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

Game 100-Something Preview: Cubs @ Rockies

Cubs 47-63Rockies 44-67
#Alcantara, CF*Blackmon, LF
Baez, 2B#Adames, SS
*Rizzo, 1BArenado, 3B
Castro, SS*Morneau, 1B
Ruggiano, RFStubbs, CF
*Valbuena, 3BRosario, C
Castillo, CBarnes, RF
Lake, LFLeMahieu, 2B
Wood, P*Anderson, P

It's not only Javier Baez day, but a battle for draft pick status!!! I only have one prediction for tonight, at some point Javier Baez will swing out of his shoes trying to launch one over the mountains. Should be fun...

Comments

Castro took Javy out for a steak dinner at Mortons last night. Starlin quote, per Patrick Mooney on twitter: "It's really important to have him here, have fun and play every day." (somebody should have taken Mike Olt out to that steak dinner in April)

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

apparently not Old enough to remember Jason Dubois

also, I was talking about the odd obsession over a power hitting prospect that didn't end up hitting very well in the majors.

I was all for Olt playing, especially out of camp, he didn't, that was unfortunate but I don't think it ruined him by any means...he ended up sucking really bad when he did play, he's working on stuff now in the minors. This happens all the time. He'll be a nice fill-in for injuries next year or a trade chip if he keeps it going in the minors.

it'd be nice to not read about something else in the comments once in awhile, otherwise I'm going to start copying and pasting Bryan LaHair comments

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

the prospect comparision is tenous at best, the obsession over his playing time vs the results he was putting up, a little more spot on..

Regardless, Olt can play defense as mentioned below, couldn't say the same about Dubois. But Olt dropped off the radar last year for reasons beyond his vision and there probably was a good reason Capt Happy wasn't playing him all the time.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Rob, Olt is currently leading all NL rookies in HR by four, and is 3rd in RBI. And he's been in the minors for a month and hasn't played back to back games since May. He plays a solid defense, and was basically relegated to being a rare platoon player against lefties from opening day as a rookie. At the time he was essentially benched he led the Cubs in HR and RBI. I just think there's some revisionist history being written here. The dude should have been playing so we know what the hell we have. Any MLB player will tell you it's hard to play a game or two a week and even captain happy said it's one of the hardest tasks there are. Especially for a rookie. The whole thing is retarded but the obsession with his playing time is a little different than DuBois.

[ ]

In reply to by Carlito

"leading NL rookies" is not a particularly useful statistical category, it's pretty close to an arbitrary designation, and some decent counting stats in a small sample size, doesn't address the underlying issues with his bat.

he does play solid defense, he should have played a lot more in the first few months. But he didn't, the Cubs would have still sucked and he still would probably have a very terrible slash line, but hopefully a little better.

He struck out 40% of the time, that's almost as bad as Brett Jackson's cup of tea. He only hit about 75% of balls he swung at in the zone, that's BJ Upton, Chris Davis territory and that's not good. Something was wrong and the baseball folks knew it.

He has stuff to work on, he's finally getting a chance to do it in the minors, let's hope it sticks and translates to the majors.

PLEASE GET OVER IT. PLEASE.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

"He has stuff to work on, he's finally getting a chance to do it in the minors" huge as hell emphasis on "finally." more than a few people seem to be most pissed about him not playing. he could be in AAA and playing as long as he was playing and that would be just fine. he's missed a whole lot of playing time over the past many years to sit on a bench 1/2 the time.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

.141 1HR 46K's 128 AB Anthony Rizzo in his first call up by SD. Yes he was younger than Olt but SD may have given up on him early. I think Olt is a hell of a lot better than DuBois, certainly a solid defender at a skilled position and I agree with you this hasn't ruined him BUT the Cubs might be missing a huge opportunity.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

"a power hitting prospect that didn't end up hitting very well in the majors" Dubois could hit okay. That wasn't his problem. His problem was he couldn't field any position. That's what made him a bad prospect, and why he failed. In his longest stretch in the majors--152 PAs with the Cubs in 2005--he hit 7 home runs and knocked in 22 runs. At that modest rate, and with a season's worth of PAs--say, 500--he would have had 20+ homers and 70+ RBI. And he was just a rookie, so his numbers could have improved over time. But those numbers are never good enough for a player with only one tool. I could do the same extrapolation with Hoffpauir and Jake Fox and others. It's not that they couldn't hit, even in the majors. It's just that they're always one brief slump away from being of absolutely no value to the team. Olt is completely different. He plays 3B well, so he can justify his existence that way while accumulating at-bats and getting a chance to prove himself. Olt will get many opportunities that Dubois and Hoffpauir were never going to get. Good organizations don't consider one-way players like Dubois and Hoffpauir prospects. The Cubs--a good organization lately--let Justin Bour go in the Rule 5 draft last December. So now he's a 26-year-old PCL all-star following in the footsteps of Dubois and Hoffpauir but going nowhere.

