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 Game Recap

Game 43 Recap: Cubs 3, Cardinals 4

A(nother) tough loss.

Box Score, Play Log, Game Graphs

W - Rosenthal (2-1), late-inning drama, Cubbery, Cardinals pinch-hitting

L - Warren (3-1), wasting great starts, confidence

Things to Take from This Game

1. Lackey makes it look easy, until...

 Lackey worked briskly, threw strikes, and had a good fastball and swing-and-miss slider--he K'd five consecutivey, early in the game. This was the sort of bulldog or workhorse mentality, take your pick, that we were promised with his off-season signing. For the first 6.3 innings it looked like RBI singles by Montero and Rizzo, and an RBI fielder's choice by Russell would hold up. Lackey finished with 4 hits and 1 walk allowed, and 9 strikeouts.

2. ... Adams continues Cards pinch-hit heroics

Take a look at the game graph, which nicely illustrates the late-inning drama. See that jagged move upward? Adams's pinch-hit game-tying home run moved the Cards' Win Expectency from 15.8% to 52%. It was really quite stunning, in the context of how effortlessly Lackey had been cruising along.

3. Grichuk saddles Warren with the loss.

Continuing the theme set by Lackey, Warren looked dominant for his first five batters, only to jar us out of whatever remaining sense of confidence we might have had. He rolled a slider, and the badly slumping Grichuk hit out to right for the game-winning home run.

Game 40 Recap: Cubs 8, Giants 1

Oh, dear god.

Box Score, Play Log, Game Graphs

W - Arrieta (8-0), Outfield Walls (Countless-1), rebuilding our run differential, staying up late

L - Peavy (1-5), Heyward's torso (1 of 1), Balls in McCovey Cove (1 of 104), getting up early

 

Things to Take from The Game

1. Cubs lose Heyward to probably-serious injury on certainly-best catch of the year.

Jason Heyward made a Jason Heyward catch running full-speed before making a leaping, twisting, belly-flop dive. He hit hard with his right side just before his left shoulder and face smashed into the outfield wall. He appeared to be in a lot of pain and was helped off the field by a couple of trainers. Early reports identified it as a "right torso and abnominal area" injury.

2. Soler has a very encouraging game.

Soler showed a good approach in his at bats, and was rewarded with a single and a home run, coming right after Zobrist put one in the Cove. Soler also had an extra-base-hit-robbing catch at the wall, and then an also helpful, if less-than-graceful, catch on another deep drive.

3. The pitching duel is exactly what we thought it would be.

Peavy looked every bit as bad as his line, and it could have been worse. The big damage was a Kris Bryant three-run home run. Arrieta had to wait through long Cubs half-innings, a replay challenge, and an injury delay, and didn't look like Peak Arrieta early on. He settled in though, and gave up just one run through seven, looking steadier the deeper he went in the game.

Game 37 Recap: Cubs 2, Brewers 4

Brew Who?

Box Score, Play Log, Game Graphs

W - Anderson (2-5), 3 unassisteds, shifting the third baseman, the "tourniquet" stat.

L - Hendricks (2-3),  lame no-hit bids, homerless streaks.

S - Jeffress (11), what I should do more often when doing recap drafts.

Things to Take from This Game.

1.  Chase Anderson?!

Chase Anderson looked every bit as awful as his over-6 ERA suggested in the first few innings, with rockets getting hit all around the park.  None of them dropped in, though, and he threw strikes, eventually settling in to a very less-than-dominating no-hit bid.

2. One bad inning.

Other than a Lucroy solo homer, Hendricks looked sharp and efficient through the first five. But he got knocked around in the sixth, with the big damage being a gap-splitting double by Chris Carter.  Cahill came in to get eight straight outs and looked quite sharp doing it. Stuff-wise, the Cubs pitching looked better than the Brewers, most all of the night.

3.  Late firepower

With two outs in the ninth, Chase Anderson suddenly remembered he was Chase Anderson. Blame it on going with an off-brand hypnotist. Heyward did what few thought possible, and barreled up a ball for his first home run of the season, just escaping the reach of the right fielder, Santana. Bryant followed with a no-doubter to left, but Jeffress then came on to K Rizzo and end the game. Those of us who stuck around to the bitter end appreciated this modest moment of drama in an otherwise stupid game.

