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

Closing The John McDonough File

In the wake of his big job change, John McDonough absolutely carpet-bombed the Chicago media today. I heard his interview with Mike Murphy on WSCR over the noon hour, just missed his late afternoon interview on WMVP (local ESPN Radio), then caught his appearance around 6pm with Roe Conn on WLS Radio. Naturally, his mug was all over local television as well, so much so that he effectively deprived poor Drew Peterson of the screen time he requires to continue creeping out the viewing public. McDonough's 24 years with the Cubs coincided with the 24 highest annual attendance totals in Cub history. The Cub fan convention, McDonough's idea, has become an annual rite of winter in Chicago and the blueprint for similar events now hosted by many teams in all major sports. (The 2008 Royals FanFest will be held January 19th at the Overland Park Convention Center. Get your tickets now!) Beanie Baby Day and the "celebrity" singers in the 7th inning stretch? More McDonough brainstorms, which, though derided by almost all of us, helped keep the organization in the spotlight even when the product on the field wasn't capable of it. An overlooked dimension of McDonough's legacy, I think, will be the way he extended the Cub brand to embrace players from the team's past and keep them in front of the fans. Not just the stars, like Banks, Jenkins, Sandberg, Williams and, of course, Santo, but also lesser lights like Jody Davis, Milt Pappas, even Gene Oliver. By nurturing this multi-generational Cub family, McDonough and the organization made multiple generations of fans feel closer to the team than ever, enabling 60- and 65- and 70-year-old fans, as much as the 20- and 30-year-olds, to say, "They're my Cubs." So why am I so glad McDonough is gone? Because as tough as he talked on the day he took Andy MacPhail's job in October of 2006, John McDonough was Tribune Company through and through. He is Beanie Baby Day and Kellie Pickler singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame and team-owned ticket scalping services and crappy food at outrageous prices and a tacky Harry Caray statue that the tourists will line up to pose in front of. Sorry, you'll never convince me that it was the former Marketing Director--as opposed to a new Tribune Company business strategy to pump up the value of the Cubs--who convinced the corporation to spend all of that free-agency money last winter. In my opinion, John McDonough never had the depth or the vision to warrant being the President of the Chicago Cubs. He was just a comfortable choice for an ownership group that had to be looking ahead to the sale of the team even as they were anointing their boy the new king. John McDonough is the Peter Principle in a blue suit. I will give him this: he was smart enough to adjust his career path before John Canning or somebody else adjusted it for him.

Comments

I disagree. I think McDonough was perfect for the Cubs. Making money is the first priority of any business. If we have more money we can better supply our team with both free agents, long term contracts to the guys we want to keep, pay bigger signing bonuses to draftees and we can hire the best talent to manage our farm system. Sorry, this guy is a winner and he will be sorely missed. The main reason he'll be missed, however, is his ability to be the "go-between" between Hendry and the Tribune company. Being able to leverage a money maker to get more resources (money) was his trading chip. The Bank (Tribune) was sold on McDonough-that's enough.

Regardless of how you feel about him, you can't argue that he's going someplace his talents will be much more useful. I don't agree with everything he did, but I do believe that he loves this team like we do, he's just a marketing guru, and they're slimeballs by nature. That said, I'm happy he's staying in town, and I hope he can revive the legacy of our once proud hockey franchise. The Cubs don't need his type of help anymore.

he at least gets security moving...this whole ownership turmoil with the cubs...never know what direction the new owner(s) will take. he was a HOF pencil pusher...heh.

A Harry Caray statue? No problem with that, whatsoever. A good thing, to me. Celebrity 7th inning stretch singing? May he burn in hell.

