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, twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, one player is on the 15-DAY IL, and one player is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-18-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

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

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 
* Justin Steele, P   

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




Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

A PCL Pitchers' Duel!?

Submitted by Mike Wellman on

It's a shame there weren't more people there to see it because duels of legitimate pitching prospects like the one that played out last night at Principal Park are rare in the homer-happy Pacific Coast League.

 The mundanely named Bud Norris and your own fighting Irishman with Samardzija scrabbled on his mail fought each other to a 2-2 standoff before Round Rock eventually prevailed 7-5.

For his part, Samardzija looked every bit the big leaguer in waiting as he carved his way through the Texans' lineup to the tune of six innings, one walk, five strikeouts, less than six dozen pitches and a lone hit, that unfortunately being a two-run homer by Reggie Abercrombie who would later blast an encore that put his team ahead to stay.

Samardzija offered first pitch strikes to 12 of the 21 hitters he faced and 49 of his mere 71 pitches were strikes.

His inning by inning pitch counts broke down thusly: 11,13,9,9,18, and 11. Abercrombie's homer followed a two-out walk in the 5th.

Samardzija hit more batters [2] than hit him.

The prodigious Jake Fox smote a tying two-run blast beyond the center field wall in the bottom of the sixth to swell his RBI total to 20 already in only 10 games. That finished Norris, Houston's #2 prospect, who appears as tenacious and hard-throwing as his counterpart. Both were throwing in the low to mid 90's and one can imagine them opposing each other in Houston and Chicago before much longer.

Between the 6th and 7th innings I spotted a very high-ranking Chicago Cub official in the seats directly behind home plate and wandered down to see if I might pick a little at his large brain. I introduced myself by name and affiliation.

"After the game," he said, "I'm working right now." as though he were a player and I an autograph hound. I said I didn't mean to interrupt; just thought I could ask a couple quickies between frames.

"Whaddaya wanna ask?" he gasped as his eyes rolled.

"Does Jake Fox have a big league future with this organization? Are other teams interested in him?"

"That's none of your business." the wheeler-dealer said. "Do you expect me to tell you what teams have asked me about him?"

"No," said I. "I just wondered if there's interest in him."

"Jake Fox is a big league hitter." he declared in summation.

Then followed an even briefer, but no less pleasant, discourse about young Mr. Samardzija's progress after which I thanked him for his time and left him to enjoy what remained of what I like to call the "I think my husband's home" race in which contestants scramble to dress themselves in a uniform ASAP and lunge across a finish line in pursuit of a gift certificate for a free oil change.

I hope the high-powered observer enjoyed the 7th inning stretch, by which time Samardzija had showered and I was on my way to a late showing of "State of Play". Russell Crowe also looked very sharp...MW

Tags
Iowa Cubs update

Comments

Submitted by Hagsag on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:25 am

I just cannot believe that Joey Gathright is more valuable on the Cubs bench than Jake Fox would be.

Submitted by Q-Ball on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:53 am

Thanks Iowa Mike! Jake Fox is clearly a major-league hitter. This brings up a question: Just how bad is he defensively? He started his career as a catcher, but presumably shed the tools of ignorance because he was terrible. Even a bad defensive catcher with a good bat gets a major league job. He has played some LF and RF; I'm sure he's not a good outfielder, but how bad? Are we talking Carlos Lee bad, Adam Dunn bad, or a whole new level of stink? He's AL trade bait

[ ]

Submitted by Rob G. on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:13 am

AZ Phil's spring training reports pretty much summed him up as uncapable of playing any defensive position on the field. What he lacks in skills is only dwarfed by his complete defensive ineptitude. And I'm pretty sure that's how the Cubs think about him as well. Seems like you could hide him at 1b maybe, but he's #3 on that depth chart in this organization.

Submitted by Mike Wellman on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:42 am

Well, Big Jake has played errorless ball @ 1B so far, but there was a play in Friday night's game that perhaps spoke to his defensive instincts, or lack thereof. He waited on a slow roller up the line instead of charging it, allowing the ball to eventually carom off the bag. That resulted in what looked like a scramble to recover a fumble between Fox & pitcher Randy Wells - luckily Wells came up w/ the ball & got a toe on the base in time to nip the runner...

Submitted by The E-Man on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:26 am

COTTS WATCH: TCR alert to see when Cotts gets sent down. Keep watching the "wires" boys. I was thinking about the Gathright AB yesterday. There were better LH hitters on the bench, but in Lou's mind, he may have thought that he gives the club a chance on a grounder or IF slow-roller. However, with a swinging K, there was no chance. I also wondered if a suicide bunt would have had a chance - however, a force at any base with the bags juiced makes this a difficult proposition. It was a terrible AB any way ya slice it. It is going to be a long season if the starters cannot go deeper. And, Jim Hendry fucked the Cubs with the Demp deal. At the rate he is going, 12 wins will be a long shot.

Submitted by Invalid_User on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:51 am

Questions: 1. Did you offer the high ranking Cubs official some donuts? 2. Is Jake Fox the White Sam Horn for the new Millennium?

