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

NL Central Smackdown : Catchers

Third Basemen | Poll
Shortstops | Poll
2nd Basemen | Poll
1st Basemen | Poll

Before we head to the outfield, we take on the field generals. A difficult position to evaluate with the numbers just because there's just no great way to numerically measure a catcher's defense, leadership and ability to work with his pitching staff...but we'll do our best. I did want to note, I'll keep going with these through the weekend just so we can finish this up by early next week. If you take the weekends off from TCR, be sure to check back Monday and vote on the polls you missed.

The backstops after the jump...

Player 3-Year Warp-3 Average
3 Year Warp-3 Projection
Rob's Ranking
Geovany Soto
N/A
4.5
2
Jason Kendall
3.47 1.1 4
Yadier Molina 4.33 3.03
1
JR Towles
N/A 3.67
3
David Ross
3.13
1.63 6
Javier Valentin
2.25
0.87 6
Paul Bako 0.27 0.55 6
Ronny Paulino 4.4 (2 years) 2.87 5
Ryan Doumit
3.1 (2 years) 1.57
5


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Justification: Have I mentioned that I did these before the season started? I'll admit I was a bit skeptical on our boy Soto to start the year and that Yadier Molina entering his age 25 season with decent walk to strikeout totals for his career (138 K:104 BB) might be ready to break out for a few decent seasons with the bat to compliment his exceptional defensive skills. That still might be the case, but Soto has clearly shown he belongs in the majors and ready to take the top spot in the division. Fellow rookie catcher JR Towles hasn't started off quite as well (197/338/443), but it looks like he has a bright future as well. Kendall gets knocked by the Baseball Prospectus projections, but he can still get on-base and is chock full of veteran savvy. The Pirates seem to still be deciding between Ronny Paulino and Ryan Doumit, and although the projections favor Paulino (mostly due to playing time), Doumit's making a case with his bat (159 OPS+ at the moment). Whichever Reds catcher stakes the claim for the most playing time will end comfortably on the bottom of these rankings.

There's another poll for you guys to fill out below this and I'll leave the old polls open until we finish this. I'll keep the series going through the weekend so we can finish this up early next week.

Please note, you do have to register to vote. This isn't some scheme to solicit registrations, it's just an anomaly of the site and the poll software that's built in. Trust me, I'd love to fix it, but I haven't found another piece of integrated software that does these ranking polls which I really like. Plus if you register, you get a better user experience as I tend to test everything as a registered user and you get an uncached version of the site. You can also view the results of the poll after you vote, instead of having to wait until I close it. It takes all of two minutes to register and unlikes some sites, I'll be more than happy to cancel your account if you wish. You'll never receive any spam from us either...promise.

Comments

Maybe I am biased, but I think Kendall should be fifth, maybe 6th. He can't block a pitch or throw anyone out, and offensively all he gives you is singles (and last year, he didn't even give Oakland that). Yeah, he is a veteran presence, but isn't that what coaches are for? Alot also depends on the the answer to: Can Soto maintain anywhere close to his current pace? While I think a 1000+OPS is probably not sustainable, anything over .800 and he should have the top spot on his list.

I voted: Barrett, Molina, Soto, Doumit/Paulino (Mainly Doumit), Kendall, Towles, Reds What a crappy position for the division. I'm pretty sure Soto on down ranks last in any other division, although Soto has been impressive to start the year.

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

You'd really take Barrett over Soto at this point? The division has one young established catcher who is mediocre with the bat but fantastic with the glove (Molina), two up and coming offensive catchers (Soto and Towles), one fringe prospect who at least appears to be a decent hitter (Doumit), and then scrubs in Kendall and whoever the Reds are running out there these days. It's not a great division for catchers, but if Soto performs he could be up there with Russell Martin and Brian McCann, and who else has really good catchers? It's a position that wears on the body and carries a lot of responsibility that distracts from things like batting practice. How many other catchers would you rather have on the Cubs at this point than Soto? I'm sure you can name a few, but I think if we had to list starting Catchers in the majors, Soto would probably be in the top 10 most valuable--if we believe he's going to continue to hit.

doesn't look promising for tonight

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

The field will be soaked from this afternoon, but at 6 PM the chance of rain drops to 20% and eventually to 0% a couple of hours later. So we might get the game. I'd expect a late start though if we do.

the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is reporting that Yovani Gallardo tore his ACL when he collided with Reed Johnson last night. It may have already been torn, but Yost is an idiot for leaving him in. You hate to see players get hurt, especially good ones. Last night's loss was depressing, and Kerry Wood's struggles at closing are troubling, but neither of them may be the biggest story coming out of that game. If Gallardo is out for the year, then Suppan has to stay in the rotation and Dave Bush is back in it. The Brewers' rotation, as well as their overall pitching depth, would suddenly be even that much more suspect. http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/archive/2008/05/02/gallardo-has-torn-…

[ ]

In reply to by Andrew

'Doh!!!!!!!!!

