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

Items of Interest

I don't really want to wait around till Friday on these, so a bit of link-mania. - For some reason folks keep wanting to ruin their fine podcasts by asking me to appear on them. In this case, 14-year old phenom and Red Sox fan Alex Reimer asked me to talk about the NL Central(Episode #111) and do one of my least favorite things, make predictions. I was a bit skeptical at first at the whole 14-year old thing, but once you hear the open to his show you realize he's going to be taking over the world at any point and I'd like to get on his good side. - John Sickels does a prospect smackdown between Red Sox CF Jacoby Ellsbury and Cubs CF (you may have heard of him) Felix Pie. Sickels gives the nod to Pie and has him quite a bit higher than most prospect lists at around #22 overall in baseball, although he originally had Ellsbury one spot above Pie, but seemed to change his mind in the midst of writing his article. - Hardball Times uses their projection numbers that you can find in their preseason book (including an article by yours truly) to try and predict the division races. They've got the Cubs and Cardinals in a virtual dead heat, with the Cards winning by one game finishing with 85 wins. - SI.com has revamped their team pages and made it considerably more fan-friendly. So much so, that our RSS feed (along with a few other fine Cubs blogs) are included at the bottom. Smart way for SI.com to try and differentiate themselves from all the other sports sites if I do say so myself.

Comments

I just love the headline on one of the articles over at cubs.com. "Cubs Enjoy Luxury of Patience with Wood, Prior." Too funny. We have mostly been waiting for these two guys ever since 2003. I mean, is there anyone who is surprised that neither guy will make the 25-man roster for opening day? THis is the baseball equivalent of Bill Murray's film, "Groundhog Day." If Rumplestiltsken had fallen asleep after the 2003 season, nd been roused early from his sleep this month, he would have missed hardly anything that Wood and Prior have done.

Can anyone tell me something about the Cubs outfield prospect Chris Walker who played in yesterdays split squad game and made the great catch in center. I don't know anything about him.

turns 27 this year, fast, very fast, pretty good glove, strikes out a lot for a guy with no power. Not very highly regarded..... Best-case scenario is a Scott Podsednik like chance to get a shot in his late 20's, but probably never with the Cubs.

" I was a bit skeptical at first at the whole 14-year old thing, but once you hear the open to his show you realize he’s going to be taking over the world at any point and I’d like to get on his good side." To quote Jack Donaghy from "30 Rock": "In five years, we'll all be working for him or dead by his hand."

Another thing Rob, how come every time I hear you on the radio you sound like your talking on the phone, driving your car and tuning the radio all at once? Not for nothing.

I dunno... first time I was on a cellphone in a stairwell hiding from my co-workers. This time I was pacing in my bedroom on a regular phone. It appears to me that I have a tendency to not take a breath during my rants...I'll work on it, although after those 2 performances I doubt I'll have to work on it much.

OZZIE!!! (someone asked him if there would be a 20 yr reunion of the 2005 White Sox)
''Those ceremonies -- 'Oh, let's bring back those guys from 2005,' we're all crippled and fucked up, pushing wheelchairs, kids crying because his dad was on the ballclub -- fuck that,'' Guillen said. ''I don't need that bull. A bunch of fat guys, another one is broke. 'Hey, where's your ring?' 'Oh, I don't know, I sold that son of a bitch two years ago.'''

from Roto world: The Marlins are considering making an offer for Angel Pagan, perhaps using shortstop prospect Robert Andino as bait, FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal reports. Such a deal wouldn't solve the problems of either team. Pagan wasn't quite as bad as expected for the Cubs last year, hitting .247/.306/.394 in 170 at-bats, but he doesn't have the range in center to make up for his bat and he'd be fortunate just to have a long career as a fifth outfielder. As for Andino, well, he's just 22, giving him plenty of time to improve. However, he'd be a downgrade from Tomas Perez in a utility role right now. He hit .255/.303/.363 in a great hitter's park at Triple-A Albuquerque last year.

re: #13 damn that's great...seriously, that crap probably floored john kruk with laughter if he read/heard that. i love it...

Who says I haven't? I do have an imdb page actually, I'll let you guys find it.

I already Googled you. **restraining order**

the 3 people or so that must have visited since I just mentioned it probably gave it a boost.

man, call me a fool for actually thinking we would actually break camp with prior and wood (or ONE of the two for that matter) actually ready to contribute to the business of actually playing baseball games. foolishness. hey how much does mister calve-tacular make with each shwoosh of the towel? aw screw him, i cant believe woody. F&@% the damned goat and bartman and all that, these two guys are our curse. we have GOT to move on from these 2. until now ive been trying to reverse-jinx myself by naysaying while in fact harboring a stack of hope for them, but its just the same, old, tired, injured song.

in other news...Archuleta to the Bears for a conditional 6th round pick and much cheaper contract..

http://www.rotoworld.com/Conte....._teams=CHC cubs.com story I’m sure will be up soon enough, but Ryan O’Malley Carmen Pignatiello Jake Fox Micah Hoffpauir Casey McGehee Geovany Soto sent down, Soto optioned to AAA technically. ======================= So does that leave just two catchers on the active roster? I wouldn't have minded if Soto stayed up longer. He's had a good spring and having another catcher would be handy.

