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 11 Recap - Cue the Banjo Music

Box Score | Highlights

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R H E
Cubs 0 0
0
0
0 0
1
0 1
  2
11 3
Astros 3
2
0
2
0
0 0 4
x   11
16
1

The Gist: The odds were pretty low heading into the game that the Cubs could win it with the Astros best pitcher going and the Cubs going with a guy on a 45-50 pitch count limit. At least they didn't waste our time making it suspenseful. It started with the first batter for the Astros with Michael Bourne taking advantage of the lefty making his first major league start. Knowing that he's going to be falling off to the third base side of the mound and probably just worried about throwing strikes with that pitch count limit, Bourne executed a perfect bunt to the first basemen that Russell had no chance to get to the base in time. And then they did the exact same thing with the next batter. Give 'em some props for the smart baseball.

Then the little league defense, starting with Soriano's muffing a single and Barney missing a tag that gave the Astros another run. The Cubs made three errors on the night and really four although they gave Quintero a triple instead of Reed Johnson an error late in the game. Samardzija was asked to pitch three innings and he got his first four batters, but ran into trouble in the 4th giving up two runs. He got in more trouble in the 5th before Jeff Stevens bailed him out. I feel that whatever the team needs out of Samardzija, he'll always deliver one less. You need two innings out of him, he'll give you one good, one bad. You need two outs, he'll get you one. Anyway, Stevens, Marcus Mateo (struck out the side), Tyler Colvin and Marlon Byrd were about the only bright spots in the game.

Z vs. Wandy in the rubber match on Wednesday. The Cubs have an off day on Thursday so Q-Ball can probably push the bullpen a little tomorrow if needed with only Samardzija being unavailable. I wouldn't be too surprised if Russell or Stevens gets sent down in the next two days for a bullpen arm. The team won't need another 5th starter until Tuesday, April 19th next and I suppose I could see Ramon Ortiz getting that nod.


 

Hitter Results for April 12
Name Level Pos AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB SB CS
Michael Burgess A+ RF 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0
Welington Castillo A+ DH 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0
Matthew Cerda                          
Ryan Flaherty                          
Reginald Golden                          
Brett Jackson                          
DJ LeMahieu                          
Marquez Smith AAA 3B 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Matthew Szczur A RF 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Josh Vitters                          

Pitcher Results for April 12
Name Level IP R ER H 2B 3B HR SO BB
Christopher Carpenter                    
Jay Jackson                    
Austin Kirk                    
Kenneth McNutt                    
Christopher Rusin                    
Hayden Simpson A 5.0 5 3 8 0 0 0 2 1

Scores

Tennessee had the night off.

Comments

quick, elias - last time a team started a game w/ consecutive bunt hits...more errors than runs last night & now magic wandy against the starless team w/ the starry payroll...

It's not really Q-Ball's fault. How could anyone have predicted that the Cubs would lose a starter or two and Casey Coleman and Russell wouldn't be effective? The music was playing too loud at the time, but I was sorely tempted to yell out "Bring in Silva!" as Q-Ball went out to pull Russell. I realize the talent is probably less, but this dipshit has soured me even more quickly than Baker and Pinhead did. Looked like about 10K actual at the game last night.

[ ]

In reply to by Dusty Baylor

I think Coleman isn't going to pitch that poorly all season (his starts won't all be at Milwaukee after all). Grabow and Samardjiza have done a bit of good work this season, but counting on Grabow to be more than a middling reliever and Wide Outside to do anything more than mop-up duty is basically insane. It would help if the big three in the rotation could get their ERA's, I don't know, in the 4's maybe? The only good starts we've had are from the two guys who are hurt - and we're 11 games into the seson.

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

Outfield depth is questionable? Don't we have Colvin currently riding the bench a few days a week? Plus, Brett Jackson (and soon Brad Snyder) ready to come up and fill in for a time at least? Plus you've got the Tony Campana's and James Adducis of the world. I agree on the pitching depth, but I'm not sure what you're looking for if our outfield depth isn't enough for you. However, if we're criticizing the quality of our starting outfield, I could probably get on board with that.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=13566 2 cubs mentioned: Jae-Hoon Ha, OF, Cubs (High-A Daytona): 3-for-4, 2B, R, RBI, CS. Four straight multi-hit games for 20-year-old Korean; has line-drive bat and the speed to stay in center field. Robert Whitenack, RHP, Cubs (High-A Daytona): 6 IP, 1 H, 1 R (0 ER), 0 BB, 12 K. Arguably the best pitching line of the day; six-foot-five righty has solid velocity and plenty of deception.