Submitted by Mike Wellman on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:02 pm

All I offered was my hand in friendship...as for Jake Fox/Sam Horn, yeah, ebony & ivory; the one-syllable sluggers - one punch knocker-outers

Submitted by The Joe on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:03 pm

Was it obvious who the high ranking official was? or is it a secret? He sounds like a dick. Hendry is high ranking. Fleita is a dick.

Submitted by Mike Wellman on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:54 pm

Jason Waddell is the lead lefty in the Iowa pen; unscored upon in 4 outings w/ 0 WALKS over a scant 3&1/3...hasn't worked in either of the 2 home games so far, but imagine Hendry would want a look @ him if they were gonna drive back to Chicago together...

Submitted by Charlie on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:31 pm

Hey, Mike. I asked this in a past post, but I think it may have gotten lost in a discussion on Milton Bradley and overreactions, so here I go again: Nate Spears started at SS the other day. Have you seen him play any SS? How does he look? He sure seems to be a Fontenot Lite (if that's possible), so I would guess that if he's passable at SS that gives him a much better chance of seeing the majors (particularly with the Cubs).

Submitted by Mike Wellman on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:46 pm

Charlie - Spears has started so far @ 3B, 2B & SS; his path may be as a utility-type spare part...note that he won the 'best hustler' award last year in the Southern League which, assuming it was deserved, makes him my kind o' ballplayer - no surprise that MLB bestows no equivalent award these days...

Submitted by crunch on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:36 pm

that "affiliation" thing might be your downfall with the returned attitude...esp. if you weren't talking to a low-level scout who can generally be bought off with a stadium beer or nachos (ha). over the past few years bloggers have "used" too many scouts for their sources and if you think the Tribune releasing rumors are a sore spot, they can at least be taken care of with a direct call to the reporter with a number already at hand (and a pre-existing relationship). when/if you get deemed a non-threat or someone that uses their sources in a non-drama-inducing way things generally get better. i got little experience dealing with the high-end talent evaluators, though. as gruff as some can be you at least got some good stuff outta him.

[ ]

Submitted by champsummers on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:47 pm

While I'd also like to pick his brain, I have no problem with him keeping his cards close. It'd be silly to let the rest of the league know what you want to do. Plus, if he told us exactly what he was going to do, we'd all have to go back to discussing that 3-2 Bradley pitch... Or conservative v liberal stuff... Or NFL wide recievers... Or France! (what happend to Karl anyhow?)

Submitted by mg420 on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:36 pm

"That's none of your business." the wheeler-dealer said. "Do you expect me to tell you what teams have asked me about him?" the "wheeler-dealer" comment makes it pretty obvious imo that it was hendry that he met with.

Submitted by The E-Man on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:24 pm

Just saw Woody pitching for the Tribe on TBS. K's Posada on three pitches. Sigh - I wish they coulda worked something out between each other (Hendry/KW).

Submitted by Dmac on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:17 pm

An excellent decision - it's been raining pretty hard here over the past 4 hours, no need to risk more injuries this early in the season.

Submitted by crunch on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:12 pm

could baseball-reference.com cram more useless stuff into their webpage? if you're like me and highlight stuff to read it better (small black text on a white background...brilliant) then you churn away background processes that aggregate years into a pop-up. i like the OPTION of being able to do that, but geez...first it's made harder to read then the things i do to read it better are negated. i'm sure i can block it like those sites that think if i want to highlight text means i need a dictionary or websearch (very very very lame)...but still... i miss html 3.2... ...and don't get me started on the VERY useless flash-based-only sites. i could care less how "pretty" my internet experience is with someone's brand if i can't find the info i need off their site without clicking through a mountain of pictures and dropdown menus using hover-over technology.

[ ]

Submitted by Mister Whipple on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:59 pm

Firefox with Flashblock.

[ ]

Submitted by crunch on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:08 pm

it's not flash driven...it's a script that does it. i basically blocked all scripts on baseball-reference.com with ABP coming from the problem area... http://www.baseball-reference.com/js/* mainly, im sick of seeing web pages get more bloated without me being able to define how bloated i want my experience.

[ ]

Submitted by Mister Whipple on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:48 pm

Have you looked into Greasemonkey? Someone may have already used it to build a script that disables the [highlight text] = [do something annoying] script. If not you may be able to build your own. Let me know if you want my help. This is a pet peeve of mine as well.

Submitted by Ryno on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:16 pm

Cards are just going back home Tuesday, Cubs are still at home. Maybe they'll just play it tomorrow.

Submitted by Mike Wellman on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:08 pm

Another day; another homer, double & 2 rbi for Meister Fox...nice outing for Atkins too [finally]

Submitted by The E-Man on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 04:24 pm

Well, perhaps there will be an in-season trade for a LH relief pitcher to an AL team for Fox?

Recent comments

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Indeed they do TJW!

