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

TCR Friday Notes

A little extra this week to get you through the three day weekend... UPDATE: Cubs signed infielder Tomas Perez to a minor league deal with a spring training invite. - If I had a vote for the Hall of Fame, it would have went to Cal Ripken Jr., Tony Gwynn, Mark McGwire, Andre Dawson, Goose Gossage, Bert Blyleven and Alan Trammell. I still can't forgive Lee Smith for Game 4 of the NLCS, so screw him on my imaginary ballot that doesn't count for anything. - Here's one that Cubs.com seemed to miss or just didn't care about. It seems pitcher Adam Harben (the bounty in the Phil Nevin trade) whom we just invited to spring camp had Tommy John surgery in October after a few games in the AFL. If you recall, he was removed from the 40-man roster during the offseason and part of the condition of him resigning with us on a minor league deal was that he'd get a spring training invite even though all he'll be doing is rehabbing at that point. That's an odd little series of events. Harben who was up there on some of the Twins prospects lists a year or two ago has been suffering from some loss of velocity on the fastball. We'll see if the surgery helps him regain some of that along with his prospect status. - A hat tip to "Buried Treasure" for this blurb from former Yank and author of the excellent "Ball Four", Jim Bouton.
Q: Do you really think we need a panel of people, including Bill James, to figure out statistics and steroids? In Ball Four, you talked about players in the 1960's taking pep pills called greenies. And if you have a panel that is going to evaluate statistics based on cheating, are you going to alter Gaylord Perry's numbers? (David Block- Brooklyn, NY) A: Greenies were performance enablers (usually to overcome the effects of hangovers), not enhancers. Gaylord Perry's spitters were in plain view, and the unwritten rule was that if you could master it and get away with it, more power to you. In any case, batters could factor spitball pitchers it into their play. Steroids, on the other hand, are a secret weapon that force non-users to take health risks in order to compete. Historical analogies - advantages or disadvantages due to shorter seasons, no night games, travel, racial barriers, etc. - aren't relevant because, in each case, players of a particular era played under the same conditions. What distorts statistics is unfair (and hidden) competition within the same era.
- As we all patiently wait for the gremlins to be removed from the servers, you can find a new blogroll by clicking on the "Friends" link underneath the mysterious "Authors" box to the right. The layout kind of sucks and the category headings are ginormous but I think you'll find some interesting stuff. - As I was poking around the web, there were a few members of the Cubs blog army that I found something worth reading, so I thought they deserved a shout out. So go check out Cubs Cafe, A Hundred Next Years, Wrigleyville23 and the (mostly) satirical Fire Lou Piniella! and say hi. - More Cubs blog news, former TCR writer Derek Smart has added Phil Bencomo to the writing staff of Cub Town, formerly of Cubbiepalooza. From Mr. Smart himself though, I found this bit of self-reflection good for a laugh-out loud moment:
One of the tendencies of the blogging community, something we do with regularity and lustful aplomb, is take comments by players/management/MSM writers that are, in our humble opinion, intellectually substandard, and with our combination of rapier wit, flawless logic, and overwhelmingly massive capacity for holding onto petty grudges, craft a response that leaves the originator bleeding and trembling jelly-like on the point of our word-swords (a construct we know is imaginary, since it requires the target to have read the salvo, and as all of us who read blogs know, nobody reads blogs).
- I've been meaning to mention this for months and I'm losing karma points each time I forget, but the good fellas at GROTA have put together a fund that they plan to present to Derrek Lee at the Cubs Convention to help with his Project 3000. If you have the means, help a fella and his family out.Donate to Project 3000! - If I get a moment before Sunday morning to look at some chat programs, I'll throw something up on Sunday for those who want to talk during the Bears game. Otherwise reader Chad has his own Bears chat site we can all congregate to as well. - Not to get all "The Bears Reporter" on you, but these articles on Rex Grossman from "Kissing Suzie Kolber" are some of the funniest reads I had all week. (NSFW most likely). - And your standard issue, Youtube clip of the week, this time Wrigley Field circa 1929. [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/U63LW6wV3no" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] I found that along with some old Bears footage over here along with a link to a converter program that allows you to download YouTube videos onto your own computer. Go Bears and we've got some new articles in the pipeline for the next two weeks starting on Tuesday, so be sure to check in if you can, you know, actually access the site.

Comments

is that a joke site or real? I can't imagine anyone publicly stating that, ouch!!! If it's for real, there's also a story about Ichiro getting out of Seattle after this year.

