Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full) 

42 players are at MLB Spring Training 

31 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE at MLB Spring Training, and nine players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 
11 players are MLB Spring Training NON-ROSTER INVITEES (NRI) 

Last updated 3-17-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 17
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
Daniel Palencia
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

NRI PITCHERS: 5 
Colten Brewer 
Carl Edwards Jr 
* Edwin Escobar 
* Richard Lovelady 
* Thomas Pannone 

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

NRI CATCHERS: 2  
Jorge Alfaro 
Joe Hudson 

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

NRI INFIELDERS: 3 
David Bote 
Garrett Cooper
* Dominic Smith

OUTFIELDERS: 5
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

NRI OUTFIELDERS: 1 
* David Peralta

OPTIONED:
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, RHP 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, RHP 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

 



Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Welcome to The NEW Cub Reporter!

On July 21st, 2001, Christian started this site somewhere on the World Wide Web with a post simply titled, "Welcome to the Cub Reporter." About six and a half years later, the NEW Cub Reporter is born. Yes, the rumors are true, we've moved to a new site and to our own domain name (finally). If anything, we'll be easier to find now at www.thecubreporter.com. I suppose the first question will be: Why the move?

While we appreciated the opportunities afforded to us at MVN.com and all the fine people working over there, we're just not the conforming types. Plus, we were very anxious to take on the headache of maintaining our own website. Mostly though, we just wanted to do our own thing and be able to swear whenever we wanted.

The second question you might be asking is: What's the ultimate answer to life, the Universe and Everything? Answer: 42 (it's even in our FAQ).

Third question(damn, what's with all the nagging): What's new about the site?

Plenty my friends...plenty.

REGISTER/USER ACCOUNT

 

The first thing you'll want to do is register for the site. The links are in the upper left or below an article. It's simple enough, choose a username, enter your email of choice and you'll receive a verification email. Follow the instructions and then change the password provided by the system and you're in. Now you may be tempted not to register if you don't comment too often, but I strongly encourage that you do, indeed register. First, only registered users are allowed to comment, but nearly as important, registered users will get the uncached version of the site. In order to do our best to speed up things around here, guests are served a cached version of the site which will not contain the latest updates.

In the upper left, you'll see a box with your username in it. You'll want to check out the "My Account" link. The first tab labeled "View" just tells you how long you've been a registered user. Under the "Edit" tab though" you can change your email address or password if you desire. If you want to add a signature to your comments, you can add it here. We do ask that you either bold or italicize your signature to offset it from your the main content of your comments. You can use the tags <em></em> for italics or <strong></strong> to accomplish that. As soon as I figure out how to make the system do it automatically, I'll let you know.

There's also an option to have a personal contact form. If you want other users to be able to email you, leave it checked. Do not fear, your email address is never displayed. Finally, there's an option to change your time zone as well and any time references on the site should follow that.

If you experience any problems trying to register, please drop me an email right away and I'll do my best to fix it for you. Please include the email address you registered with and the username.

FRONT PAGE/SIDEBARS

Now that your logged-in, let's take a spin through the site. The menu bar up top is pretty self-explanatory and we'll touch on some of those at a later date, To say the least, it's incomplete at the moment, think of this as TCR v0.5 Beta, we'll hopefully be close to TCR v1.0 by Opening Day.

One of the new layout features is a "fluid width" middle column. If you go ahead and try and resize your Internet browser and drag it from left to right, you'll notice how the sidebars stay the same size, but the middle column expands or shrinks depending on the size of your browser window. A little more room for our posts and main content.

If you wish to increase or decrease the size of the font, most browsers will let you do that automatically. It generally is either the Control key (PC) or Command/Apple Key(Mac) and the + or - sign to increase or decrease the font size.

You'll notice under the headlines of each story, the author's byline followed by the date and time of the post and the categories of the post. You can click on the categories and it'll bring up all the other articles under that category. Underneath each post is the number of comments on an article plus a new feature that will tell you how many new comments since your last visit. You'll now never miss a chance to get in the last word.