What of the poor Celebriducks? Where will they go? I can't give McDonough credit for ingenuity exactly; I think what he really did was expand well on concepts that had been Cubs truisms for decades. "Beautiful Wrigley Field," Ladies' Days, "can't beat fun at the old ballpark," etc. -- these were P.K. Wrigley-era marketing ideas engineered to get people to Wrigley whether the team was a winner or (likely) not. McDonough seems to have seen opportunities to update those ideas for the current age, introducing promotional giveaways and gimcracks like Beanie Babies, tie-ins with dowdy, silly, happy-talk culture (I'm thinking Jimmy Buffett and "YMCA" here, but maybe it's unfair to blame the latter on McDonough), and, of course, washing the whole experience in celebrity from top to bottom. Whether it was all to the good for the Cubs is debatable, but I certainly agree that the Blackhawks need an infusion of this stuff pronto.

Take me out to the ballgame in a Chevy truck Take me out to the crowd (who hopefully remembered to wear their Degree underarm protection) Buy me some Planters peanuts and Cracker Jacks I don't care if I ever get back, but if I do, may it be in a comfortable Chevy truck Let's root, root, root for the Cubbies If they don't win get some Old Style For it's one, two, Three Musketeers At the old ballgame. Let's get a run together for some Old Style!

And in baseball news: Pirates scrape the bottom of the barrel for a pitcher: Jimmy Barthmaier (RHP) – Was claimed today off waivers from Houston…Spent 2007 season with Corpus Christi (AA) and has gone 30-27 with a 3.67 ERA in 98 career games (84 starts) in the minor leagues…Was Houston’s 13th round selection in the 2003 First-Year Player Draft…Led Carolina League with 134 strikeouts and 146.2ip and ranked second with 11 wins in 2006 and was rated by Baseball America as the Astros fourth-best prospect prior to the 2007 campaign.

Quick unrelated question... Now that the MVP vote is out, who won the predictions contest? I was leading, but if I remember correctly, I was going to be passed unless Derrick Lee was in the top 10...

Good post. I also grew less and less comfortable with having a marketing guy at the top of the organization -- I don't like the trend of the Under Armour ads, etc. He's a good guy to have in an organization -- he has a lot of fun and interesting ideas -- but he could have become dangerous with too much power. This is a good move for him and the Cubs. The Cubs are not an organization that needs a marketing guy at the top -- that's the easy part with this team. The Royals, the Memphis Grizzlies the Blackhawks, etc. need good marketing minds at the top. Let's get a guy who has a keen understanding of what drives success on the baseball field.

" I don’t like the trend of the Under Armour ads, etc." This marketing revenue device is staying, regardless of McD or not. Get used to it.

Yeah, the trend is staying - and we can thank Johnny -Boy for that unfortunate reality. For charging among the highest ticket prices in the majors for a terrible product most of the time, for making a broadcaster the most important remembrance of the Cubs organization via the statue, for pimping out every possible aspect of the Cub experience, replete with cornering the market on the ticket scalpers - for all of this, we bow our heads in greatful prayer and thanksgiving.

This whole idea of Wrigley need to be an untouched catherdal isBS. In order to stay at Wrigley they need to squeeze all they can out of the place in order to stay there. Look back at Ebbets field and old Crosley Field and the walls are plastered with ads and billboards. This is nothing new. They need to put a video screen on both corners of the roof so they can sell more ads and get the experience of going to a baseball game into the 20th century. The world didn't end whent the lights came.

McDonough-that was a very funny post! Jacos-very true about Ebbets field, etc..I think if we all had to choose between new modern stadium and ads on the walls of Wrigley, we'd take the latter... The fact is the President of any team should be a business guy. Whether he comes from marketing or accounting, he needs to be a business guy first and foremost. McDonough took our brand image and expanded on it. I think the single biggest thing he accomplished is that he's started to show that winning will only help the bottomline. McDonough convinced the Tribune that if the Cubs didn't start winning, people would stop coming and stop caring.