Suppan wasn't going anywhere after just one bad outing, but yeah, Bush should be back up. They just need Sheets to take his yearly trip to the DL for a few months and that should end their season.

Now we just have to stop Duncan from teaching his pitchers how to scuff baseballs and we're set. :)

[ ]

In reply to by Chifan

Pitcher has to cover on any play on that side. it had nothing to do with fielder. it was a fluke.

when we need him?! Is an ACL potentially season ending in most cases? In case you missed this tidbit: "The last Brewers player to sustain a torn ACL was infielder Tony Graffanino..."

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

From having ACL surgery myself, the recovery time is a minimal 5 months, and even that wasn't at a big league level. I started to briskly run at 4 months and couldn't sprint until 6 months, so I'd expect him to be done for. ACL i'm going to say is the season but he'll be good to go when pitchers/cathcers report in the late winter.

just saw the news on Gallardo... I think this is fair retribution for Braun's comments post-game about Cub fans. When I saw the collision he was on the ground in severe pain so I thought it odd that Yost kept him in the game. Reminded me of the collision with #22 and Marcus Giles. I thought Gallardo might have fractured his patella/kneecap but an acute ACL tear makes sense. CPat tore his ACL just before the all star game in 2003 by stepping on first base awkwardly, running out a grounder as I recall and he was back the next season (except he was never the same, although I doubt anyone blames his ACL reconstruction). In the old days they might rehab it and let him pitch through this season wearing a brace and then reconstruct the ACL after the year. That's not how things are handled currently in pro athletes. As a pitcher if the knee acts unstable he will have a tough time pushing off of a mound. The ACL is a ligament that keeps the tibia from shifting forward on the femur which when it's not functional leads to that kind of instability. Plus it's common to have a secondary meniscus tear either at the time of injury or in a delayed fashion if athletics are continued on an ACL unstable knee. So this news means he certainly will be out for the season. So it's usual now to reconstruct the ACL but they usually wait a couple of weeks for the acute swelling to subside, this lets the knee get some preop therapy to work out the stiffness from the acute injury. There are multiple techniques for the source of graft including middle 1/3 of the patellar tendon, hamstrings or even cadaver graft (several sources are used such as achilles, ant. tibialis or hamstrings). I'll work on a more detailed writeup over the weekend.

[ ]

In reply to by Stevens

whatever braun said i'd bet the fans did worse. from the bleachers to the seats lining the field there's a lot of ANGRY assholes coming to wrigley over the years. they paid for a ticket so they get to scream at players...even their own. hell, its not really anger as much as it is they think they're contributing to their baseball experience via their right to scream obsenities and gestures at anyone they please reguardless of the 100s around them that have to listen/see the crap. some people really do come for the game, not to get drunk and scream at millionaires so they can say "did you see Blah McBlah look at me when i called his mother an anal waste sucking whore? man, if the father of that group of 5 year olds would have shut up about me not being the center of the universe i would have really let McBlah have it. WOOOOOOOOOoooooooOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo!!!!" yeah...

http://chicagosportsblogs.com/mikej/archive/2008/05/01/are-cubs-fans-al… After Kerry Wood blew another save to the Brewers, Braun was quoted as saying how sweet it was to come back and beat the team in front of these fans, talking all about how rowdy they are and stuff. (that might not be an exact quote but it captures the spirit of it) ...still not appropriate IMHO to comment in this way after a "painful" victory even if he hates the fans. It Tempts fate. Which isn't worth fates consequences as it tends to have an evil sense of humor.

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

extremely well presented article... "So that's it in a nutshell. The Cubs fans at the "world's largest beer garden" tend to be a little more douche-riffic than other ballparks but it's really just a numbers game and not an accurate representation of the fanbase in general. " i can totally buy that wrapup. still, i have friends that have gone for a long time and it's not just them becoming bitchy old men...they have all noticed a distinct "football tailgate" type aggression coming out. people have always bitched about their players and other team's but the amount of venom and non-baseball-related taunting is definately on the rise. i dont think many players mind being ragged on for their play or assumptions of their play or even some off-field stuff, but there's a lot more stuff that's crossing well beyond the "your mom/wife is a...." mark into totally unnecessary crap. at least the people behind the plate at wrigley arent on the "distract the pitcher freethrow basketball style" thing like some other parks.

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.