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

Hollandsworth Traded

Todd Hollandsworth was traded to the Atlanta Braves tonight for minor league (wait for it)....pitchers Todd Blackford and Angelo Burrows. If you're too lazy to click the link, here's what the Cubs PR department has to say about the 2 "prospects":
Blackford, 20, is in his second professional season, having been selected by Atlanta in the 13th round of the 2004 draft. In 27 career games, the right-handed pitcher has gone 6-5 with a 4.60 ERA. This season, Blackford has gone 5-3 with a 3.17 ERA in 12 games for the Class A Danville Braves. He has held opponents to a .219 average and issued just two homers in 59 2/3 innings of work. Burrows, 25, was selected by the Braves in the ninth round of the 1999 draft. The right-handed pitcher has split the 2005 season between Class A Rome and Myrtle Beach, combining to go 4-3 with three saves and a 3.32 ERA in 30 relief appearances. Burrows, who began his career as an outfielder, batted .250 in 334 career games before being converted to a pitcher in 2004. In his first season on the mound, he was 2-5 with a 4.10 ERA in 22 relief appearances. He struck out 30 batters and allowed five homers in his 37 1/3 innings of work.
Matt Murton will be called up tomorrow to take Holly's spot and it looks like Jermaine Van Buren will be called up and placed on the 40 man roster to take Kerry Wood's spot, who will be placed on the DL tomorrow. Trans: To quote Bob Dylan,
Goodbye's too good a word, babe So I'll just say, "fare thee well." I ain't saying you treated me unkind. You could have done better but I don't mind. You just kinda wasted my precious time. But don't think twice, it's all right.

Comments

My guess is we are unlikely to ever see either of these guys in Chicago, at least not at Wrigley Field. I wonder what the starting line-up is gonna look like next year. Listening to the game tonight on ESPN, it seemed like one by one (Burnitz, Nomar, CPat) the announcers predicted that these guys would be gone. I wonder if we will try to rebuild for a year or two or try to sign our way back into contention with free agents? My view is that, while one or two free agents probably are inevitable, we need to give some of our kids down on the farm a chance. I am not sure that Dusty could bear such an approach.

hooray! hendry has taken away dusty's options in left! murton must start! which leads to this conversation tomorrow at wrigley: macias: "you know, i can play left field if you need me to" dusty: "nah, i think i got the message from jim, dude. i gotta play murton" macias (shows dusty the goat/jose/dusty pics) dusty: "dude...nah..."

With their entire minor league system already playing on the big club, where did the Braves even find these guys?

There is absolutely nothing in either player's resume' to suggest they'll ever see Chicago. This trade was probably done as a gift to Hollandsworth, who now gets to go the playoffs, and to Murton/Hairston/Patterson, who have one less person to fight with for PT. Is Hairston the next to go? We've traded every other pedestrian OFer in the system...

lawton just homered in the 8th for the yankees. as many big hits in 3 days for the yanks as he had in a month with the cubs.

Salt, meet wound.

Walker is the last of the 3 that cleared waivers not to be traded yet. I say the odds are 50/50 that he goes in the next 48 hours. Funny wendsday is the first cut down day in the NFL and Hutch looks like he is going to get cut. So MRS. Hutch might get to see her hubby and her bro get run out of town on the same day ouch! Hopefully if we trade Walker we get a guy who has an MLB future. here are some canidates to get: Mets: Royce Ring A's: Jairo Garcia (probably the best realistic deal) Indians: Franklin Gutterez (A Cub fan can hope) Twins: Mike Ryan or JD Durbin

Would be surprised to see Walker go. He's got a very reasonable contract for next year and while his defense borders on awful, his offense is pretty good.

I disagree that Walker's D is bordering on awful. I say serviceable. I think there's a good chance he'll be back next year. The more I think about it, I think I like it better when we're out of it in June. This sucks. Just wait till next year, right? And lastly, Rob G. the Dylan lyrics that come to mind for me are: "Oh, the hours I've spent inside the Coliseum, Dodging lions and wastin' time. Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle, I could hardly stand to see 'em, Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb. Train wheels runnin' through the back of my memory, When I ran on the hilltop following a pack of wild geese. Someday, everything is gonna be smooth like a rhapsody When I paint my masterpiece."

it was trans who contributed the dylan lyrics for what it's worth...

