Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

39 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (one slot is open), plus two players are on the 60-DAY IL and one player has been DESIGNATED FOR ASSIGNMENT (DFA)   

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and nine players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, three players are on the 15-DAY IL, and one player is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-23-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Hector Neris 
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 9 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 3
Kyle Hendricks, P 
* Drew Smyly, P 
* Justin Steele, P   

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

DFA: 1 
Garrett Cooper, 1B 
 




Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Geovany Soto: the Cubs' Bronx Bomber

Submitted by Cubnut on
In Friday's New York Times, Alan Schwarz profiled Geo Soto, and we learn that despite being born in Puerto Rico and attending high school there, Soto played his first "significant game" in New York. The Cub catcher lived with his family in the Bronx from the time he was four until age eight.

Soto remembers it very clearly. It might have been just below the reservoir. Or maybe down near that ice rink. But it was definitely in Manhattan's Central Park.

"It was awesome," said Soto... "You go with your dad to the practice field, but never in my life I'd ever put a uniform on and played with other kids. I felt like, 'Wow, it's really happening—I'm going to play baseball.'"

Schwarz also writes about Soto's rapport with the Cubs pitching staff.

In part of because of his excellent English, Soto handled the veteran pitching staff with such aplomb that many Cubs considered him the team's backbone and most valuable player—despite the presence of established stars like Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano. Soto knew when to talk and when not to.

Regarding Soto's hitting prowess, Schwarz mentions Soto's significant weight loss leading up to his monster offensive season at Iowa (.353-26-109) in 2007.

[Soto's weight] ballooned to as much as 250 pounds. It was only after losing weight that he began to emerge...

"Nobody was high on him after 2006, myself included," said Gary Hughes, a special assistant to the Cubs' general manager, Jim Hendry. "But there was a different Geovany Soto out there."

The new Soto had more flexibility through his midsection, allowing him to turn on pitches, and the stamina to keep calling them deep into games and seasons.

Soto is hardly the first player to see a correlation between his weight and his baseball numbers. Still, with all the stats sites and baseball reference books out there, I can't ever recall seeing one that tracked changes in a player's weight from season to season. Maybe it's not possible to get legitimate numbers anyway: teams in all sports are notorious for fudging those figures to effect. (Basketball teams, of course, are also known to misstate their players' heights.)

But if it was possible to gather this data, I think we would be able to establish some interesting connections between particular players and particular performance levels.

Tags
Geovany Soto

Comments

Submitted by Rob G. on Sat, 03/07/2009 - 03:18 pm

In part of because of his excellent English, Soto handled the veteran pitching staff with such aplomb that many Cubs considered him the team's backbone and most valuable player—despite the presence of established stars like Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano. Soto knew when to talk and when not to.

Did the paper of record end a sentence with a preposition on a paragraph talking about excellent English?

I'll show myself out...

Submitted by DLees Heymaker on Sat, 03/07/2009 - 03:47 pm

Actually, ending a sentence with a preposition is considered proper. See Chicago Manual of Style 5.169: "The traditional caveat of yesteryear against ending sentences with prepositions is, for most writers, an unnecessary and pedantic restriction. As Winston Churchill famously said, 'That is the type of arrant pedantry with which I shall not put....' The 'rule' prohibiting terminal prepositions was an ill-founded superstition."

[ ]

Submitted by Transmission on Sat, 03/07/2009 - 03:52 pm

I'm not the greatest with my grammar rules, but my sense is that at this point split infinitives and ending sentences with prepositions is more a matter of style than of grammar rules.  I try not to end a sentence with a preposition because A. it usually doesn't have a good ring to it and B. it's become a silly social convention that people notice, even on baseball blogs. The NYT writer should have avoided it for both of those reasons, as much or moreso than for any questionable grammar...  

 

:)

 

 Ok, back to work here.  woo.

 

Oh, and Nice Article.

Submitted by crunch on Sat, 03/07/2009 - 03:58 pm

i wonder what god of graphic design made that patch on Team Italy's jersey... bright white text on bright/light neon green...brilliant. i still have no idea what it says.

[ ]

Submitted by Cubster on Sun, 03/08/2009 - 03:59 am

Navigator, you misread that article...Dr. Craig Morgan did Schilling's surgery. He was assisted by one of Dr. Romeo's associates. They apparently used Dr. Romeo's technique. The operation isn't new it's just a minor variation on technique that is "new".