Moving to the sidebars, you'll notice in your "Navigation" Block in the upper left, something labeled "Quick Links". Simply a few links that we think everyone will find handy, especially for our comment discussions. A quick rundown of the rest of the sidebar content:

Featured Post - Somewhere to highlight the latest and greatest post. Makes us writers feel less guilty if we want to just blog about a little something and still feature one of our more in-depth columns.

Gameday Weather - Self-explanatory.

TCR Approved - We'll cycle through some products that we feel you might like, books, DVD's, apparel. Afterall, we do now have to pay the bills. Don't be shy about clicking on the google ads on the left or footer as well.

Vote! - This will display the latest poll. Polls though will also have a front page entry where you can comment.

Site Search - Self-explanatory, it should search our archives over at MVN though as well, through the magic of Google.

Player Search - Search Baseball Reference if you wish. I'll try and add a Fangraphs one eventually, I was just having problems with the size of the graphic and our sidebars.

Archives - Right now, it's just got some posts from about early January. Hopefully (Maybe), we'll get the rest of our archives all hosted locally. If you want to access past months, just click on the current month and it'll take you to a full page view where you can access past months.

COMMENTS

The comment system probably went through the biggest changes. Most of that is due to just how our new software handles comments (Drupal if you must know). As mentioned earlier, underneath each story you'll either see "Add New Comment" or the number of comments left on an article. A new feature is that it should tell you how many new comments have been left since you last visited. If you click on the number of total comments, it'll take you to the first comment on the article. If you click on the number of new comments since you last visited, it'll take you to the first new comment.

I imagine the biggest concern over the comments is that there is no longer an option to view them in a pop-up box. Unfortunately the software we used to build this, DOES NOT natively allow for pop-up comments, so all comments now are in a full page view. At the moment, we don't have the resources (meaning money) to code that any differently. We hope to bring that feature back one day, but please know that most websites out there do not have that feature for a variety of reasons.

If you happen to be the first user to comment, you'll see a dialog box with your signature already placed in the comment box. You'll notice comments now have a "Subject" and "Comment". Most folks just type the first few words of there comment in the subject line and the rest in the comment box. Most folks will be happy to see the "Preview" option is back. Below the comment box, you'll see some basic instructions. Web page addresses will be automatically linked and truncated (past 50 characters), so no need to learn the <a> tag, although you can use it if you wish. There are only five tags that can be currently used in the comments: <em> for italics, <strong> for bold, <a> for links, and <cite> and <code>. Those last two I may get rid of and if there's something else people feel should be allowed, let me know.

Moving on, once there's at least one comment on a post, you should see a series of drop-down menus labeled "Comment Viewing Options". The defaults are "Threaded View - Expanded", "Date - Oldest First", "150 Comments Per Page", but each person can tailor those to their individual preferences. You can play around with the settings as you wish, but the comments are now set up so that you can reply directly to another user's comment without having to do a lot of cutting and pasting. We STRONGLY RECOMMEND that if you do use the "Reply" button that you copy and paste the title of the comment that you are replying to into your subject box and add Re: in front of it (okay, still a little cutting and pasting). So if there's a post with the subject "Soriano", your reply would look like "Re: Soriano". The reason is that if a user chooses one of the flat views, they'll know which comments are related to each other. I do hope to automate that in the near future.

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

Otherwise, it's business as usual. You will be seeing quite a few more articles from me in the very near future(once I recover from elbow surgery that I had yesterday). Getting this site up took up most of my writing time from me...you guys can decide whether that's good or bad. I did compile most of the prospects lists from this offseason, in case you want to stick to baseball talk today.

I did want to thank all my fellow writers for their patience, as the process of getting this site designed and ready to go took far longer than it should have. Also wanted to thank Steve at HotDrupal for saving us from a near server disaster...we were just days away from repeating the MVN fiasco that plagued us the last time we moved. Hopefully I didn't just jinx everything...

We do hope you enjoy the site and feel free to contact us with any suggestions. This is really just the tip of the iceberg though, and we do think everyone will be thrilled with the new site, the new look, and the new features.