I'd certainly stand up and cheer, but sounds like the Cubs crowd has grown more bitter as the years go by. Koyie Hill is still with the team I believe...

Koyie Hill is still with the team I believe… =============== Thanks, Rob. I forgot about Hill.

I’d certainly stand up and cheer, but sounds like the Cubs crowd has grown more bitter as the years go by. Yeah, that tends to happen when a long suffering fan base is teased with success before being presented a hearty meal of crushing defeat and subsequent years of miserable despondency.

yeah we suck, everyone should boo our own minor league kids in spring training, new players who haven't even played a week and some of our best players of all time. We're going to be Philly in about two years.... How about booing the other team....it's more American.

Despite my previous post, I completely agree with not booing Sosa. I hate what he did, but he gave this team a helluva lot. And booing your own players is just really low class, not to reopen a can of worms.

Rob G. — March 20, 2007 @ 6:56 pm rotoworld says Wood threw 25 pitches in a mound session today… --- ball or towel?

Rob G.: "I’d certainly stand up and cheer, but sounds like the Cubs crowd has grown more bitter as the years go by." If TCR is any indication as how bitter the Cubs fan has become, Sosa better wear some Kevlar.

I booed in Minnesota last year. If I don't feel like I'm seeing MLB-quality play or hustle I'll do it, I don't care. But I would also bet most Cubs fan don't heckle at concerts, and I do that at bad shows all the time.

REORG: Does anyone recall WHY, during the reorganization of the NL, the Pirates were put in the CENTRAL, from the East? As I vaguely recall, it had something to do with P.K. Wrigley, and time zones, etc. - but truly, I just can't remember. It dawned on me again tonight that with 6 teams, the Cubs have a 16.66% chance of winning the division, while the other 5 team divisions each get a 20% chance. With the Cubs, it already is challenging every year without losing 4.6% possibility points! If anyone knows this trivia, I'd appreciate it.

WPZ: i>"I booed in Minnesota last year." I did too. That was a horrible performance those 3 games. PATHETIC!!!

i have friends that actually go to minor league games to heckle...i just cant go to games with them anymore. they're not even mean people...one is an improv actor and the other is a stay-at-home-mom ex-hippie...they just love to showcase their "tallents" at 10-20 minor league games a year. i think its inappropriate to use a venue others are paying to watch a show to put on your own show in a captive audience. they...well, they dont care. oddly/sadly...most people around them either dont mind or dont care enough to tell them to shut up.

I think it's crap the NL Central is the only division with six teams. Someone will need to explain the fairness of that to me.

Googling Rob Glowacki gets me the IMDB hit (editor of various "making of"s) but also a pitcher with an ERA over 5. (GENERAL: Hard-throwing righthander should add depth to Marist's stable of middle relievers this season) Now I'm both confused and intrigued. And a little creeped out- Rob, if I own the two disk set of The Incredibles, this means you edited one of the Special Features on it?

Some of my work is on DVD (Ice Age, Entourage Season two come to mind), but most of my stuff is pre-release of the theatrical film. Once in awhile they put that stuff on the DVD, but not normally. As far as I recall it didn't make The Incredibles DVD. Never made the minors, flamed out in high school, Maine East in Park Ridge.

We KNOW its ST But CHECK THIS! DLEE - .537 OBP IZZY - .486 OBP, 7BB! Is Washington stressing walks?

re #46. It's 3.33% by the way. And anything worth doing is worth doing the hard way. That will make victory just that much sweeter for the '07 Cubs.

The E-Man:
Is Washington stressing walks?
Wait... what? You mean Perry? So confused.

Excellent news Floyd to start the season on the bench to give his surgically repaired foot more time to heal. I kind of figured that, that type of injury is notoriously long to heal and get over.

"Wait… what? You mean Perry? So confused." DOH! Sorry! I'm confused! Yep - Perry. I was thinkin - OBP >Oakland > Washington...

E-man, The went to 3 divisions in 1994 and at that time there were only 14 teams in the NL, the East and Central had 5 each, the West 4. http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL_1994.shtml if you look at it, pretty reasonable way of breaking them up. in 1998, 2 expansion teams were added the Diamondbacks and DRays. At that point a decision had to be made on which league got 16 teams and which got 14, since you obviously can't have 2 leagues with 15 each. And for whatever reason, it was decided that the Brewers would switch leagues and very naturally they needed to be put in the Central. Voila! http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL_1998.shtml Maybe someone knows the exact reasoning behind it all, but I imagine Bud's considerable influence had something to do with that and there was some sort of advantage for the Brewers to move from the AL to the NL.

