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

Bad Cold War cartoon: Castro, Kennedy fire missiles at each other.

 

After finishing this drawing yesterday, I realized that the historical significance of this matchup might not only be lost on some of you, but not interesting and perhaps in bad taste to most of you as well.
So, uh, lets just talk about the fabulous entertainment our favorite team gave us last night.

Featuring a monster homer, a frightened DBack 3rd baseman, a stupid DBack pitcher, clutch hitting, clutch walking, an ejection, and the first win for Cub Matt Garza, this game had it all.

First, the top of the 2nd.
Alfonso Soriano got ahold of one. There's a giant green wall under and around the scoreboard at Chase Field, and even on hi-def the light was so flat (with no shadow) I couldn't tell where it hit. But this ball was so crushed...I wish they'd keep the radar on balls that get hit. 
I read a Paul Sullivan re-tweet that said: "Richie Sexson in 2004 is the only other hitter to hit scoreboard before Soriano tonight." 

Then, the 4th.
Starlin Castro did indeed hit a missile (grounder) past overmatched DBack 3rd baseman Melvin Mora, who deftly moved his feet as if to appear ready to field a ball that clearly gave him the fear, and then like a matador watched it go by for a double.
Not to be outdone, pitcher Ian Kennedy idiotically decides to pitch to Freaky Hot Alfonso Soriano with Castro on 3rd, 1st and 2nd open, and 2 outs.
Soriano drills it.
Cubs 2 DBacks 1.

5th.
With Darwin Barney on 1st, Aramis Ramirez hits a pitch that's about 10 feet inside. It goes deep into the LF corner and Barney, a hustling machine, scores standing up.

Top of the 9th. 
With Byrd on 1st, Soto crappily bunts right back to closer J.J. Putz, who wheels and throws it to where SS Stephen Drew was before he ran over to cover second. Stretching like a 1st baseman, Drew barely keeps a toe on the bag before falling. Byrd's out and...hey wait just a darn second here. 
Mike Quade is either really really angry or just doing his part to fire up the team with some awesome acting, because he's got his arms behind his back (to keep from punching anybody?) and...yelling at the ump, pointing to where Drew was, running around, getting in the ump's face...and tossed!
I immediately put him in the 5% Cooler Club as he stalks off the field. 
And now it's Tyler Colvin.
He goes 0-2 and I'm waiting for the strike out...but hey wait just a darn 9 more pitches here.
He walks, brilliantly.
With guys on 1st and 2nd and now 2 outs, 2 balls, and 2 strikes, Darwin Barney clutchly hits one right at and past Putz, who is still sitting on his ass when Soto crosses the plate.
Loud non-words from my mouth, beer spills on coffee table, and I'm told to stop scaring the dogs as Starlin knocks in the last run and Len reminds us that all the Cub runs tonight came with 2 outs.

Wow.

And it also means that Matt Garza, who set a Cub strikeout record for April, gets the W.

For a couple 4th place teams, this was just a wonderful game.

Lastly, I didn't mention that Other Freaky Hot Hitter Jeff Baker did something bad to himself while at bat, and since he was already playing for trainwreck Carlos Pena, I'm hoping Mr. Quade sees fit to put Tyler Colvin at first today.

 Go Cubs.

 

Comments

d-backs score 3 w/ a single & we have 3 innings w/ man on 2nd & no outs that end up goose eggs...but hey,in the silver lining dept., pena almost hit a homerun which would have broken the tie between hill & the power combo of pena & ramirez!

" I was in Chicago for roughly four years and I had three different ownership groups," Piniella said Monday on "The Mully & Hanley Show" on WSCR-AM 670. "That's not the easiest thing in the world, either." Yeah that really tied your hands behind your back, Lou.

via rotoworld Carlos Pena (thumb) will continue to play through his recent slump. His thumb isn't yet 100 percent, but Pena and Cubs manager Mike Quade have apparently come to an agreement. Pena, who signed a one-year, $10 million contract over the winter, is batting just .167 with 23 strikeouts over his first 66 at-bats. It's tough to recommend him in fantasy right now, especially if Jeff Baker continues to see at-bats against left-handers and some right-handers, as well

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I expect OF Christian Franklin to have a breakout season at AA Tennessee in 2024. In another organization that doesn't have PCA, Caissie, K. Alcantara, and Canario in their system, C. Franklin would be a Top 10 prospect. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The Reds trading Joe Boyle for Sam Moll at last year's MLB Trade Deadline was like the Phillies trading Ben Brown to the Cubs for David Robertson at the MLB TD in 2022. 

  • 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!!!