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

Last Night's Cubs Game with Visual Aids

By now, most of your are familiar with Fangraphs fantastic Win Probability Added charts that chart the chances for a team to win a game in real-time. Here's last night's exciting, albeit ultimately disappointing loss:

Cubs-Cardinals WPA graph

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That though misses the big story of Alfonso Soriano's escapades and his effect on us fans watching the game. So we're introducing TCR's CFPA (Cubs Fan Popularity Added):

CFPASoriano050208

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cubs fans were displeased enough with Soriano to start the game after his 0-4 return from the DL and questionable defense in the 9th. He didn't do much to help by swinging at the first pitch against Wainwright last night. Things started turning around with an RBI fielder's choice in the third, but then it fell apart in the 7th. He misplayed a pop-fly by Pujols and then missed another that lead to the Cardinals third run, putting him into the "Neifi Rage" range, which by TCR calculations has only happened about twenty times in Cubs history. The most prominent being Neifi's entire career with the Cubs and the last season of Dusty Baker. But things can change quickly in baseball, and when he obliterated an Isringhausen fastball to tie it into the ninth, most was forgiven.

Comments

Love it. I'm going to guess that if you created a long-term graph of Cubs fans' feelings about Soriano, it would never settle on the "Content" line. A function of his being so hot and cold and alternately doing marvelous, game-changing things and doing ridiculous, hard-to-believe-you're-seeing-it things. Also the big paycheck is certainly a factor in how he's judged. Well done, Rob.

from Rotoworld... James Russell made his Double-A debut on Friday and allowed one run in six innings for Tennessee. Russell nearly matched Clayton Kershaw, who allowed an unearned run in 6 2/3 innings for Jacksonville. The son of former closer Jeff, Russell was a 14th-round pick last year, though he got third-round money to sign. He was 1-1 with a 2.30 ERA, 25 H and 14/7 K/BB ratio in 27 1/3 IP for Single-A Daytona before moving up. His excellent changeup gives him something he can use to combat right-handers, so he's a solid prospect even if he doesn't get many strikeouts.

I think we'd all be more willing to accept his very, very inconsistent offensive contributions if he were more consistent at what players are supposed to be consistent at, defense for one. He's been in left field for over two years now, why does he sometimes look so awful out there? I love his arm, but other than that his defense leaves a lot to be desired and it may have cost the Cubs the game last night. When you get paid like a superstar fans expect you to perform like a superstar whenever it is within your control. Now, it's completely unreasonable to ask him to go out and hit a homerun every game, but work on his defense and get someone to help him learn to read fly balls?

http://deadspin.com/385574/friday-night-blights For those caught up in the Bissinger vs Leitch fiasco...thought this was a good take. One more thing: Hopefully, last night's train wreck will finally put an end to this whole sports media/mainstream media battle against the sports blogging community. This has always been, in my opinion, a completely rudderless debate from both sides: These are two entirely seperate media. Bloggers are not putting newspaper columnists (or print media) out of business — bad newspapering is. These two worlds don't have to co-exist and were never intended to be that way. To me, blogging and internet writing, by and large, is rooted in comedy and opinion. That's it. One doesn't invalidate the other. Personally, never got too caught up in the whole debate. Newspapers and beat writers are just upset because they're losing money and there's more than 2-3 opinions out there now. Mostly I feel that they expect what they write to be accepted as canon on the subject and aren't use to criticism, especially the instant criticism that happens on the Internet. And I don't ever care to do what Sullivan or Miles do and I'm sure they don't care to do what I do.

I know this is a little premature but wow,do you think Dusty is wanting maybe a little revenge on us? The Reds flew in Mario Soto (nice vote of confindence for Dick Pole), to help Johnny Cueto who has been moved to start against us on Monday. The Harangutang pitches Tuesday vs. Z, and I think The Rock Star is pitching Wednesday's day game. Much is being made of this series in Cincinnati. All this attention is kinda making the Cubs seem gosh, important to Marty, Dusty and the boys. I will be at the games. No, I won't boo Dusty or C-Pat because I don't care. But I might just blow kisses to Marty. Here's hoping Cubs fans fill their stadium despite it being a weekday series. Afterall, we're just a bunch of unemployed drunks.

I got into it awhile back with Rick Telander, who usually comes off as just another Medill doofus with illusions of grandeur. The responses he gave back concerning the many inaccuracies he regularly posts in the Sun - Times are truly hilarious; the guy's a walking dinousaur, and doesn't seem to be aware of it. Leave them to their own devices, no need to help them seal their own demise.

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • 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...