I wouldn't have even brought it up, but I thought I missed something. MikeC:
Excellent news Floyd to start the season on the bench to give his surgically repaired foot more time to heal.
That would mean the Cub's only have 1 lefty in the lineup... who is allegedly on the trading block. Yikes.

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-070320c… Awesome response by Lou here...
"We can start Opening Day tomorrow," Dempster said. "I'm ready." Piniella scrunched his face when he heard that comment. "And it'll be 86 degrees in Cincinnati, and we're going to be drinking pina coladas," Piniella said. "He needs a little more work."
Piniella does say that he's less worried about Dempster being ready since he's been pulling bullpen duty for a few years now.

two lefties Rynox...Izturis. let's see last year we had JJ, Pierre, Walker 2 years ago we had Burnitz, Korey, Walker and at times Holly and Neifi. I'll live without the lefties.

hmmm....from that Floyd article
General manager Jim Hendry said earlier this spring that Floyd was upset with him for holding him out until March 12, so it's possible Floyd won't be satisfied with a lesser role than he may have envisioned when he signed. Floyd did not make the trip to Tucson but is expected to play Wednesday against Texas at HoHoKam Park.
and some talk about how he has incentives in his deal which will be hard to reach if he's sitting. Maybe Floyd gets dealt (not until June 15th in all likelihood) instead of JJ.

I hope it's 86 in Cincinatti and we're drinking pina coladas. I'll save one for Lou from a few rows behind the Cubs dugout.

A common myth is that you need a lefties in the lineup just for the sake of having lefties in your lineup with their supposed ability to hit RHP better. That simply is not true. If your team has players that can hit both righties and lefties well it doesn't matter if your offense is right hand dominated. The Cardinals have been right handed dominated lineup for years, sure hasn't slowed down their offense. Murton hits RHP and LHP. Floyd only hits RHP, and even that might be in a steep decline. I have never understood the basis Floyd needs to play over Murton just because he bats lefty. Who cares, it isn't important.

From what I recall in 1998, the Brewers switching leagues was because Bud Selig wanted to stoke the flames of the Milwaukee-Chicago rivalry by putting the Brewers in the same division as the Cubs. For whatever reason, that worked better than with the White Sox... probably because people in Chicago at that time actually cared about the Cubs. I remember reading an article on ESPN about how that rivalry has panned out, mentioning that the Cubs and Brewers have been duking it out for last place most of the time since then.

Here's some march madness-related fun with kids in MiLB with names that make me giggle. I don't know jack about html, so here's a tinyurl. Rocky Cherry's on list. But my vote is for Dognnt. http://tinyurl.com/3dle89 Mike, I disagree that is the lone reason why you need lefties in the lineup. If you have good lefties and good righties, you should play both. It's about bullpen splits and stuff, too. That said, if you have good righties and only one good lefty, a crippled lefty, a fat lefty, and a kinda light-hitting switch SS like the Cubs, well then. It's obvious. Hit the righties. Duh. As unlikely as this would be to happen, what if you had three decent right handers due? Hypothetically, Theriot, Murton, and Barrett due against a nasty right hander. Who do want to hit? A good righty or a good lefty? Good lefty, obviously. We just don't have that any to do that with. In theory, that's why you balance the lineup. So you don't have waste a bench player to pinch hit just to break up 3 straight righties in the order against a really tough right-hander. Superstar hitters are exempt, of course.

You think that Rocky Cherry stands a chance against Jorge Poon Tang? Oh the delicious irony!!

As I vaguely recall, it had something to do with P.K. Wrigley, and time zones, etc. - but truly, I just can’t remember. If I remember, I think the whole time zone issue you're refereing to came with the split of the NL into 2 divisions. The Cubs and Cards should have been in the West and the Reds and Braves should have been in the East, but the Cubs and Cards were moved because they complained about having to play too many games on the west coast with 9 p.m start times. At least thats how I remember hearing the stories. The Pirates are in the Central because it made sense before the 98 expansion. The Brewers were moved to the NL in part because both the NL and AL wanted to split the money from the Expansion fees, so the D-Back and D-Rays were split, but since that made for an odd number of teams, someone else had to switch leagues. I'm not sure exactly how it came to be the Brewers, although I'm sure Selig had a whole lot to do with it.

Fwiw, Kansas City was given the first shot at switching to the NL. When they turned down the opportunity, the Brewers were next in line.

ROB G: I enjoyed your podcast interview with the Phenom, but I was disappinted by your lack of profanity. I counted at least a couple dozen places in the interview where a well-placed F-Bomb would have made your point a lot clearer.

haha, I didn't want the Phenom's mother to get on the line and yell at me.

Hey Rob, thanks for giving me the plug on your blog. Whew, 76 replies....very impressive.

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • 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.