Cubs MLB Roster

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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

Sweet Lou is NL's Manager of the Year

Lou Piniella won he NL Manager of the Year award today. Always a curious award that seems to honor lowered expectations than actual managing skill. Nonetheless, Piniella takes the honor and will likely just dump it into the spare closet as I'm sure he couldn't care less after the playoff debacle.

He would have probably gotten my first place vote as I thought the Cubs were about an 88-win team to start the year, so the Cubs certainly exceeded my expactations. Tony LaRussa was the only other manager that probably deserved some first place votes, but he finished 5th in the voting.

Past Cubs managers to have received votes in the Manager of the Year award since it began in 1983, once again thanks to reader WISCGRAD

Name
Year
Place
Lou Piniella
2008
1st
Lou Piniella
2007
4th
Dusty Baker
2003
2nd
Don Baylor
2001
6th
Jim Riggleman
1998
3rd
Jim Riggleman
1995
5th
Don Zimmer
1989
1st
Jim Frey
1984
1st

 

And I wrote this whole article without making a Dusty Baker joke. I have evolved

Lou and the Cubs have also retained their entire coaching staff from last year.


It's the last day to enter TCR's Free Agent Frenzy Contest for a chance to win  Cait Murphy's Crazy '08. Here are my picks:

Abreu - Cleveland 2
Bradley - Cubs 1
Burnett - Atlanta 7
Burrell - Atlanta 4
Dempster - Cubs 15
Dunn - Toronto 3
Furcal - Cubs 8
Lowe - Yankees 9
Perez - Atlanta 6
Manny - Dodgers 12
K-rod - Mets 10
CC - Angels 13
Sheets - Houston 5
Teixeira - Yanks 14
Wood - Cubs 11

I don't think the Cubs will sign all of those players or the Braves will either. It's just that it's so wide open right now that I really don't have a solid guess on any one of them.  So instead, I'm just trying to put the ball in play rather than swing for the fences and betting that the Cubs will sign SOME of those players.

Comments

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

some people have real issues with "drawing sides" and drawing me into it. again...this isn't a competition and i don't draw favorites...nor do i hate lou...nor am i a dusty booster. what i do like is...GOING THROUGH A SEASON HEARING PEOPLE TALK ABOUT *GASP* PLAYERS RATHER THAN THE ELDERLY MAN WHO DOESN'T EVEN PLAY THE GAME. yeah, that...again. we haven't had to hear about how lou is making people suck 1000 posts a week or other half assed conspiracy theories that hold more straw grasping and emotion than facts. we have a team good enough there's not arguement over which flavor of "shouldn't be there anyway" should play over each other and why it's the elderly man's fault they're not doing well or there's not other options. we hear about people who actually play the game. it's nice. fukudome had a bad season and it was actually HIS fault, not the elderly man in the dugout. neat concept.

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

yeah, im just clearing it up cuz i still seem to get called out every few months for being "pro-dusty" and "anti-lou" rather than being "pro-stfu-about-managers-and-conspiracies-because-youre-frustrated". worthless is a bit harsh...i just think they're overvalued by some as far as what they can make a guy do on the field. there's so many coaches watching "problem guy A" be a problem and for the most part it's them rather than the manager "fixing" them. granted, winning has helped a lot, but we've had a lot more discussions about what's right/wrong with players and their real game rather than looping it back into some elderly man. it's been nice. every manager has an "idiot list" and in a full season you can pull out a laundry list against them. it's just the way it is. it's just a lot nicer to me to hear people talking about real issues with players rather than it turning into an emotional conspiracy theory.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ti-padres111208&prov=yhoo&type=lg… So the Braves and Chicago Cubs have maneuvered themselves into favorites. The St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros appeared to fall out. Peavy gave his list of clubs he’d play for another good, hard look, and the New York Yankees continued to push hard, despite failing to make Peavy’s roster. Others have inserted themselves as well, including the Boston Red Sox and pitching-thin New York Mets. The Texas Rangers also tried, but were told Peavy would not consider pitching in Arlington under any circumstances. One American League executive looked over the exceptions to Peavy’s veto powers, noted the absence of AL teams, and surmised, “Looks like he doesn’t want to pitch against those hairy guys,” meaning the superior lineups of the other league. He wouldn’t be the first to conclude Peavy either loved hitting or loved his National League ERA. Either way, after weeks of work, by Wednesday afternoon the Padres had plenty of options, according to one front-office staffer, but nothing he’d consider close. Obviously, an adjustment here or there – particularly by the Braves or Cubs – would end the negotiating and return the process to Peavy, who would accept or reject a trade, presumably with the final year of his contract ($22 million in 2013) guaranteed. Peavy’s agent, Barry Axelrod, said the Padres have yet to ask them to approve a trade.

From Keith Law's blog, "The Dish," at http://tinyurl.com/66gp4q

"Edinson Volquez appears on three NL Rookie of the Year ballots, even though he’s not a rookie. It wasn’t even something esoteric like the days-on-the-roster rule; he threw 80 innings for Texas prior to 2008, and the cutoff is 50...

"The three voters who included Volquez were Jeremy Cothran of the Newark Star-Ledger, John Klima of the Los Angeles Daily News, and Jay Paris of the North County Times in San Diego."

