Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus two players are on the 60-DAY IL   

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and eight players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, four players are on the 15-DAY IL, and two players is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-28-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Richard Lovelady
Hector Neris 
Daniel Palencia 
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
Christopher Morel
* Matt Mervis
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Pete Crow-Armstrong 
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 8 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
Luis Vazquez, INF 

10-DAY IL: 2
* Cody Bellinger, OF  
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 4
Kyle Hendricks, P 
* Drew Smyly, P 
* Justin Steele, P
* Jordan Wicks, P    

60-DAY IL: 2 
Caleb Kilian, P 
Julian Merryweather, P
 





Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

A Celebration of the Awesome Awfulness of Our Man Neifi

If you're a connoisseur of the work of Neifi Perez as I am–and as I know many longtime readers of The Cub Reporter are–you'll delight in this piece written by King Kaufman and posted at Salon.com.

The story, an excerpt from "Top of the Order: 25 Writers Pick Their Favorite Baseball Player of All Time," is simply too delicious for me to recap here. I will just share this passage, in which Kaufman, a Giants fan, explains how he became a Neifiphile.

It was in early June 2003, [Neifi's] first and only full season with the club, when I noticed he was a sort of secret weapon. The Giants were a good but not great 26-22 on the days when Perez made it onto the field. But when he stayed in the dugout, they were 13-1...

So I invented the Neifi Index, a measure of the contribution a player makes to his team by not playing. The Giants had a .542 winning percentage when Perez played, .929 when he did not. So his Neifi Index was .387 (.929 minus .542). I concocted the Neifi Award, given to the bench player in each league with the highest Neifi Index, and unique among baseball awards in that you or I, if we could only find our way onto a major-league team, would be a shoo-in to win it.

Postscript: in linking to Neifi's page at Baseball-Reference.com, I just saw that King Kaufman is a paid sponsor of the page, which also carries this tribute from the writer: "In his own way, he was the greatest I ever saw."

Indeed.


Comments

pieces like that are why the Internet was invented...

Did you know that Neifi in Tongolese, a southern Island not far from Indonesia, means "ball magnet" a little known fact, although most do not realize it it not THAT kind of ball. Had his parents known, they would have chosen a derivative, "Neifay" which is the metrosexual form of Sack magnet which changes the meaning altogether - it is the ability to fill a grocery bag with fruits and veggies from the isles, and woman standing in the line has a tradition of exhortation to the bag boy with the words "Neifay Ole." At which time the bagger leaned the paper bag forward and scooped the food with the hand in a shape of a spade shovel, filling to the brim, uprighting the sack and handing it to the patron with a slight brush of the back of the hand toward the female upper body part, like shoulder, in an expression of respect and piqued interest. If done correctly, the couple would be married the next day and drummers would line the wedding recessional, shouting to the beat, "Neifay Ole, toto buffet!" over and over until exhausted. After the chanting, clerks would check if the bag boy was already married at which time he was sent to AA ball in the Southern league to learn the skills of sliding since he already knew the skill of running FAST... True story. Check out www.askascout.com for more or to sign up for an application for an opening in the check out line there.

I couldn't help myself: Went back to Baseball-Reference.com—how mind-blowingly amazing is that site, by the way?—and calculated the Neifi Index for his time with the Cubs. The Sucktastic One played in 264 games for the Cubs between 9/16/04 and 8/19/06. The Cubs went 125-139 (.473) in those games. In the 49 Neifi-less games the team played through that same period, the record was 23-26 (.469). This suggests a NEGATIVE Neifi Index of .004, i.e., THE CUBS WERE ACTUALLY BETTER WITH NEIFI THAN WITHOUT HIM! I submit that, like albino squirrels and watchable movies based on "Saturday Night Live characters," this is an exceedingly rare phenomenon worthy of appreciation and intense academic study.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    bleh.

    at least MIL has lost the past 2 nights, too.

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal pinch hitting for matt mervis vs jansen?

    okay.

  • crunch (view)

    surprising amount of cubs fans at the park, too.  HR really brought them out.

  • Cubster (view)

    hmmmm... 

    4-4

    beisbol can be fun

  • crunch (view)

    4 singles and 0 walks (1 HBP) through 7 innings for cubs batters...amazing they even have 1 run.

  • crunch (view)

    nico gets his 5th error on the year...damn.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Folks, I've known Richard Lovelady since he was an 18 yr old Freshman at East Ga State College in Swainsboro, Ga.

    I was the WBB Coach at EGSC and Richard was their prize recruit from outside of Hinesville, Ga.

    My roommate was the Pitching Coach there.

    Richard showed up a skinny, loose lipped, 83mph Lefty. Pretty good basketball player actually. 

    My roommate became the head coach.

    Richard came back from a minor injury for his Sophmore year a more serious man. He hit 90mph and started mowing GA JUCO hitters down. It was really fun to watch.

    He was the first D1 signee for EGSC baseball (school had only had athletics for five yrs at that point). He went to Kennesaw St and became their closer. One yr later, he hit 100mph and KC drafted him in the 10th Rd. 

    He lost the high velo with a surgery a while back.

    It's so cool to see him in MLB. And now he's a Cub!! It's crazy to realize I actually "know" a Cub.

    He's a legit good guy.

    Easy to root for!!!

     

  • Cubster (view)

    Tim. Thanks for remembering Lee Elia Day. It will always be one of the most epic rants in all sports.  It took about 3 seconds to recognize him from your picture but I  did get it right. 

    Now that Les Grobstein is no longer with us, that might contribute to this grand piece of Cubbery fading.

    Just like fine wine, it should be savored...unedited. 40 years, wow.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Does he have any options left, Phil?

  • crunch (view)

    morel in the lineup and playing 3rd.