PS - If you happen to have any experience with Drupal or web applications in general, particularly CSS stylesheets, we(I) could always use the help ,especially if you're willing to help out for free or for a very, very small fee.

Tags

Comments

Love the site! Good job!

Good move, you guys aren't letting the man hold you down. Fuck MVN!! I can swear now, right? :) Go Cubs!!

I'm glad to see you all made the move from MVN. The site looks great!!

This is some serious digital sexiness.

nice site change. maybe i'll comment more. nah, probly not.

Well done.

Its too bad you moved since I enjoyed the other MVN blogs that were in one place. Good luck. Since you guys are free to do what you want. Can AZ Phil stick some wireless webcams up at Fitch Park etc. so the rest of us can see what he sees.

Nice job. I like the Quick Links for people looking for real actual data to back up their (various) arguments.

[ ]

In reply to by SheffieldCornelia

that was the idea...I'll switch them up from time to time.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

you can add the ESPN MLB Stats page as they have some real good stat breakdowns that baseball-reference doesn't have.

The new site looks great!

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

Drinks on me in Parachat, this afternoon!

Way to go guys! And a warm welcome back to Preview function. No more typoes!

Longtime lurker at the old site. Love this new look. The RSS feed seems to work nicer than the old site's as well.

I love it, Rob (and everyone else)! I knew I held on to this domain name for years for a good reason.

[ ]

In reply to by Stevens

I've been away so long that I don't have the feel for what's going on with the team anymore, and the rest of the guys are doing a great job. That said, I always get excited around Opening Day, and now that we're here, who knows?

I love the new site smell.

So replies to comments don't show up in chronological order but directly under the comment they reply to? Is this a setting I can change?

[ ]

In reply to by Indiana JJ

At the top of the comments there are different options (right under "Comment Viewing Options"). If you don't want the threaded comments, choose one of the two "flat comments" options. _____________________________ visit the mindful mission.

[ ]

In reply to by Indiana JJ

I believe if you change your viewing preference to "Flat List-Expanded," you'll get what you're looking for.

Yep, change to "flattened" view in the drop down above the comments. And make sure you do "Re: Whatever" when you're replying, so those of us using flat view can make sense of it..

[ ]

In reply to by vorare

is I found a plugin that will fill in the subject box automatically if you hit reply. Will implement shortly...

The new site looks very good.

I voted "who are you people?" Kidding, nice site. Excuse me while I try some tags. What the heck is the em tag? What the heck is the strong tag? What the heck is the cite tag? What the heck is the code tag? ------ Ryno http://wolf-report.blogspot.com

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

gonna get rid of the cite tag, thought it would indent, but italicizes.

maybe blockquote?

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

RobG: Just curious, why the "em" tag instead "i" for italics?

[ ]

In reply to by Timmer

em was already there as a default to be honest. I'll play around with these later.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Hey Rob: How about replacing the code tag with the PRE tag? I think that would let us organize stat tables in a monospaced font without having to manually enter the space character.

[ ]

In reply to by vorare

Good idea, wonder if you could do it with code and &nbsp Guess who.  Year   Team   G   GS    W    L  2005   STL   33   32   13   14  2006   STL   33   33   14   16  2007   CHC   34   33   12    9 ------ Ryno http://wolf-report.blogspot.com

[ ]

In reply to by vorare

Will test them out...

 thanks everone for the tips...

there's a post up on our prospects and will put up a game thread later.

Pretty sure that's the name of a porno I saw once.

Finally, no more spooks looking over tcr shoulders. Truth will always replace Fact...if you wait long enough

Being unfashionably late to the beta-testing, I just created my first "story" and saved it without it publishing yet, or without it blowing up the new website, or without it accidentally killing anyone, or anything. I am the greatest blogger EVER!

when you click on the text "Quick Links" on the user box top left it takes you to a non-existent page "http://quicklinks/" Truth will always replace Fact...if you wait long enough

[ ]

In reply to by 10man

Fixed...thanks.

I miss BIG Names as a subject. It makes it easier to skim...I know who I do and don't want to read:)

[ ]

In reply to by The Joe

yeah, it is pretty hard to hunt for the author of each comment.

