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 2 Recap - Cubs 4, Reds 1

The First of our 97 Wins

Game Center Box Score Play-by-Play Box Score Game Chart Photos W - Lilly 1-0 L - Arroyo 0-1 S - Dempster 1 Not much to report here. If you missed the game, Lilly looked every bit as dominant as his box score suggests. 7 IP, 1 run, 1 BB and 9 K. To my untrained eye, he seemed to be throwing both a hard and a slow curve, each one with excellent control, while mixing in a fastball, also with terrific command. He started to labor a bit in the seventh, but even the obnoxious-even-by-MLB-Broadcaster-standards Reds' announcers had to credit Lilly with a masterful performance. Dempster looked shakey in the 9th. After walking Encarnacion with one out and going ball one on Griffey, we had our first Lou Piniella Moment of the season. LouPa stormed out of the dugout, barked about five words at Dempster, and stormed back to the dugout. As best as I could tell, the remarks ammounted to (translating, since we're a family-friendly blog) "Gentle fireman, if I might be so humble as to suggest, would you please consider directing the baseball over home plate, with your next toss? Thank you, kindly." Ryan then threw the next pitch (another ball) before Lou had made it back into the dugout, before settling down (somewhat) for the save. Offensively, the middle-infielders provided the pick-me-up, with run-scoring singles by Izturis and DeRosa. With the Cards dropping their third straight to the Mets, the Good Guys are already one and a half games up on the pre-season favorites. Life is good. Reminder- early game time tomorrow, 11:35 AM Central

Comments

Key thing for Dempster was striking out Dunn on some quality pitches to start the inning. Hopefully, he'll take that away from the outing more than Lou's temper tantrum. No doubt Lou was cold and ready to get the hell out there and probably still pissed at Cedeno getting thrown out on the SB attempt with a rookie pitcher still on the mound who couldn't hit the side of a barn. There's an instance where the team definitely misses Pagan -- I'd much rather have him pinch running whenever Cecil Fielder, er Ward, gets on base over Cedeno.

In all fairness to Lou, the closer role is not the place for your "nibblers". You want the inning to go pretty quickly, so you want a guy who throws strikes. On the other hand, it wasn't too classy the way Sweet Lou handled it. Vince from the previous thread is dead-on. Demp won't be closer too much longer if he can't take the pressure. Pressure from the game... pressure from Lou.

thought the MLB-EI/InDemand deal celebration would have started by now. glad its back on cable (for supposedly a 7 year deal), but its gonna take days-week+ to actually deliver it to subscribers suposedly. woo...i get to pay a lot of money to watch baseball...

I thought it was awesome the way Lou straight up went up there and told Dempster to just throw strikes. He did, and what happened? Couple quick (if ugly outs), then a quick hug from Lou as Dempster's coming off the field. Aram is hustling even though he's financially secure, Dempster's throwing strikes. I'm not going to complain for a second how Lou is conducting his business.

is there some impression that dumpster's been spending his entire career not trying to throw strikes or something? i mean, hell...he's wild. no pep talk will cure that...years of training sure havent.

Lou knows as well as anyone else that the largest question mark on this team is arguably its closer, and he has to get that sorted out one way or another ASAP. He can't go into June or July not knowing whether Dempster can be counted on. So, I wouldn't be surprised if Lou unloaded on Dempster in order to put even more pressure on the guy, to make the situation a bigger test than it was. The more pressure he can put on Dempster early in the season, the faster he will find out whether Dempster will be The Man or whether he needs to go to Howry, Wood, Cherry or someone else. It wasn't the classiest or most constructive display, but then again it was no different than what most of us do in out living rooms watching Dempster on TV.

Yahoo! Sports
Ryan Dempster pitched the ninth for his first save, completing a three-hitter. After he threw a first-pitch ball to Ken Griffey Jr., Piniella went out to the mound with some advice.
"I said it was 30 degrees and it was snowing, get the ball over the plate and you'll win a ballgame," Piniella said.
That's more than 5 words! Click here for the full story.

Chicagosports.com has something a bit different... "I said it was 30 degrees and snowing—get the ball over the plate," Piniella said. "You'll win a ballgame. Make 'em hit it." Maybe the cold weather affected his hearing, but Dempster recalled the conversation a little differently. "He just came out and said, 'Trust your stuff,'" Dempster said. "It was really nice." Game #2 of the season and Piniella has already done something Dusty could never be bothered to do. Piniella = good manager Dusty = God awful manager So many times Dusty would just sit on his ass as a pitcher struggled and never visit the mound or get irritated. He might send Roth out when the situation was already out of control but that was about it. It isn't going to work every time for Piniella, but it certainly sets a different tone from the previous manager. Dempster does have good stuff and he keeps the ball down, but like many of our pitchers over the last 4 years they believe they have to strike out every hitter instead of just trusting what they have. If Dempster ever figured that out he would be a good closer. Piniella at least recognizes this fault, I doubt Baker ever did.

