the first 10,000 fans get a free Cubs Rag Ball (a Rag Ball was a cloth baseball). We got in after the first pitch. The ticket takers told us they were out of Rag Balls. I was a kid and was disappointed. We go up the ramp and there's NOBODY in the park. Later in the game when they announced attendance, it was 4,500 or so. The crappy Tribune company had promised free Rag Ball's to the first 10,000 fans and then screwed everyone. I also remember Larry Bowa, in his first month or so as a Cub, taking a routine ground ball at SS and launching it into the stands over the first baseman's head. LOL.

he should have been on third on the sac fly, he can see Upton's setting up to throw home. And then would have scored on the wild pitch.

still fun to root for him nice Houdini work there to save Castro

Would you consider removing the team's best current hitter for D at the SS position, late innings? Or, does that fuck up the kid's head? Or, is that "over-analyzing"? The D is going to cost the team 8-10 games potentially, in 2011

I'll admit I've been paying a lot more attention to the Bulls this Spring than the Cubs, but does it seem to anyone else that the Ricketts clan has finally broken the cash-camel's back? I know it's not great weather, but the stands looked EMPTY today, and there's really no one on this team I'm the least bit excited about outside Castro, Colvin, and Cashner (and I'm pretty sure those guys are a couple years away from really producing). I just think people have finally given up on throwing away what little disposable income they have on a shitty baseball team with greedy owners. Then again, I'll change my mind the first sunny, 70 degree day we get around here.

GREAT GAME. Really enjoyed it. But Rickass is lucky if there were 10,000 actual people in the stands today. It looked like April 1967 out there (and here's hoping the Cubs are at least as successful as they were in that turn-around year). Laffable Official attendance: 26,292

I hope we see Colvin more regularly as the season progresses than we have so far. I have a hard time justifying giving PAs to Byrd or Fukudome over Colvin. Pena's injury maybe gets him some playing time at first base.

Recent comments

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    That’s a fantastic deal for SF

  • 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?