 

still, overall, I give the roll out a 9.5.  Has a good beat, infectious groove. 

I root for the Cubs, how about you? The Joe "TCR Keeper Champion"

It says signature will be displayed at the end of comment, but it shows up in the top of the comment box...do i have to move it to the bottom every time?

[ ]

In reply to by The Joe

I hit enter a few times before my signature under my account, that moves it down in the comment box. The Joe - 2007 TCR Keeper Champion

Comments.

-Better? The Joe - 2007 TCR Keeper Champion

congrats for the change, its really good

roses are red violets are blue baseball is back and t/c/r is new ! maybe the new site will be the impetus for a 2008 world series victory!?!?!

The site looks fabulous! BTW, I read your Bio. Does this make me your mistress, or your second wife?

-Rob's wife is here! Wait...Rob recently dis-invited me to his wedding. The Joe - 2007 TCR Keeper Champion

...on your new independence. Looks awesome. Thank you for all the fine hard work you do to help us Cubs fans enjoy our baseball experience even more. I appreciate your talents and efforts. It Happens Every Spring in my pants.

-Sorry Rob, I didn't have time to read your comment...I was busy saving Abraham Lincoln. The Joe - 2007 TCR Keeper Champion

-When I entered Parachat, I was given this message: "Welcome the new TCR!!!" Is that intentional? The Joe - 2007 TCR Keeper Champion

I like the idea of doing your own thing. About a month ago, I thought it would be nice to have the newest comments on top, and Rob G. told me that they could not because of the MVN format. Congrats.

[ ]

In reply to by Adam

I also like how we can edit our posts so that if we make a typo, we don't have to make another post to correct it.

[ ]

In reply to by Adam

Actually that`will be disappearing...a little too much power for you guys. There is a patch I want to install that puts a time limit on the edit button for users, so you can only edit your own comment for like five minutes. Unfortunately it's written for an older version of Drupal and I got a fatal error when I applied it. I'm in the process of trying to find someone to update it.

-I was given this message: "We are currently performing maintenance operations. During this time, sections of the site will not be available. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause." The Joe - 2007 TCR Keeper Champion

-Yeah, we don't want anyone revising history...without a time machine. The Joe - 2007 TCR Keeper Champion

Congrats, guys, on the move. You were better than MVN anyway. Now maybe you can work on fixing Sam Zell?

Thank the Lord. Now I can resume my unholy use of colorful metaphors! What a fucking relief!

Let me just say this site is so NOT 3/44!!! Congrats

I hadn't heard any of the rumors...I was shocked! Excellent work, Rob! It's like watching as one's child moves into his own apartment for the first time...except that I've only known the child for like 9 months...and I don't actually have any children. Also, I never knew the world of comment previews before. It's pretty sweet. I never tried using tags before either.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    SF snags b.snell...2/62m

  • Cubster (view)

    AZ Phil: THAT is an awesome report worth multiple thanks. I’m sure it will be worth reposting in an “I told you so” in about 2-3 years.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The actual deadline to select a post-2023 Article XX-B MLB free agent signed to 2024 minor league contract (Cooper, Edwards, and Peralta) to the MLB 40-man roster is not MLB Opening Day, it is 12 PM (Eastern) this coming Sunday (3/24). 

    However, the Cubs could notify the player prior to the deadline that the player is not going to get added to the 40 on Sunday, which would allow the player to opt out early. Otherwise the player can opt out anytime after the Sunday deadline (if he was not added to the 40 by that time). 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Today is an off day for both the Cubs MLB players and the Cubs minor league players.  

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    For those of you keeping track, so far nine players have been called up to Mesa from the Cubs Dominican Academy for Minor League Camp and they will be playing in the ACL in 2024: 

    * bats or throws left 

    Angel Cepeda, INF 
    * Miguel Cruz, P
    Yidel Diaz, C 
    * Albert Gutierrez, 1B
    Fraiman Marte, P  
    Francis Reynoso, P (ex-1B) 
    Derniche Valdez, INF 
    Edward Vargas, OF 
    Jeral Vizcaino, P 

    And once again, despite what you might read at Baseball Reference and at milb.com, Albert Gutierrez is absolutely positively a left-handed hitter (only), NOT a right-handed hitter.