"Dempster does have good stuff and he keeps the ball down, but like many of our pitchers over the last 4 years they believe they have to strike out every hitter instead of just trusting what they have." I agree.

one thing is for sure, Theroit needs work in the outfield with those last few flyballs he almost miffed

sorry for another comment, i usually just lurk around. Anyone have mlb.tv? is it worth it? whats the quality like? i get WGN but most of the games are on CSN

I just got MLB TV myself. Reaction so far is: 1. Small screen. about 4 by 4 in 2. Great connection quality from my home, poor in my office 3. You get whatever feed of the game they choose to give you. Most of the time, it's the feed from the regional Fox sportscast

http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/cubs.asp a few things from Bruce Miles in todays Herald... 1) Prior officially on Iowa's DL, even though he's staying in extended ST in Arizona. The Iowa DL is 7 days minimum, expect multiple 7 day stints. The diagnosis is "Tired Shoulder", oops right shoulder fatigue. I wonder if that's also known as Michelin disease? (shoulder fatigue again is a symptom not a dx, but we know the DL isn't really fussy on medical reasons for being there. 2) Blanco got back for last nights game, confirming a previous post that said they saw him on TV last night (the backup catcher aka "adorable redhead" was probably the happiest Cub to see him) 3) Rich Hill's finger blister is better and he's ready for Friday night vs. Brew Crew

What is that whole deal about Hill not using superglue to fix his blister? Is that a common thing pitchers with blisters do? Sorry but I never heard of it till now.

I agree with Steve, the Ryan Theriot/left field experiment has begun rather poorly. Yes, the winds were swirling, but he'd better take a lot more field work before we see him there again.

Ted Lilly is going to be a very good pitcher for the Cubs. This is a guy who grew up in the rough and tumble American League East and had demonstrated success pitching against the Bo Sox and Yankees. He's going to love pitching in the National League. If he can adjust to those days when the wind blows out at Wrigley, he can be a big winner.

I love it that Sweet Lou has got Ryan Dumpster on a short leash. Dump needs to focus less on being the class clown and best interviewee in the clubhouse, and more on throwing strikes and earning his paycheck. Good for Lou.

I'm not here to bash Jacque Jones. I like him, he's a pretty good thumper. But I was reminded last night why he's not a good fit for the Cubs, who need a couple of traditional left-handed pull hitters (like Floyd) to balance all the right-handedness. When a righty curveballer like Arroyo is giving all sorts of problems to Lee, Barrett and Soriano, Jones is not much help, because he's a fastball-away hitter who is not at his best with breaking balls and inside pitches generally. Whereas Floyd is 4 for 9 against Arroyo, and the other lefty swinger, Izturis, got the big hit on one of those ground ball freebies between first and second that only lefty pull-hitters get.

Cliff Floyd is a very good offensive player, when healthy. He showed last night the value he brings to the Cub lineup. I'm will continue to defend Jacque Jones. Bottom line is that he is a solid ballplayer. He drives in runs, brings both power and speed to the table, and plays a quality outfield. Nobody pretends he is a superstar. Sweet Lou clearly likes him, which I think is a good thing.

The Transaction Guy says: April 4th, 2007 at 11:00 pm Does anybody here own a Blackberry Pearl? Is it worth it? .................................................................................... Isnt that the Pirate movie with Johnny Depp?

re: #15. I don't mlv.tv now, but when i did, you could play it in the application directly (either real player or windows media player) and expand the window to whatever size you preferred. it got fuzzy as you made it larger, but it was certainly watchable.

kjk - how did you play it through real or wmp? that would make me very happy.

i think there were little icons you can click. or right-click on the picture for option. i tried to see what i could do on the demo site, but it is in Flash and not very helpful. the FAQs indicate that the live games still use Real or WMP. Sorry i can't really help unless i have it in front of me to fiddle with...

Trans: >>The First of Our 97 Wins: I want some of my PayPal contribution back, to pay for a new pair of underwear- soiled these from laughing so hard.

I was okay with Dempster getting bitched at, Lou probably saw what he did last year and has been around him enought to know he probably needs a kick in the ass once in awhile to keep the focus. And I agreed it's a refreshing change from when Dusty would send Larry out after the horse was out of the barn to say" Uh, Dusty wants you to get some outs."

Rob handles (launders) the finances, you'll have to negotiate with him if you're upset with any personal consequences of my insanity.

Anyone catch D.AAArdsma's act yesterday-----3 straight K's. Fire Hendry and Rothschild immediately. These giveaway trades of talent (KKKPaterson, Farnsworth, Sisco) happen far too often..... This bud's for you Lilly.....