Game 9 Recap: Cubs 8, Reds 1

No Contest

Box Score Play Log Game Graphs

W - Hammel (1-0), Augie Ojeda tribute videos. Harry singing the Stretch

L - Iglesias (1-1), pseudonymous middle-relievers, throwing to unoccupied bases

 

Things to Take from This Game

1. Hammel pitches around some walks

Hammel was reasonably sharp, pitching out of a couple of instances of mild-to-moderate trouble. 4 hits, 4 walks, 3 Ks in 6 IP with no runs allowed, and a booming RBI double at a point when the game still was awkwardly close.

2. Bryant heats up

Kris Bryant hit his second home run in as many days, going 2 for 3 with a walk overall. Fowler also had another big night, with a fine defensive play in CF thrown in, as well.

3. Best Team in Baseball

The first team to 8 wins played an errorless game with really no blemishes of any sort to speak of, other than a bit of wildness from Hammel and Grimm getting into some utterly inconsequential trouble in the 9th that he soon got out of. The consensus in Parachat was that the game was a sure thing by the time we were up 3-0.

Game 70 Recap: Cubs 2, Dodgers 5

After further review... still lost.

Box Score, Play Log, Game Graphs

 

W- Who knows? Eh, Howell I guess (3-1), who cares, let's go home.

L- The very concept of the "Win" also, Hendricks (2-4).

S - Jansen (10)

Things to Take from This Game

1. Starters Struggle 

Hendricks was off his game, with the big damage coming on a Justin Turner 3-run Home Run. Bolsinger looked tougher, getting several Cubs to swing over a diving "spike" curveball, but he couldn't make it through five. With Bolsinger getting Rizzo to GIDP in the fifth and picking up some help from Howell to get out of the inning, the Dodgers shut down the only good shot at a big inning.
.

2. Denorfia gets TOOTBLANed

With two outs in the ninth and down by three, Denorfia got Thrown Out On the Bases Like a Nincompoop, running into the final out of the game trying to get to second on a liner off the left field wall.  Van Slyke got a perfect bounce off the wall to him, played it perfectly, threw perfectly, and still just barely beat Denorfia. And it's not as if we likely were to come back against Jansen down by three with two outs in the ninth and a runner on second.  But still, oof.

3. Grimm Looked Good

Justin Grimm struck out the first four batters he faced, in dominating fashion, before losing some steam in his second inning. It still was an encouraging performance.

 

The I-could-have-been-paying-more-attention-to-the-season-premier-of-Big-Brother-17,-but-instead-I-recapped-this?!?! details, below

 

Game 69 Recap: Cubs 1, Dodgers 0 (10 innings)

Nine Over

Box Score, Play Log, Game Graphs

 

W- Motte (5-1), fly balls to center, getting paid by the word, pitchers duels

L- Peralta (1-1) going to bed early, offense

Things to Take from This Game

 1. The Cubs "Know How to Win"?

For those who put weight in such things, this sure looked like a knowing-how-to-win/will-to-win/clutch/piss-vinegar-and-gumption sort of game.  An error-free pitcher's duel against a big-time opposing pitcher and team, won in extra innings by the supporting cast after yeoman's work from the bullpen. There's precious little to complain about with this victory.

 

2. Hammel outduels Greinke


Hammel looked in command of this game from the first pitch, and by both the line and the eyeball was superior to Greinke, who also was dealing.

 

3. Waiting to go to Jansen


0 to 0 after nine, Mattingly went to the just-off-the-DL Joel Peralta, not the unhittable Kenley Jansen.  Jansen only surfaced to clean up a bases loaded, no outs mess, and he nearly did.  If Gonzalez doesn't bobble a potential double-play ball at first, he might have made it out of the inning untouched.

 

4. Fan catch of the year.


Seriously. 

 

The gory details, below

 

Game 1 Recap - So Yeah, That Happened

I can't really afford the time to pour into these game recaps as I'd really like, so I'll just comment briefly on the bigger WTF moments.

Today, the honor goes to Kerry Wood and Dale Sveum in the 8th. Granted, I got called to a meeting just as Wood was imploding, but let's take at the play-by-play.

- K. Wood relieved R. Dempster
- I. Desmond stole second
- R. Zimmerman walked
- I. Desmond to third, R. Zimmerman to second on wild pitch
- A. LaRoche walked
- J. Werth walked, I. Desmond scored, R. Zimmerman to third, A. LaRoche to second

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • 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.