On a baseball related note, here is my list of rightfield options for us in 2008: 1. Fukodome 2. JD Drew 3. Luke Scott 4. Nick Swisher 5. Carl Crawford 6. Rocco Baldelli 7. Ken Griffey 8. Mark Teahen 9. Randy Winn 10. Mags Ordonez 11. Jeremy Hermidia 12. Andre Eithier 13. Matt Murton Yes, alot of those options are pretty unrealistic, unless we want to trade all of our good young pitchers. No, I didn't put them in order. We know that we want a lefthanded hitter that is capable of putting up good power numbers and can actually field the position. If we trade for Tejada to play short, we can set our sights lower on the offensive side. If we don't, we need this guy to hit 5th. Given those parameters, I'd say JD Drew, Nick Swisher and Luke Scott would have the most appeal. Boston is looking for bullpen arms and help at shortstop. I'm not sure Dempster+Cedeno, however would get it done. What might do it, is Felix Pie+Ryan Dempter. Boston has the luxury of letting Pie play in Pawtucket in 08... Houston is looking get younger and add pitching. Scott is old for a second year player at 29. I still think Marshall+a second baseman would be realistic. Oakland is considering a total youth movement again. I'd say a package of 3 major league ready players would Swisher. Maybe Kevin Hart+Eric Patterson+???? Or we could just sign Fukodome and hang on to the players we have... Last but not least, non of these guys are without risk. Swisher could be involved in the steroid investigation (just a hunch), Drew has trouble staying off the dl and is often viewed as a malcontent and if Scott were really good, they wouldn't be willing to trade him.

Jacos- Fully agree -- I was at Fenway this summer, and was surprised to see the number and magnitude of the ads throughout the stadium and on the OF walls. But, it's still Fenway -- it's not Minute Maid Park, or some other modern-day obscenity.

"In order to stay at Wrigley they need to squeeze all they can out of the place in order to stay there." Of course it's in the overall revenue mix, but do you honestly think that the Cubs would ever have achieved their current nationwide popularity w/o the ballpark in the first place? And what about the enormous TV revenues? Are you suggesting that if they had moved out to Schaumburg and played in a park like the old Three Rivers (that was seriously being proposed at one time) they'd be hunky dorey with large revenue streams at this point? If they didn't have the ballpark, they'd be anything but lovable losers - just losers.

Cubnut - great post, I totally agree - McDonough! I think what people should not lose sight of is that McD was a great marketing guy and always will be a marketing guy reagrdless what his title says. Sure he was President of the Cubs but his vision was leveraging the Cubs brand whether its stamped on a bag of peanuts, whether its your name on the bricks outside Wrigley, or whether its the Cubs Convention - its all about marketing the Cubs name. At some point you have to build the brand and honestly thats not John's forte. Best of luck to him in his new gig with the Hawks we all know they can certainly use his services!

"Are you suggesting that if they had moved out to Schaumburg and played in a park like the old Three Rivers" No, I just said I don't mind they sell advertisement at the park. They still have not address the falling concrete from the upper deck outside of the nets. Which should be a natural tie in with Red Lobster to brand. ;-)

Anybody who doesn't get this team to the world series is an ass. Bottom line. I'm not getting any younger, dammit.

What the hell is this? From Yahoo sports, no attribution, no byline: MLB Rumors Add to My Yahoo! RSS Wood most likely will stay with the Cubs Wednesday, Nov 21, 2007 10:41 am EST Kerry Wood Getty Images The longer Kerry Wood remains on the free-agent market, the less likely it seems that he will return to the Chicago Cubs. Several teams have courted Wood, including the Boston Red Sox, which wants him to be the primary right-handed setup man for closer Jonathan Papelbon. Source: Chicago Tribune Related: Kerry Wood, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs That's the opposite of this headline: http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-071120c…

I think Old & Blue's RSS headline said "Wood most likely will stay with the Cubs"

What kind of a deal is Andruw Jones/Scott Boras looking for? I know Boras says that they won't accept a one year deal, but what is it they are asking for? Is it anywhere near 5/75? If it is, I think that it would be a good deal for the Cubbies. I know he isn't left-handed and he can't steal third, but he would look great batting fifth behind Ramirez.