Has anyone read Phil Rogers's latest masterpiece? In it he extols Mark Buehrle's latest mouthing-off as evidence why the Sox will win the World Series. If I'm not mistaken, this is the same Mark Buehrle who accused Greg Maddux of steriod abuse. This time his baseless accusations are aimed at Ameriquest field and the notion that office building lights tip pitches to Ranger hitters. A notion that Phil Rogers seems to accept, which I should expect given that Rogers and asinine remarks are never too far apart. Is it me, or does anyone else bothered by this?

Some good news, Cleveland won and the White Sox lost. Lets hope that rend continues for another five weeks and will give Phil Rogers lots to write about. I have couple random thoughts about the posts above speculating about playing time and the Cubs young players after reading Sheehan on baseballprospectus and stories in the Trib and Sun Tims after last night's game. I hope Dusty starts Nefi and Corey every game from here on out. By the end of these 100 or so plate appearances I expect everyone, except for Dusty, will be completely disenthralled with the idea that either of these two can play more than a utility role on a major league team. And I expect Dusty will play them through end of the season. I surmise from Dusty's grumpy response to the media about playing time for Murton and Cedeno, a media who are desperately looking for something to write about then another Cubs'loss or another Corey 0-4 for 3K, that he has already made a judgement on Murton and that is that Murton cannot be a regular outfielder on a Dusty team (unlike Corey). He apparently does not like Murton's defense, doesn't think he will hit righthanders, and, even if he does, will not hit with power. Likewise I think he judge's Nefi to be the superior player over Cedeno. And Dusty is never wrong, right Dusty has shown an incredible, irrational stubborness, about his decisions, whether putting Hawkins in as the closer or starting Nefi/Corey 1-2 from late May to early July. It takes an awful lot of reality to change Dusty from a path he has decided on, and right now he has decided that his best chance to getting back to .500 is playing the very players who have gotten him into this fix. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. Finally, I guess I should be glad we got something for Hollingsworth, but frankly the Cubs have made many of these little trades with Atlanta over the years and Atlanta has never surrendered a player that has amounted to more than a warm bucket of spit. I see no reason for this one to be different.

AQC, Buerhle accused Maddux of throwing a spitball. CFIG, From what I heard Murton will get substantial PT. Of course Baker could put Macias in there to try to get fired. Quevedo was a big prospect when we got him from ATL of course he was a big eater too.

Awww Hollandsworth is gone. He should of never been signed in the first place. He sucks in the field with his rubber arm and 1 month doesnt make up for 10 years of being a worthless veteran. Good riddance to this garbage of a player. But I bet you will never see Atlanta double switching Holly into the OF as a defensive upgrade like Baker does on a regular basis.

Trading Holly for anything was a worthwhile move. Of course, the CUbs should have traded him long ago and could have gotten more for him...but you can't trade the past. Even if the players teh Cubs got are 1/1000 longshots to provide an value to the big league club, its better than nothing, which is the only alternative.

hollandsworth was not good this year. he was, however, misused by our resident idiot rev johnny b. he's a good guy off the bench/spot starter. not a # 5 hitter playing left field on a regular basis. once his confidence fell apart, he was done. my take on next year is that we'll be a mix of youth and vets-aiming for a championship. we have way too much money and not enough prospects left to just re-build. I expect Hendry to make several TRADES as opposed to going heavy free agent. The trade market this summer sucked. I expect alot of activity this winter. Keep in mind this will require RISK. A team taking a chance on CPat for instance will be sending someone we'll be taking a chance on. That said, I'd say Murton or Pie will compete for one OF spot as will Cedeno and Fontentot for one infield spot. They just don't want too young of a team but they do want to infuse some youth. I pick the LA Dodgers as our most likely trading partner. I think Jeff Weaver, JD Drew and possibly Jeff Kent are guys that might be coming to Chicago. I also predict that Hendry will trade Jerome Williams, Corey Patterson and at least one of our more coveted prospects this off season. No pain, no gain. When its all said and done, we'll have one new starter, 2 new of's and one new middle relief guy. They'll make a run at Damon but they won't get him. They'll make a run at Wagner and they might get him. Wagner would make Dempster extremely valuable in several ways: he could fill a rotation spot if someone gets hurt or he could go into the setup role. Just remember all the prospects we get this week-if we trade burnitz, rusch, walker...could be part of this winters' big trades.

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.