Crunch: "thought the MLB-EI/InDemand deal celebration would have started by now." Oh I am really thrilled... But no need to stir the pot as there are a few who didn't agree with my thoughts on the matter. But it is good to see the little guy win one and the big guy (Selig) cave in once and awhile.

*thought the MLB-EI/InDemand deal celebration would have started by now.* No, those people are too busy whining about whatever else they think should be their next God-give right as an American. "Free" health care, probably. For myself, I think I will go and picket HBO the next time some big time fight is pay-per-view only. I mean, by gad sir, they broadcast every other fight on HBO--it's my God-given right as an American to get something without doing anything! *But it is good to see the little guy win one and the big guy (Selig) cave in once and awhile. * Yeah, it's definitely the "little guy" who can afford to pay hundreds of dollars to watch baseball. Or how 'bout those "little guys" at Comcast, TimeWarner et al who now don't have to pony up the bucks to keep the product exclusively theirs. Huzzah for the little guy! How 'bout a few tears shed for DirectTV, who had a great product exclusively in their hands and potentially thousands of new subscribers. Boy, capitalism sure ain't what it's cracked up to be--right Jean-Francois Kerry?

corporations exist at the public will for the good of and at will of the public...if you wanna get all straight-line economic and take things by the books. just because the american public has let policy making and law making fall into the hands of corporations doesnt make their brand of economic shaping of this country right...nor does it make it a model of capitalism.

Howry had an easy eigth inning, and, if this was pre-1989, he probably would have come back out in the ninth to finish the game. That was an era when a relief pitchers were "aces" and "firemen" and not closer, set-up men, and long relief (lefty specialists we have always had with us). Fankly, I think Howry is the better pitcher over Dempster and would prefer him pitching the most critical innings, but in the post Eckersley era all the managers, pitching coaches, and pitchers are now only psychologically comfortable with each pitcher in the bullpen having a precise role. (Orel Herschheiser, who was a pitching coach for the Rangers, demonstrated that last night as he talked analyzing the problems in the Cardinals bullpen as I enjoyed the Mets slaughter of the Redbirds last night. No Orel, the problem is not that these guys don't know their roles yet. The problem is most of them (thankfully) suck when exposed to good hitting. I expect Houston will make them look better.)

No: "No, those people are too busy whining about whatever else they think should be their next God-give right as an American. “Free” health care, probably. For myself, I think I will go and picket HBO the next time some big time fight is pay-per-view only. I mean, by gad sir, they broadcast every other fight on HBO–it’s my God-given right as an American to get something without doing anything!" Hey genius, when did I say I wanted anything free? Don't jump in to a conversation when you don't know what is being discussed. "Yeah, it’s definitely the “little guy” who can afford to pay hundreds of dollars to watch baseball." You can buy the package for $159 for the year, not "hundreds of dollars". Again, know what the hell you are talking about before jumping in conversations.

*Hey genius, when did I say I wanted anything free? Don’t jump in to a conversation when you don’t know what is being discussed.* Who made you King of the Internet? I'll do whatever I please, thanks. *You can buy the package for $159 for the year, not “hundreds of dollars”. Again, know what the hell you are talking about before jumping in conversations.* Hey, smart guy--that's the price DirectTV was offering this year, not cable. Last year on cable it was 179. They charge tax on that? Yeah, that's pretty close to "hundreds of dollars". Add that onto the 80 bucks a month for digital cable--which I'm going to guess is mandatory to obtain the package, how much more can the "little guy" afford? Can we dispense with the "little guy wins one" crap? This is a luxury, not a necessity. Why didn't the "little guy" whinge and moan when the NFL went exclusively to DirectTv? At 249 dollars. For 1/10th of the amount of games.

*corporations exist at the public will for the good of and at will of the public…if you wanna get all straight-line economic and take things by the books.* Corporations exist to make money for their shareholders, not to spread goodwill to the public. *just because the american public has let policy making and law making fall into the hands of corporations doesnt make their brand of economic shaping of this country right…nor does it make it a model of capitalism. * Yeah, let's just screw with how capitalism is supposed to work because a few thousand people are too lazy to pony up a few hundred dollars--which little guys like Manny Trillo obviously have in excess--to switch their television providers to the ones that have the products they want.

no, you are missing what a corporation is. why they exist. what they have to do to incorporate. it is a public trust contract. that's a "101" type thing...businesses exist to make money, corporations make money for their shareholders...you dont GET to be a corporation because you want to be. its just not that simple. its also something anyone who cares to know about capitalism should know.

btw...you should change cable providers if you're being charged that much for MLB or NFL packages. both quotes youve mentioned are higher than any market that i know of...you live in northern alaska or something? =p

funny, my wife and I created a corporation for her dance studio. Took about 2 hours of paperwork and $100+ check. some annoying paperwork as the year goes on needs to be filed.

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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.