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

We haven't talked much about it... OK we haven't talked any about it, but Perry is probably NL Coach of the Year. 2006 Cubs last in OBP (.319) last by a wide margin in ISO OBP (.051) 2007 Cubs 9th in OBP (.333) tied for last in ISO OBP (.062) 2008 Cubs 1st in OBP (.354) tied for second in ISO OBP (.076) I'm not a big Lou fan, but you have to give him and Hendry some credit for bringing in Perry and letting him do his thing.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

not to take away from the fine work I'm sure Perry is doing, but that conclusion seems misguided. It's probably more of a function of the players they've acquired and given playing time to...or as Lou said, if you want OBP players, you acquire them in the offseason (paraphrasing obviously)

some of the regulars, BB/PA since 2006-2008

Soto - N/A, .083, .111

Lee -.123, .109, .102

DeRosa - .077, .102, .117

Theriot - .111, .083, .111

Ramirez - .076, .077, .115

Soriano - .092, .050, .080

Edmonds -.130, .100, .151 (as a Cub), .098 (as a Padre)

Johnson -.064, 063, .051

Fukudome - N/A, N/A,  .138 (compare to Jones at .061 and .069 the previous 2 years)

Ward - .114, .165, .134

Ramirez has certainly shown improvement and Soriano and DeRosa, to a certain degree, Lee has trailed off though (probably due to age and a loss in power). But seems more like the new players than the coaching.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Yeah, I thought about that. There's been a lot of talk about Fukudome inspiring it. You have to take out the IBB's if you really want to get down to it. The difference in this year's team and last year's team comes down to Fukudome in right, the center fielders, and Soto at catcher. Even if you don't want to give Perry the credit for making DeRosa and Ramirez get noticeably better - what are the odds that the previous regime would have made guys like Soriano, Soto and DeRosa worse?

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

I look forward to it...

here's the Cubs who were on the 2006 and 2007 Cubs, you should definitely factor out IBB's and factor in age patterns and all that wonderful stuff, but here's the quick and dirty.

blue it went up under Lou, red it went down under Lou

Ramirez: .076, .077

Jones: .061, .069

Lee: .123, .109 (lee of course only had 204 PA's in 2006)

Theriot: .111, .083

Barrett: .079, .074

Murton: .089, .100

Cedeno: .031, .038

Pagan: .081, .063

seems like I'm missing someone, but looks like a wash to me....

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Gotta call sample size on Theriot too. Actually have to call sample size on all that. None of it is statistically significant. The thing with the John Hill study he did a few years ago, it gives big enough sample sizes when you look at it team-wide, but it's not really the proper way to do it. The other problem is that he didn't do line of best fits for the age expectations, he used averages, which is incorrect. Say you have two players both age 30. One player's walks have been this over the last five years: 20 30 40 50 60 The second player's walks have been like this 40 42 44 46 48 If you are just eyeballing that, you would guess player one will walk 70 times and player 2 will walk 50 times in the coming year. When Hill did it, he said both players would walk 4.6% (made this up) more times, because a 30 year old on average walks 4.6% more often than he did in his 29 season. To do it correcly you would use the best fits, 70 and 50 in this rudimentary example and then look at what they actually did and base your assessment on that. You may think that it's not a big deal and it would even itself out, but when you're talking about players like Sosa and Bonds, that type of thing can have a huge impact.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

I don't have much use for Perry's "thing," if it's to advise hitters not to swing. Perry had a bad effect on the three guys who needed a hitting coach, Fukudome, Pie and Cedeno. Fukudome got so much praise for drawing walks and raising pitch counts that he began to just stand there like a statue. The umps responded by doing what they always do with guys who they think are not "being hitters"--they widened his strike zone. Once they took those close pitches away from him, he was useless with a bat in his hand. If that's not Perry's fault, whose is it? If Fukudome needed help or advice, what was he supposed to do, ask his translator? Call home? The experienced guys on the team, the ones who put up the numbers that made Perry look good--I doubt they rely on a hitting coach much. With a team of veterans, I'm not sure what any of these major league coaches do, other than dial the bullpen and pick up after batting practice. It's nice work if you can get it.

[ ]

In reply to by VirginiaPhil

Fukudome's walk rate by month, subtracting out IBB"s

April - .137, May - .129, June - .142, July - .091, August - .121, Sept - .096

that's not that big a drop-off in the 2nd half and could just as easily be explained by pitchers challenging Fukudome more since they knew he couldn't hit it more than 110 feet than a widening strike zone.

And maybe Fukudome just didn't listen to Perry, or maybe he tried some stuff and didn't help.

Lou hasn't heard about Peavy from Hendry and Brian Roberts trade isn't dead break out Cubnut's diagram on Roberts trade history!!! per Gordon Wittenmeyer... http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1277176,CST-SPT-cub13.arti… =========== 'I think it's only talk (regarding Peavy),'' said Piniella... ''I really haven't talked to [GM] Jim Hendry much at all about our situation. We had a nice conversation at organizational meetings a couple of weeks ago. At that time, we hadn't talked about Peavy. I really learned about Peavy just watching ESPN. I haven't had any substantive talks with Jim about it.'' That means only one thing: The Cubs aren't serious about Peavy. Piniella hasn't been out of the loop on any significant player move since he was hired, much less one that would approach this magnitude. ===== Another baseball source said Wednesday that the Cubs' yearlong efforts to land Baltimore leadoff hitter Brian Roberts aren't dead, suggesting the Orioles might be more willing to move him with only one year left on his contract, pending the outcome of extension talks.

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).