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

Game 41 Thread / White Sox @ Cubs (2 of 3)

Game Chat Javier Vazquez vs. Jason Marquis

Comments

FROM PREVIOUS THREAD Just heard on ESPN locally - Guzman to the ‘pen. 5th starter not named yet. Talked about Sean Marshall or Dempster as 5th starter. Bruce Levine broke the story originally.

Holy crap, I was joking last night when I mentioned to a friend that they should move Dempster to the #5! Honestly!

If Dempster does become the 5th starter (which I hope doesn't happen), I suppose Marmol gets a try at closer? I'm not really seeing anyone else fit the bill. I'd much rather have Marshall as the 5th guy, too many lefties or not.

if they are bringing up Marshall as a 5th starter, that gives us: 1-three of five starters are lefty 2-three lefty's in the pen I'm a lefty and even I think this is weird. It also means that you have to go back to back leftys. Normally I'd say, how cares, but, I'd avoid Marshall and Hill back to back as both have the big roundhouse curveball. 3-a bullpen of dempster, howry, eyre, marmol, cotts, ohman, guzman and wuertz; until the music stops and there are only 6 or 7 chairs. but someone has to go if Marshall is brought up... and the most useless part right now is Scott Eyre, so he's about to need a stint on the DL for medication adjustment. Unless Hendry has a trade on the burner (which I kinda doubt at this point).

UNless we trade EYer and someone for another closer (Fuentes? Lidge?) I doubt Demp get's removed from the closers spot. After all, he's only blown one save so far this year.

Resume throwing in Arizona, scheduled for monday- wednesday and friday or something, will be interviewed on WGN radio pregame show

I would think that Guzman would be the guy closing if Dempster really got moved to the rotation. But I HIGHLY doubt that Dempster is getting moved to the rotation.

re:#8 The Lancaster Jethawks are one of my favorite minor league franchises. They play in a beautfiul little gem of a ballpark.... of course it's out in Hades, but it's still a gem. And if you follow crunch's link, you may be surprised to know that Lancaster and Lake Elsinore are in a three-way tie for first place at 22-20. And the game was played in Lancaster.

I am suprised! How can two teams be in a three-way tie? Moving Guzman out of the rotation would be stupid. The bullpen has been bad, but Lou being in constant panic mode anytime someone gives up a walk probably doesn't help things much. The big thing about last nights game was the bullpen did it's job (for 2 innings, probably should have been for 2.2) and the OFFENSE scored runs after the 6th inning. Why there's no talk about the guys not hitting after the 6th being sent down or benched is baffling to me.

Line-ups Erstad Uribe A-hole Dye Konerko Mackowiak Iguchi Crede Vazquez V. Theriot Murton Sori Aram Ward Barrett Jones Derosa Marquis I think Pagan should be in the 2 hole and playing CF, while JJ slides to RF. Pagan's the hot bat and a better OF then Murt.

I think Murton should be allowed to get 500 At bats and not be benched for AAAA fodder like Pagan.

I am suprised! How can two teams be in a three-way tie? You gotta be kidding.

Neal, I'm a Pagan basher and proud of it, but my beef with him has been that he stands there with the bat on his shoulder looking for ball four, and when he does hit the ball, it's late to the opposite field. His MO seems to have changed. Now he swings early in the count and pulls the ball, both lefty and righty. So what's not to like? He'll still get his walks. Not that he should be taking playing time from Murton. There are two other outfield spots, though.

I'm lovin' these bullpen rumors. That the Cubs--the Cubs!-- would a) recognize they have a problem, and b) try to fix it-- this is in itself amazing. Dempster starting could work out pretty well and in any case gets him out of the closer role and over to Iowa for a while. Guzman and Marmol vying for the closer role could be seen as puzzling but makes sense if you assume that one of Lou's principles is that the closer must throw gas. By the way, people who think that Dempster has nine saves should know that he has only earned saves three times when he was handed the ball with less than a three -run lead. Two of those were at home against the Nats. He also got a win in that series. He's basically had one good weekend.

So Lee's pinch-hitting. I guess that means he won't be going on the DL. Not sure this is such a good idea. 8-6 lead in the bottom of the 8th with men on first and third and only one out. Not sure you need to bring an ailing guy into that.

Recent comments

  • 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...

  • 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.