Worth a chuckle: "I'm not going to play until I'm 40," said [Pedro] Martinez, 35. "You're not going to spend your whole life on a career and not even have time for family or anything."

the "perez" with the minor league signing was tomas perez...also alex s. gonz. to a minor league deal. both getting a SI invite.

alex s. gonz. is being signed to the cubs and/or KC depending on what site you check...looks like it may be KC. only mentions tomas perez in the cubs official press release.

t.perez would/should be good for cedeno if cedeno doesnt break with the team. he can play pretty much anywhere. if cedeno continues what he's currently doing down south, he could very well be in the plans off the bench in the majors...wouldnt count on it, though.

man, I really thought Jacque for Rodrigo Lopez was what we were going to get. But alas, Lopez goes to the Rockies for RHP Jim Miller and RHP Jason Burch. Hendry is going to have to try and pawn him off to the Marlins, Rangers, Pirates or Indians now.

Jock seems like a Rangers kind of guy. I don't mean that he's the kind of player they usually look for. It just seems like he's the kind of player that should, at some point, plays for the Rangers.

"Cubs sign Perez" ??????? I don't care what the first name is. I can't deal with ANOTHER light hitting utility guy with the last name Perez. I had flashbacks and my stomach became sick. Here's to hoping Lou keeps him in the minors.....

""It's great to be with a team that wants me to be there," said Lopez, 31." Nice shot at Angelos. Are the Orioles the new Devil Rays?

Rob, Thanks for the shout out. I've never received one of those. I feel 20 years younger. Seriously, TCR has set the standard for a long time. Thanks for doing a great job carrying on what Christian started. Go Cubbies.

crunch:
t.perez would/should be good for cedeno if cedeno doesnt break with the team. t.perez will add about as much infield depth in '07 as Auggie Ojeda added in '06. Cedeno is better than Tomas.

Good stuff today, Rob. Especially the YouTube video -- never seen anything like that before. That was awesome.

Also... maybe someone with more info on Harben could tell us if he could benefit from a velocity increase with this TJ surgery? It's always hard to tell, but sometimes the young guys do pick up a few MPH.

Boy..I dunno if I agree with greenies not being performance enhancers. I understand the Gaylord Perry argument about the spitter, but I think that portion might be a tad off base. However, if they are, you don't even want to think about how many guys would get suspended for it. At the same time, I'd reckon at one point a few years back it was probably awfully close to an even playing field because nearly everybody used 'em.

Nats sign Jerome Williams?! I hope he comes back to Wrigley, now! Pleeeeze!

re:26... doubt tomas is much more than AAA injury replacement and teaching fodder. he is the type of veteran who you could keep in AAA to work with others. i dont really see cedeno breaking with the team if izturis is healthy, honeslty...and i dont see tomas breaking with the team before cedeno gets his shot...his "many gloves" role is being filled by theriot, anyway.

maybe someone with more info on Harben could tell us if he could benefit from a velocity increase with this TJ surgery? Who couldn't benefit from a velocity increase? Anyway the THT Annual has an essay on Tommy Johns surgeries and one of the symptoms of guys with UCL problems is often a drop in velocity and the TJ surgery tends to give it back to you, in some cases even increasing what you once had. And I think I recall when the trade was made from some scouting reports that he'd lost some mph's from his fastball, fwiw.

how much is left for longterm pickups, though? none of us know and yeah...it could be countless. there's still the "z issue" and the 08/09 payrolls are kinda scarey before Z even enters the money shuffle. personally, its hard to even say something like this about the only true ace on the team, but i dunno if the cubs can keep Z at 17-18+m longterm and not become a 120+m team in the years to come. the spending has been a nice surprise, but hardly any of it has been publicly announced and the ceiling of the spending is still a mystery.

http://i1.tinypic.com/4haw5jd.png More offseason fun: a site traffic graph comparing the five major sports in the US -- notice how pronunciated are the spikes and depressions between offseason/regular season traffic and how Nhl.com was basically dead during the strike -- also, how all five sites are beginning to decline after a 2004-2005 peak. To my surprise, there's a clear winner, Internet traffic-wise, and it ain't baseball nor football.

Carlos, that's because the NBA season is in full swing, while the NFL season is winding down and the MLB season hasn't started yet. Look back at what sport was on top at different point in any given year, and it nearly always corresponds to whatever sport is "in season" for that time of year.

well if your talking about the NBA being the clear winner it's pretty much because of Yao Ming.. although it seems to me that MLB and NBA kind of go back and forth. NFL is pretty much an American sport. And MLS isn't a major sport, golf, Nascar, college football I would guess trump it easily, I'm sure they trump hockey as well by now.

Sunday Rogers Rumor: Your favorite and mine, Phil Rogers today: "If the Cubs are going to make a Jacque Jones trade before spring training, it probably will be with Pittsburgh. The Pirates are intent on adding a left-handed hitter and might be willing to give up one of their left-handed-hitting center fielders, Chris Duffy or Nate McLouth. " Where does he get this stuff?

The Pirates don't want to trade Duffy, they like what they saw from him to end the year. Plus it looks like he has outstanding speed. 26 SB's, 1 time caught stealing. You want a realistic option that you might not be happy with? Colorado would like to move Wily Taveras for a hitter with some more pop.

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.