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

Rice, Andre, and My Retroactive Hall of Fame Predictions

Rob invited us to pitch in with our Hall of Fame predictions on Sunday night, but I didn't have a chance to reply until now. Here goes:

I predict Ricky Henderson will receive somewhere around 511 votes, Jim Rice will finally get in the Hall with, oh, I'll say 76.4% of the vote, and two clowns will even cast ballots for Jay Bell.

Speaking of Rice and the Hall, Dan Turkenkopf of Beyond the Box Score came up with the 10 best player comps for each of this year's leading HOF candidates.

(Turkenkopf tweaked Bill James' formula for player Similarity Scores to better account for park effects and playing era, thus the differences between the lists below and what you'll find at Baseball-Reference.com.)

Rice's comps, starting with the most similar hitter, include: 

1. Willie Horton
2. Frank Thomas
3. Ellis Burks
4. George Hendrick
5. Vic Wertz
6. Bobby Thomson
7. Roy Sievers
8. Fred Lynn
9. Andres Gallaraga
10. Gil Hodges

Here is what Turkenkopf has to say about the Rice comparisons:

Not a Hall of Famer on the list.  In case you were wondering, that's not the Big Hurt in the number two spot.  Rice's most similar players were all very good players, but no one really is pushing any of them for the HOF except for Hodges.  There's been a lot of virtual ink spilled discussing whether or not Rice deserves to be elected and I'm not going to rehash them here, but I will say that I think Rice will be one of the least-deserving players elected when he goes in.

Now here are Turkenkopf's 10 best comps for the guy who finished third in this year's HOF balloting, former Cub Andre Dawson:

1. Billy Williams
2. George Foster
3. Goose Goslin
4. Chuck Klein
5. Dave Parker
6. Tony Perez
7. Dave Winfield
8. Duke Snider
9. Juan Gonzalez
10. Al Simmons

And his commentary:

Dawson's top ten strongly suggests he should be elected.  However, this is one of those cases Bill James warned about where similarity scores can be deceiving.  All of the Hall of Famers on the list were substantially better offensive players than Dawson.  I think Dawson is helped by the lack of an explicit category for OBP in the sim score calculation...Dawson's one of those players who almost perfectly represents the dividing line between the Hall of Fame and the Hall of Very Good.  He doesn't make my Hall, but I don't begrudge any one who would vote for him.

For the record, the Dawson list includes seven Hall of Famers--Williams, Goslin, Klein, Perez, Winfield, Snider, and Simmons.

You can look up Jay Bell's  top 10 comps on your own.

Comments

Thanks, Cubnut. And Jay Bell's comps: 1. Toby Harrah 2. Ray Durham 3. Bobby Grich 4. Benito Santiago 5. Devon White 6. Alan Trammell 7. Frank White 8. Edgar Renteria 9. Alvin Dark 10. Andre Dawson Kidding about Dawson. Bell's number 10 is Amos Otis.

James came up with these Comps for TL: 10. Achilles 9. Suleiman the Magnificent 8. Theresa, Mother 7. Apollo, God of the Sun 6. Floyd Bannister 5. Ted Williams 4. General George Patton 3. Mr. Universe 2. Confucius 1. Ted Lilly Interestingly, when James tried to come up with comps for Ted's abs and biceps, none were found.

I really don't like similarity scores. I think you have to be really careful about how you use them. This guy has identified some of the principal flaws, like park effects and era. They also do not factor in defense or OBP, which this guy's tweaks do not purport to fix. Plus, I don't think enough focus goes into what the actual scores are. Scores less than, say, 900 are not all that similar. You see some players where the tenth player is above 900 and some players where the most similar player is at 875. Ron Santo's most similar player is Dale Murphy, who is at 875 (which, among other things, gives effect to a postional adjustment of minus 36 for Murphy because Santo played third and Murphy played the outfield). Every year at Hall of Fame time the newspaper articles are full of references to similarity scores and the HOF monitor, without the writers knowing how they are calculated and what they mean. As quick and dirty measures go, I think they may have done more harm than good. Perhaps they can be helpful in being the start of an inquiry, but they're really pretty superficial.

AZ Phil: What is the current assessment of Ascanio? Ohman and Infante were certainly usefull players last year, and it doesn't seem that Ascanio is ranked anywhere among the Cubs' top prospects. Is he still a significant prospect, and if so, what's his ceiling? As always, thanks for the knowledge.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Sort of bizarre list. Hamilton, other than always being amazed that the strikeouts for a pitcher were coming via call or swing, was actually pretty good - Harry Caray pettiness aside.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

well for the last 15 years that I've had the rare occasion to catch Milo Hamilton, he is nothing less than awful, Cubs hatred notwithstanding...

other than being incredibly dull, he misses a ton of the game on the radio.....