[ ]

In reply to by VirginiaPhil

You are confusing "tools" here. You keep saying "hit" was his tool, but his real tool was power. And he only had one. You are right. A lot of guys can hit 20 HRs and get 70 RBIs in a season--but without anything else those are very empty stats. If Dubois or Hoffpauir had an eye at the plate like Jack Cust and could walk enough to put up an OBP close to .400 a good organization would have found a home for them somewhere on the field or at DH.

[ ]

In reply to by VirginiaPhil

I'm not sure Olt's completely different, but yes he can handle himself on defense. And I was talking about the viewpoint and obsession in the comments on TCR, not how the Cubs or baseball viewed them.

And I'm pretty sure Dubois failed because he couldn't hit enough, you can always find a position for someone that hits well enough, Adam Dunn is still in baseball and Frank Thomas is a Hall of Famer.

Brett Jackson might be a better prospect comp for Olt, less power, but massive K issues but could play defense well enough. But that wasn't what I was talking about.

 

In order to trade him for value, they will have to bring him up at some point and play him.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

I know but we got real prospects now unlike jackson and vitters. Kinda what I talked about for years. Our best prospects were shit compared to other teams. And having Theo has proven me dead accurate.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

I know but we got real prospects now unlike jackson and vitters. Kinda what I talked about for years. Our best prospects were shit compared to other teams. And having Theo has proven me dead accurate.

Jeebus....could Len please knock it off with referring to music every 8 seconds?? A little baseball talk at the baseball game too much to hope for I guess?

[ ]

In reply to by jacos

I had the pleasure/horror/amusement of seeing this. What's more amusing is that Dunn fooled more batters in one inning than Danks did all night. Or so it seemed. The game was 3-0 Rangers before Danks got a swinging strike.

staying up to watch baez and vin doing dodgers game on mlb network. Of course tigers/yanks go extra

Sureouts has taken "suck" to a whole new level. Overmatched by 41-year old Latroy Hawkins' dead straight fastball. Wow.

It seems like nobody is seeing the ball well for some reason -- lots of late swings, and Mendy and Rizzo stuck out on terrible 3-2 pitches in the dirt in the 10th. Rough night for the Fab Four -- through 10 innings, 0-for-16 with 8Ks. But, hey, three walks! Almost hope Javy doesn't get up again tonight -- 0 for 5 is enough.

Two outs, one-run lead, Charlie Culberson at the plate -- and Rondon can't close it out. Less and less impressed by him as the season wears on.

[ ]

In reply to by George Altman

I'm curious: will they? Or will they just wait 24 days until rosters expand and bring him up and keep Schierholtz the entire year. They don't gain much by releasing him; unless they really feel like they need those extra 10 days or whatever with Soler up.

[ ]

In reply to by WISCGRAD

It seems to make sense to just wait until the roster expands on Soler, but I sort of see Sureouts as a separate case. There just seems to be nothing left in the tank there. Any hope they have may have had a few months ago on getting some return on him is probably vanquished completely. In other words, I think they are separate things. They could dump Schierholtz and bring up someone else. Another thing with Soler is that he still seems to be on a pretty specific schedule because of his hammies. I don't think they're going to bring him up until they're completely satisfied with his medicals. He's another that sounds like the real deal, so even I'm happy to wait until they think he is really ready.

That was a very Oltish performance by Baez last night. Time for a night off!!

Edit on previous comment...from Tribune story on last night's game: "Baez's homer was the first by a player in his major league debut that gave his team the lead in extra innings since Miguel Cabrera of the Florida Marlins on June 20, 2003, against the Tampa Bay Rays." Nice company.

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

...the first by a player with a last name beginning with one of the first three letters of the alphabet while making a major league debut the week immediately following Eid al-Fitr without any underwear that gave his team the lead in extra innings since Miguel Cabrera... impressive.

AZ Phil, (or other experts). What do you think is going on with Marlins / Jacob Turner? It would seem we are second behind Rockies in waiver claim pecking order. Are the Marlins fishing for a trade? Do you think we have a shot to land him one way or another?

FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal reports that Jacob Turner has been claimed off waivers by an unnamed National League team.

Ben Nicholson-Smith@bnicholsonsmith On vacation touring Wrigley Field, where #Cubs are working out free agent OF Rusney Castillo as we speak #MLB

Recent comments

  • 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!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.