Cubs MLB Roster

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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

Darwin Barney's Pacific Coast League (PCL) Sprain

Darwin Barney went on the DL this week spraining "the other" cruciate or Posterior Cruciate knee ligament.  I'm sure the Cubs called Iowa Cubs manager Bill Dancy to let him know that his Pacific Coast League (PCL) Iowa team might shortly be getting another middle infielder on rehab assignment for his lineup. Barney sustained the injury to his right knee on the play at home plate on Monday night, scoring the Cubs only run in a 1-0 victory. It looked like he bounced his knee in the dirt during a head first dive and he did stumble a bit getting up from his dive. The MRI showed injury without stretch (grade 1) to his Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL). This is considered fairly minor but probably needs to be protected from further injury for about 2-3 weeks.

"As soon as I slid into home plate last night, I knew something was really wrong," he said. "The whole knee went numb. I had an MRI today and it revealed that Grade 1 strain in my knee." (editiorial note: ligament injuries are sprains, muscle injuries are strains)

Right now Darwin Barney can't jump, but you can. So read more after the jump.

There has been plenty of media attention paid to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) which when torn in a high performance athlete is treated with reconstructive surgery but little is written about in the media when the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) is injured. The Posterior Cruciate is structurally the more robust of the two cruciates and isolated PCL injuries can occur but are less frequent and usually produce more subtle symptoms. If both the Anterior and Posterior Cruciates are torn, more drastic instability can occur including knee dislocation but fortunately that is not very common. Most people hear about the fairly common patella (kneecap) dislocation but a true knee dislocation (tibia-femur) is a severe injury and acute knee dislocations can even have nerve and artery damage.

The PCL attaches behind the knee on the tibia and goes to the medial (inner) side of the central notch on the femur. The ligament prevents posterior translation of the tibia relative to the femur above and also provides central rotational stability. Here is an excellent 3D modeling video of the PCL including how the ligament works in flexion and extension of the knee.  The Anterior Cruciate (ACL) attaches to the anterior tibial spine near the front of the knee and goes to the lateral (outer) part of the femoral notch. The ligaments cross (hence, cruciate) each other and protect and stabilize the knee when working in tandem from excess rotation and translation. 

Before MRI imaging was available, grade 2 vs 3 PCL injuries were sometimes subtle to diagnose on exam with what was called a "posterior sag" sign with the knee extended or a "posterior drawer" sign with the knee flexed. The PCL does image well on MRI studies (see "P" on image), so seeing injury to it (because the tissue signal is altered in injury) is straightforward making even subtle grade 1 injuries possible to diagnose these days.

The most common mechanism of injury is a direct blow to the front of the upper tibia, which is what seemed to happen to Barney's leg in the head first dive at home plate.

Certainly, a grade 1 strain should respond to rest and rehab in a few weeks but when the PCL has a third degree injury and the knee has instability there are arthroscopically assisted surgical reconstructive techniques (see video) available. These have evolved and are significantly improved over the last 2 decades and much of the technology has been based on arthroscopic considerations for the ACL which is now a frequently performed surgery. Brewer ace Yovani Gallardo tore his ACL in May 2008 (against the Cubs avoiding contact with Prince Fielder on  a Reed Johnson bunt) and was able to come back to pitch in late September and started a playoff game vs the Phillies that season.  The injured PCL has better blood supply than the ACL and therefore can heal without subsequent instability. The PCL is much less frequently reconstructed (than the ACL) and often has several other associated injuries including the ACL and meniscal tears making any associated instability more extensive, so the results are more difficult to assess and should not be compared to the more common anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction outcomes. I don't know of any major league players that have needed PCL reconstruction although I would be interested to hear if any mlb player has had this done.

I wonder if Doc Gryzlo will recommend a few games of rehab in the PCL for Barney's PCL once the swelling and soreness improves.

Comments

JoseCanseco Jose Canseco Love my Yuma Scorpions offense and with improved bullpen we can win this league JoseCanseco Jose Canseco OUr new centerfelder Joey Gathright is electric and reminds me of rickey

Speaking of random topics......How was Russ Canzler not good enough over the legendary Brad Snyder after last season? I'm not saying to start at 3B or anything like that....but as a bench guy? he put up decent #'s at AA last year...and in AAA this season is hitting .298/.410/.498 with 8HR and 19 doubles in 250 PA's

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In reply to by Dusty Baylor

Submitted by Dusty Baylor on Fri, 06/17/2011 - 9:15am. Speaking of random topics......How was Russ Canzler not good enough over the legendary Brad Snyder after last season? I'm not saying to start at 3B or anything like that....but as a bench guy? he put up decent #'s at AA last year...and in AAA this season is hitting .298/.410/.498 with 8HR and 19 doubles in 250 PA's ---------------------------------- DUSTY B: Russ Canzler was a Rule 55 minor league free-agent (6YFA) after last season, and since he had yet to play above AA in seven seasons with the Cubs, he probably decided it might be in his best interests to try his luck with another organization. Generally the Cubs invite all of their minor league free-agents to return for another season, leaving it up to the player whether to return or not. Obviously Canzler decided to look elsewhere. Besides Canzler moving over to Tampa Bay, Mitch Atkins signed a minor league contract with Baltimore, Jeff Gray signed a minor league deal with the White Sox, and Scott McLain and Jeff Reed retired, but otherwise everybody else came back for 2012 (with Mark Johnson returning not as a player but as the Boise manager, and Jason Dubois sticking around as the AZL Cubs hitting coach). BTW, after a long career as a slugging 3B in AAA and in Japan, Scott McLain is now the U. S. Scout for the Hiroshima Carp.

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.