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

at least they gave bob costas his props. damn you NBC and damn you bob for taking their money. i miss him calling baseball games. hope he had fun calling olympic men's water polo at 3am in the morning for the 20 people that followed it.

designated for assignment by the Rays... 7.39 ERA so far as a major leaguer...karma's a bitch.

[ ]

In reply to by Wes

unless he's wanting to go home or simply broken down he might be an option for hendry. hendry loves those athletic types and ryu is a hell of an athlete who's gotten bigger and stronger since he left the cubs...too bad that's about all that's gone right, though.

Submitted by Seamhead on Tue, 01/13/2009 - 1:41pm.

AZ Phil: What is the current assessment of Ascanio? Ohman and Infante were certainly usefull players last year, and it doesn't seem that Ascanio is ranked anywhere among the Cubs' top prospects. Is he still a significant prospect, and if so, what's his ceiling? As always, thanks for the knowledge.

===============================

SEAMHEAD: Jose Ascanio is one of the top two or three closers in the Venezuelan Winter League (1.17 WHIP/.194 OBA) and I have him in my Top 20 Cubs prospects for 2009 (I only listed my Top 15 here). Right now his future would probably be as an MLB middle reliever (if he stays with the Cubs), but he could be an 8th inning guy or a closer with another club.

Ascanio is only 23 (he'll turn 24 in May) and last year was his first season in AAA, so it's not like he's a 4-A guy. His brother was killed in a car crash in mid-season last year and so he was away from the I-Cubs for a couple of weeks because of that, and he's had back problems throughout his career, so (like Sam Fuld) he mainly just needs to stay healthy.

The problem for Ascanio (and for Jeff Stevens and Kevin Hart, too) ref 2009 is that the Cubs have three RHRP bullpen candidates who are out of minor league options (Chad Gaudin, Michael Wuertz, and Angel Guzman), while Ascanio gets a 4th minor league option in 2009. But the Iowa Cubs should have one outstanding bullpen in 2009, with some combination of Hart, Ascanio, and Stevens likely pitching 7-8-9, Rocky Roquet will be there, too, and Roquet is another late-inning RHRP with upside. 

Submitted by Charlie on Tue, 01/13/2009 - 6:44pm.

AZ Phil: Might they have Hart starting at Iowa, or is he locked in as a reliever this year?

-------------------------------------

CHARLIE: If the Iowa Cubs bullpen is really stacked, then Kevin Hart could be in the I-Cubs starting rotation with Jeff Samardzija, Mitch Atkins, Randy Wells, J. R. Mathes, Justin Berg, and/or Esmailin Caridad.

Hart certainly has the stamina to start, although he was "lights out" as the Iowa closer in 2008, and then he pitched well out of the bullpen the last month of the season with the Cubs (especially the last two weeks).

Wait...Dawson hung around too long, absolutely...but he wasn't near 500 HR, or near enough 3000 hits to say that's why he was ghanging around His last year with the Cubs, at age 37, he hit .277/.316/.456, with 22 HR, and 90 RBI. He DH'd with Boston, where he sholda realized he was done after 1993, but hung around to play parts of 3 seasons. If he'd have retired after 1993, he wuold have had 399 HR, and 1492 RBI's, with a .281 batting average. I can see he came back to get 400 HR's, but a player would have to be clinically delusional at that point to think he could get another 100 HR's the way he was playing. or 370 hits. (from totals after 1993 season)

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • crunch (view)

    dbacks are signing j.montgomery to a 1/25m with a vesting 20m player option.

    i dunno when the ink officially dries, but i believe if he signs once the season begins he can't be offered a QO...and i'm not sure if that thing with SD/LAD in korea was the season beginning, either.

  • crunch (view)

    sut says imanaga getting the home opener at wrigley (game 4 of the season).

  • crunch (view)

    cubs rolling out the who's who of "who the hell is this guy?" in the last spring game.

  • videographer (view)

    AZ Phil, speaking of Jordan Wicks having better command when he tires a bit, I remember reading about Dennis Lamp 40 years ago and his sinker that was better after 3 or 4 innings when he would tire a bit and get more sink with a little less speed on the pitch.  The key for Lamp was getting to the 4th inning.