Pierre being Pierre bunt single, then picked off first then single in 3B and picked off again reached on FC in 5th, see if he can not get himself out this time also an error in the game

Castro SS, Barney 2B, Byrd CF, Ramirez 3B, Baker 1B, Soto C, Soriano LF, Colvin RF, Zambrano P

#Rays Fuld joking he couldn't stop the rain: "This is me washing my planet."

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Levine criticizes Silva for not accepting the minor league demotion for the Cubs, apparently not realizing that Silva didn't know what 29 clubs thought they had at the time the decision was made. He makes no mention of Hendry, keeping 3 useless guys in the major league bullpen so he could do his de-facto cut of Carlos Silva, who he probably would have kept had he known Wells and Cashner were going to be hurt. Ass kissing and hypocrisy - the keys to Chicago sports writing.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

why does silva matter anyway? he needed to go. you can put all the off-field stuff aside and just point to his horrible performances this spring. you can even take those numbers away and point at his lack of velocity and perhaps more importantly...his lack of movement on his pitches. it would have been nice if silva accepted his minor league assignment, but it seems that was a non-issue once both sides decided to trash each other.

From the handy-dandy game notes the Cubs send out: "Since the start of the 2010 season, Geovany Soto, Jeff Baker and Marlon Byrd rank 1-2-3 in the National League in batting average against left-handed pitching. Soto leads the league with a .370 batting average (44-for-119), followed closely by Baker (.361, 56-for-155) and Byrd (.353, 65-for-184). Soto's .469 on-base percentage vs. lefties since the start of last season is the best in the majors."
Also: "Carlos Zambrano has 14 career wins against the Houston Astros, by far the most of any active pitcher in all of baseball. Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang are next closest with 11 wins apiece against the Astros.
http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/5469

Iowa: Bibens-Dirx P Smokies: Jackson 8, Samson 4, LeMahieu 5, Spencer 9, Vitters 3, Clevenger 2, Ridling 7, Lalli 0, Ma. Gonzalez 6 Rusin P Daytona: Watkins SS, Cerda 3B, Ha CF, Bour 1B, Castillo DH, Burgess LF, Perez RF, Brenly C, Opitz 2B P-Struck Peoria: LePage 4, Silva 8, Rohan 3, Borges 9, Fitzgerald 7, Giansanti 5,Burruel 2,Soto DH,Alcantara 6, Kirk 1

I solved my issue although with no help from the Parachat folks. It just happened that the login window was popping up behind all my other windows for whatever reason. I did contact them and they suggested that since every problem is unique to contact them directly and they will try to help you out. Please let me know how it works out if you do try. Try here: https://service.parachat.com/ click on "Submit a Ticket" The Url of the chat is: http://www.thecubreporter.com/chat The site id is: 9124 Please contact me with any questions or concerns or use the comments.

I attended the game on Tuesday night. Here are my observations: Colvin had trouble tracking fly balls during the first two innings. The roof was open, the sun was shining and the lights were on. The double by Quintero was a routine fly ball that Colvin couldn't track properly. Colvin also had trouble tracking Myer's base hit down the right field line. When Russel was removed in the second inning, Colvin walked over to centerfield and talked to Byrd about his trouble tracking the ball. Ramirez waived at a double play ball that went past him one step to his left. Russell needs to work on covering first base. He was not running parallel to the first base line. It cost him two outs. Russell also needs to work on holding runners. Bourn stole second and third in the first inning. When Samardzija replaced Russell in the second inning with the score 5-0, I think he was told to throw nothing but fastballs in hope that he could throw several innings. In the fifth inning, the pitching coach made an appearance on the mound and then Samardzija starting mixing in some breaking balls. I think he could have been more effective mixing pitches, but I think Quade's main objective was for Samardzija to throw three innings. Reed Johnson (CF) and DeWitt (3B) were horrible defensive replacements. Johnson made several belly flops without making a catch. The triple by Quintero was a double that was misplayed by Johnson. Still, Quintero would have been out at third, but DeWitt dropped the ball. Subsequently, DeWitt muffed a double play ball and didn't even get one out. Later, be bounced a throw to Pena. Russel was victimized by bad defense by himself, Colvin and Ramirez. Grabow was victimized by bad defense by Reed Johnson and DeWitt. Stevens and Mateo had good relief appearances. The positive news is that nobody got hurt and Marmol, Wood and Marshall did not have to make meaningless appearances.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

If it had been a fastball, do you think they would have thrown him out? He was safe by a mile--not because he guessed right, but because Russell doesn't have a good move so runners know when he is throwing home and his delivery to home, with the high leg-kick, is abysmally slow, especially for a lefty. Same thing on the steal of third, Russell gave him one look, turned, and then immediately went into his slow delivery home. Easy steals for a guy like Bourn.

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).