    For the record I’m not in favor of solely building a team through paying big to free agents. But I’m also of the mind that when you develop really good players, get them signed to extensions that buy out a couple years of free agency, including with team options. And supplement the home grown players with free agent splashes or using excess prospects to trade for stars under team control for a few years. Sort of what Atlanta does, basically. Everyone talks about the dodgers but I feel that Atlanta is the peak organization at the current moment.

    That said, the constant roster churn is very Rays- ish. What they do is incredible, but it’s extremely hard to do which is why they’re the only ones frequently successful that employ that strategy. I definitely do not want to see a large market team like ours follow that model closely. But I don’t think free agent frenzies is always the answer. It’s really only the Dodgers that play in that realm. I could see an argument for the Mets too. The Yankees don’t really operate like that anymore since the elder Steinbrenner passed. Though I would say the reigning champions built a good deal of that team through free agent spending.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    The issue is the Cubs are 11-7 and have been on the road for 12 of those 18.  We should be at least 13-5, maybe 14-4. Jed isn't feeling any pressure to play anyone he doesn't see fit.
    But Canario on the bench, Morel not at 3B for Madrigal and Wisdom in RF wasn't what I thought would happen in this series.
    I was hoping for Morel at 3B, Canario in RF, Wisdom at DH and Madrigal as a pinch hitter or late replacement.
    Maybe Madrigal starts 1 game against the three LHSP for Miami.
    I'm thinking Canario goes back to Iowa on Sunday night for Mastrobuoni after the Miami LHers are gone.
    Canario needs ABs in Iowa and not bench time in MLB.
    With Seiya out for a while Wisdom is safe unless his SOs are just overwhelmingly bad.

    My real issue with the lineup isn't Madrigal. I'm not a fan, but I've given up on that one.
    It's Tauchman getting a large number of ABs as the de factor DH and everyday player.
    I didn't realize that was going to be the case.
    We need a better LH DH. PCA or ONKC need to force the issue in about a month.
    But, even if they do so, Jed doesn't have to change anything if the Cubs stay a few over .500!!!

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Totally depends on the team and the player involved. If your team’s philosophy is to pay huge dollars to bet on the future performance of past stars in order to win championships then, yes, all of the factors you mentioned are important.

    If on the other hand, if the team’s primary focus is to identify and develop future stars in an effort to win a championship, and you’re a young player looking to establish yourself as a star, that’s a fit too. Otherwise your buried within your own organization.

    Your comment about bringing up Canario for the purposes of sitting him illustrates perfectly the dangers of rewarding a non-performing, highly paid player over a hungry young prospect, like Canario, who is perpetually without a roster spot except as an insurance call up, but too good to trade. Totally disincentivizing the performance of the prospect and likely diminishing it.

    Sticking it to your prospects and providing lousy baseball to your fans, the consumers and source of revenue for your sport, solely so that the next free agent gamble finds your team to be a comfortable landing spot even if he sucks? I suppose  that makes sense to some teams but it’s definitely not the way I want to see my team run.

    Once again, DJL, our differences in philosophy emerge!

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    That’s just kinda how it works though, for every team. No team plays their best guys all the time. No team is comprising of their best 26 even removing injuries.

    When baseball became a business, like REALLY a business, it became important to keep some of the vets happy, which in turn keeps agents happy and keeps the team with a good reputation among players and agents. No one wants to play for a team that has a bad reputation in the same way no one wants to work for a company that has a bad rep.

    Don’t get me wrong, I hate it too. But there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

    On that topic, I find it silly the Cubs brought up Canario to sit as much as he has. He’s going to get Velazquez’d, and it’s a shame.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Of course, McKinstry runs circles around $25 million man Javier Baez on that Tigers team. Guess who gets more playing time?

    But I digress…

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Seems like Jed was trying to corner the market on mediocre infielders with last names starting with "M" in acquiring Madrigal, Mastroboney and Zach McKinstry.  

     

    At least he hasn't given any of them a Bote-esque extension.  

  • Childersb3 (view)

    AZ Phil:
    Rookie ball (ACL) starts on May 4th. Do yo think Ramon and Rosario (maybe Delgado) stay in Mesa for the month of May, then go to MB if all goes "solid"?
     

  • crunch (view)

    masterboney is a luxury on a team that has multiple, capable options for 2nd, SS, and 3rd without him around.  i don't hate the guy, but if madrigal is sticking around then masterboney is expendable.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    I THINK I agree with that decision. They committed to Wicks as a starter and, while he hasn’t been stellar I don’t think he’s been bad enough to undo that commitment.

    That said, Wesneski’s performance last night dictates he be the next righty up.

    Quite the dilemma. They have many good options, particularly in relief, but not many great ones. And complicating the situation is that the pitchers being paid the most are by and large performing the worst - or in Taillon’s case, at least to this point, not at all.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Wesneski and Mastrobuoni to Iowa

    Taillon and Wisdom up

    Wesneski can't pitch for a couple of days after the 4 IP from last night. But Jed picked Wicks over Wesneski.

Click HERE for the last 50 comments