I too am interested in the idea of giving AJones a good hard look. It seems like he could really end up being a bargain, coming off such a bad year. If he goes back to doing anything like his numbers from 2002-2006, he'd be perfect in the 5th spot in the Cubs lineup. Pie and Murton could then Platoon in RF. Soriano Pie/Murton Lee ARam AJones DeRosa Soto Theroit Zambrano I'd take that for an opening day lineup

rotoworld blurbs... Reds actively shopping Ryan Freel and will entertain offers for Josh Hamilton. (Didnt't take long for the Dusty influence to pervade) Hunter has a 6 year offer from the Rangers and 5 other offers for 5 years supposedly... note from Stark's latest... "They are dying," says an official of one team that spoke with the Orioles, "to move that guy." Then again, judging by the price, "dying" might not be the right word. Tejada has $26 million coming over the next two years, and the Orioles haven't exactly offered to eat $25 million of it. So they'd like the bidders to eat the money and give them two "quality" players back, according to clubs that talked with them.

Fine, Orioles. Option 1 - Marquis, Murton and Cedeno for Tejada, Cubs take on whole salary. Option 2 - Murton and Cedeno for Tejada. Orioles pony up $8M in cash to the Cubs.

Kendall officially signs with Brewers. Can you say, "hello, sandwich pick"...I knew you could. Source, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Cubs pick up Brewers 1st round Pick. After Braves decline Salary Arbitratioin an Andruw Jones. Cubs will have 2 1st rounders and a significant upgrade. Provided that the Brewers do not sign any Type A free Agents (Which I doubt they will). HooRay Bob Melvin

George Altman — November 21, 2007 @ 2:01 pm Fine, Orioles. Option 1 - Marquis, Murton and Cedeno for Tejada, Cubs take on whole salary. Option 2 - Murton and Cedeno for Tejada. Orioles pony up $8M in cash to the Cubs. ........................................................................ Who Plays Rf?

Dr. aaronb — November 21, 2007 @ 3:26 pm Cubs pick up Brewers 1st round Pick. After Braves decline Salary Arbitratioin an Andruw Jones. Cubs will have 2 1st rounders and a significant upgrade. Provided that the Brewers do not sign any Type A free Agents (Which I doubt they will). HooRay Bob Melvin =========================== DR AARON B: As was mentioned by Cubster and Rob G, the Brewers signing Jason Kendall prior to December 1st means the compensation pick the Cubs will get in next June's Rule 4 Draft will be a "sandwich" pick between the 1st and 2nd round, and the compensation "sandwich" picks for losing Type "B" free-agents will be slotted AFTER all compensation "sandwich" picks between the 1st and 2nd rounds are allocated to clubs losing Type "A" FAs. Also, if more than one club gets a Type "B" compensation sandwich pick, the picks are slotted in the same draft order as the rest of the draft. Last year, the Cubs got overall pick #48 after the Dodgers signed Type "B" FA Juan Pierre prior to December 1st. The Cubs ultimately used the pick to select catcher Josh Donaldson (Auburn) this past June. The Cubs did not have to offer arbitration to Pierre on 12/1 in order to get the bonus pick. Whenever a Type "A" or Type "B" player signs prior to December 1st, compensation is now automatic. The only time a club needs to offer arbitration to a free-agent in order to get a compensation pick is when a Type "A" or Type "B" FA signs after December 1st. Kendall was the only Cubs FA rated as a Type "B." None of the Cubs free-agents this time around were rated Type "A."

[...] Baseball - Wrigley-era marketing ideas engineered to get people to Wrigley whether the team was a winner or (likely) not. McDonough seems to have seen opportunities to update those ideas for the current age, introducing promotional giveaways and gimcracks like more info [...]

[...] Closing The John McDonough FileBaseball - He is Beanie Baby Day and Kellie Pickler singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame and team-owned ticket scalping services and The Royals, the Memphis Grizzlies the Blackhawks, etc. need good marketing minds at the top. Let s get a guy who has a keen [...]

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    in other news, it took 3 PA before a.rizzo got his 1st HBP of the season.

  • Eric S (view)

    With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳

  • 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.