Submitted by Cubster on Sun, 03/08/2009 - 03:56 am

Phil Rogers sunday article mentions Dr. Tony Romeo (he's officially on the WSux payroll as one of their team physicians, he's a shoulder specialist from Rush) in the context of the operation that Curt Schilling had (biceps tenodesis). Even though the surgery was done in Boston (by Dr. Morgan). http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-08-rogers-inside-baseballmar08… This operation removes the biceps from where it originates above the glenoid (shoulder socket) because it's frayed or partially torn and takes the tendon where it rests more proximally on the upper humerus (arm bone) and re-anchors it there. The frayed origin can then be removed. This keeps the tendon from completely rupturing and gives the long head origin of the biceps a secure origin again. The short head origin of the biceps attaches at a different location (coracoid process) and usually doesn't tear. http://www.southwest-ortho.com/images/sports/proximal-biceps-tendons.jpg Biceps tenodesis has been around a long time and the techniques have improved modestly with smaller incisions. The improvements due more to technology advancements such as suture anchors and interference screw fixation options than anything (at least for that operation). These tools have developed in response to shoulder arthroscopy which has seen many advances in the last decade. The Knee joint was the area that had the first wave of advancements before the shoulder became the "hot" area. Now the hip is in it's early development stages...hence the on and off decisions regarding whether ARo-d should have his hip labral tear fixed. On WSCR sports update they said ARod WILL have surgery tuesday. Expecting 6-9 weeks for recovery. This is most likely what Utley had in the offseason so I'd expect if he does return that quickly it will be as a DH.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    morel with 4 clean plays in 4 innings...showed off his 100000000mph arm a couple times.

    cody bellinger not having a good 4th, though...5 run leads are handy when your CF is making your pitcher have a 5-out inning.  2nd blown chance was ruled a hit even though it went in/out of his glove...1st was lost in the lights, also ruled a hit.

  • crunch (view)

    welcome back happ!  double off the wall 1st PA back.

  • crunch (view)

    oh yeah, totally, i was just chiming about why i fan like i fan.

    i would like nothing more than hendricks to keep on hendricks'ing.  guys with his stuff can throw for a long, long time as long as it works.

    he velocity is actually up a minor amount this year.  it's really "damn" when a guy like him not only has gas in the tank, but it's looking like it was years ago.  he added a curve a few years ago and it helped a little bit, but he's throwing it less and less while the fb/change combo are less effective.

  • Alexander Dimm (view)

    CRUNCH—There is no one person in this community I’m talking about.  My remarks were not directed at you or anyone, but at a tone I’ve noticed lately. 

    You have a great, dry sense of humor and there is thought behind your comments.   You and I don’t always agree but I always understand your position.  

    Lastly, and I’ll be quiet, I agree with you on Hendricks.  We can dislike the recent performance but still love the guy.  Lots of questions about his future.
     

  • crunch (view)

    myself, i make a good amount of outrageously unrealistic comments that are sometimes "violent"...like my recent suggestion of "pulling the bandaid off" by having hendricks throw every inning of every game until he's on the IL.

    i would hope any athlete that cares about what is written on the internet realizes how casual fans can be about treating their lives like scripted TV characters that don't have real lives.  it's not an excuse to do it, but there's a lot of it out there.

    but yeah, in real life i'm rooting for guys to have long and healthy careers even if i'm not happy with current performances...except for some guys...and i'm pretty sure i don't leave grey area for those comments...and almost all of them are not good humans whether they're playing baseball or not...

    hendricks was getting a good amount of boos in his last game.  i would bet a million that he will get a standing O every time he visits wrigley in his post-playing days, or a return with a new team should his career continue...or if he comes back and puts in an oldschool good performance.

  • Alexander Dimm (view)

    What are the chances we can back off on gloating over other people’s misfortune?  One of the things I appreciate about the TCR community is that the remarks are more productive and add to how I like to follow the game.  

    Lately, however, I’m reading comments that are just mean.  If I were an MLB player, I would hate to get a back or finger injury and have someone write ‘hurrah!  I hope we never see him again!’  Especially when it is someone we were praising not long ago.  I’m not saying ‘don’t express how you feel’ but some comments lately seem downright mean spirited.  Stuff I expect from other communities but don’t often see here.  The TCR community has always spoken the truth but never with such a dark tone.

    Just my two cents.  I hope Hendricks comes back and is the professor we all know. He can pitch for the Cubs as long as he wants in my book.  

  • crunch (view)

    happ is back (and starting), mervis DH, tauchman gets RF.

    morel 5th in the lineup.  hoerner continues to lead off, even vs a righty.

  • George Altman (view)

    I don't care to see Hendricks or Smyly on the 26-man Roster the rest of the season. Both, stupid signings and option pick up by Jed. 

  • crunch (view)

    i know the cubs are paying the guys, but for the sake of the win/loss column this is some great news.

    woo!  people getting injured!  kick ass!

    sportsball is cruel.

    would have liked to keep cooper, but it looks like they're gonna go with wisdom if they have to pick a righty who's gonna K 1/3rd of his PA's.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Edwards would be my guess, or maybe they’re hoping Sanders or R Thompson can finally figure it out 

Click HERE for the last 50 comments