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

Cubs Week In Quotations

False Modesty
"I'm not the ace. All five (starters) are the ace."
- Carlos Zambrano

"To me? On the first and 15th when the paycheck comes, that tells you the ace."
- Lou Piniella

We're Scared That You're Under Contract Through 2014
''It's more I'm scared because I was running a lot today and it was a little cold out. I think I'm OK. I have to play a little more and feel confident about my leg.''
- Alfonso Soriano

Questions Such As, "How Much Do You Hate Kevin Orie?"
"I've answered more questions about [the 20-K game] in the last three, four days than the week after it happened."
-Kerry Wood


And Then Came the Diamondbacks...
"We're getting people on base, it's just a question of getting them in more consistently.We talk about all these numbers, but the only numbers I enjoy talking about are wins and losses, and lately the losses are greatly outnumbering the wins, and I'm not too pleased with that."
- Lou Piniella earlier in the week

Well, We Started Playing Better
"I maintain we're going to play better. But I also maintain two things, that the division has gotten better, and two, teams enjoy beating the Cubs a lot more than they did last year. I see it. I see how excited St. Louis was when they beat us, I saw how excited Milwaukee was when they beat us."
- Lou Piniella

In Case You Haven't Heard, Zambrano Likes to Hit
"The other day when I took him out after eight innings, he wasn't happy. But he was unhappiest the most because he wasn't getting his at-bat in the bottom of the inning."
- Lou Piniella on Carlos Zambrano

''I've used him to pinch hit and pinch run. The first thing he tells me when a runner is on base, 'You want me to hit or bunt?' I don't think he knows the bunt sign.''
- Lou Piniella on Carlos Zambrano

''He's an athlete. You should see him run with a soccer ball. He's fun to watch.''
- Lou Piniella on Carlos Zambrano

"What I've noticed this year in the National League is that the pitchers in general are swinging the bats better than I've seen in prior years, last year, for sure. A pitcher can really help himself if they can put the ball in play or they can bunt a guy over. It's a big help."
- Lou Piniella

Better to Be Lucky Than Good
"Put it this way: He wouldn't sell many hitting tapes if he were the instructor. It's choppy at best. I think he's trying a little bit of a Fukudome swing, running to first base and then swinging. … Lilly better just keep pitching."
- Lou Piniella

"He had his 'Will Clark' stance going today."
- Derrek Lee on Ted Lilly

"That was fun. I think [Haren] threw it right into my swing."
- Ted Lilly

Not That There's Anything Wrong with That
"I will be wearing pink shoes and pink batting gloves, approved by MLB. This will be for breast cancer. It is a great thing; anything I can do for the people."
- Carlos Zambrano

The Club Needs You to Tank Your Start so Hill is Called Back Up
"Whatever the club needs me to do, I'm willing to do it. It's an unfortunate thing to me, because I think Rich Hill is a Major League pitcher. Right now, it's command issues. He'll be back up here soon. We need him to be where he needs to be to help us win."
- Jon Lieber before his start Wednesday

"It's just terrible pitching and I put my team in a hole right off the bat."
- Jon Lieber after that start

Must Have Watched Rich Hill and Sean Marshalls' games with a Mirror

"I don't think we have too many choices. That's why I like left-handers in our rotation, because it pitches into the strength of our right-handed bullpen."
- Lou Piniella

Who Else Texts Kasper During A Game?
"Ask [Len] Kasper -- I would text him all the time when he's on TV. I think I've only missed [watching] a couple of games. It's been hard just to watch. I sat on my bed, just as if I was here. It was hard. I just missed it."
-Scott Eyre

There Was No Joy in Game 2 Last Year
"I don't think at any point I've gotten a fastball by [Young]. Knowing he has good bat speed, it's a little hard-headed of me to try to beat him. We're competing, and that's the joy of it."
- Ted Lilly

And The Rest...
"Any time I have a man on second, I have a special sign for Ronny or [Mark DeRosa] or [Ryan] Theriot. I'm always paying attention to the runner at second and first. I like to do the best I can to get one, two, three out."
- Carlos Zambrano

"I've got 3 1/2 pitches that I can throw."
- Kerry Wood

Tags

Comments

"Terry Forster was athletic enough and a good enough hitter that he was often used as a pinch-hitter. He even found himself in right field in the 14th inning of a 1977 game" Fernando Valenzuela was also considered a good hitting pitcher in his day. His career line isn't that impressive (.200/.205/.262) but he managed 10 HRs so he must have had some power. I recall one game (think it was extra innings) when he had pinch hit and after several switches the Dodgers had only 7 position players left so they stuck Fernando in the outfield for the last inning. They moved him from right to left based on whether or not a righty or lefty was batting. Based on bbref, this must have been in 1982 - he's credited with 2/3 of an inning in right and 1/3 in left.

"I've got 3 1/2 pitches that I can throw." - Kerry Wood He must have saved those 1/2 pitches for the blown saves.

'He's an athlete. You should see him run with a soccer ball. He's fun to watch.'' - Lou Piniella on Carlos Zambrano I did a little research and apparently there is a Carlos Zambrano on the roster of the German football club FC Schalke 04...

carlos (we have five aces) ouch jason marquis an ace far from it. i like that the cubs are lining up pitchers stretching them out for starters between gallagher,hart ,hill,marshall lets see what they can do. if 2 work out then lou can do something with marquis i dont think lou is gonna have a lot of patience with him

These quotations remind me of why I'm a Z-fan. Just seems like a cool, fun guy, and a hell of a competitor and teammate.

[ ]

In reply to by Transmission

Z rules...break all the bats over your knee that you want and corkscrew yourself into the ground on every swing. I don't mind. Baseball is entertainment and people take some stuff far too seriously. Glad we have one of the true characters in the game to root for..

About the only thing that ever irritated me about Z was taking a swing at Barrett at last year.

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.