    Probably not too surprisingly, D. Valdez was the Cubs #1 prospect in the DSL last season, Cepeda was the DSL Cubs best all-around SS prospect not named Derniche Valdez, Gutierrez was the DSL Cubs top power hitting prospect not named Derniche Valdez, E. Vargas was the DSL Cubs top outfield prospect (and Cepeda and E. Vargas were also the DSL Cubs top two hitting prospects), Y. Diaz was the DSL Cubs top catching prospect, and M. Cruz was the DSL Cubs top pitching prospect. 

    F. Marte (ex-STL) and J. Vizcaino (ex-MIL) are older pitchers (both are 22) who were signed by the Cubs after being released by other organizations and then had really good years working out of the bullpen for the Cubs in the DSL last season. 

    The elephant in the room is 21-year old Francis Reynoso, a big dude (6'5) who was a position player (1B) at the Cardinals Dominican Academy for a couple of years, then was released by STL in 2022, and then signed by the Cubs and converted to a RHP at the Cubs Dominican Academy (and he projects as a high-velo "high-leverage" RP in the states). He had a monster year for the DSL Cubs last season (his first year as a pitcher). 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    DJL: The only players who definitely have opt outs are Cooper, Edwards, and Peralta (Opening Day, 5/1, and 6/1), and that's because they are post-2023 Article XX-B MLB free agents who signed 2024 minor league contracts and (by rule) they get those opt outs automatically. 

    Otherwise, any player signed to a 2024 minor league contract - MIGHT or - MIGHT NOT - have an opt out in their contract, but it is an individual thing, and if there are contractual opt outs the opt out(s) might not necessarily be Opening Day. It could be 5/1, or 6/1, or 7/1 (TBD).

    Because of their extensive pro experience, the players who most-likely have contractual opt outs are Alfaro, Escobar, and D. Smith, but (again), not necessarily Opening Day. 

    Also, just because a player has the right to opt out doesn't mean he will. 

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    I love the idea that Madrigal heads to Iowa in case Morel can’t handle third.

    The one point that intrigues me here is Cooper over Smith. I feel like the Cubs really like Smith and don’t want to lose him. Could be wrong. He def seems like an opt out if he misses the opening day roster

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Childersb3: Both Madrigal and Wisdom can be optioned without any restriction. Their consent is not required. 

    They both can be outrighted without restriction, too (presuming the player is not claimed off waivers), but if outrighted they can choose to elect free agency (immediately, or deferred until after the end of the MLB season).

    If the player is outrighted and elects free-agency immediately he forfeits what remains of his salary.

    If he accepts the assignment and defers free agency until after the conclusion of the season, he continues to get his salary, and he could be added back to the 40 anytime prior to becoming a free-agent (club option). 

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Phil, 
    Madrigal and Wisdom can or cannot refuse being optioned to the Minors?
    If they can refuse it, wouldn't they elect to leave the Cubs org?

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    In my opinion, the biggest "affirmative" mistake the Cubs made in the off-season (that is, doing something they should not have done), was blowing $9M in 2024 AAV on Hector Neris. What the Cubs actually need is an alternate closer to be in the pen and available to close if Alzolay pitched the day before (David Robertson would have been perfect), because with his forearm issue last September, I would be VERY wary of over-using Alzolay. I'm not even sure I would pitch him two days in a row!  

    And of course what the Cubs REALLY need is a second TOR SP to pair with Justin Steele. That's where the Cubs are going to need to be willing to package prospects (like the Padres did to acquire Dylan Cease, the Orioles did to acquire Corbin Burnes, and the Dodgers did to acquire Tyler Glasnow). Obviously those ships have sailed, but I would say right now the Cubs need to look very hard at trying to acquire LHSP Jesus Luzardo from the Marlins (and maybe LHP A. J. Puk as well).