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, ten players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, two players are on the 15-DAY IL, and two players are on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-17-2024
 
* 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
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

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

OPTIONED: 10 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

10-DAY IL: 2 
Seiya Suzuki, OF
Patrick Wisdom, INF 

15-DAY IL: 2
* Justin Steele, P  
Jameson Taillon, P 

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





Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Harden Goes to DL So Randy Wells Isn't Going Anywhere

Reader Osiris flagged this bad news by way of Paul Sullivan in the Tribune:

The Cubs placed Rich Harden on the 15-day disabled list with a back strain on Friday, and inserted Randy Wells into the rotation for Saturday's game.

This will allow the Cubs to activate Carlos Zambrano without having to make another roster move, i.e., demote Wells. Harden felt "a twinge" when he pitched last Sunday against the Astros.

You may vomit as you see fit.

Comments

I don't know about you, but knowing we could have picked him up for Uncle Milty money, I die a little bit every time Raul Ibanez hits a home run. And he just crushed his MLB leading 16th (41st RBI) of the year off the Yanks.

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In reply to by crunch

I'm not sure this is true. Living in Philadelphia and watching several Phillies games this year, Ibanez has seemed fine (and even good) in LF. Of course, we're used to watching Pat Burrell out there (who could barely move), so almost anyone would seem an improvement. But I think Ibanez's defense is totally adequate, and NO LIE his offense would DEFINITELY be better than the shit Bradley is doing. Plus, Ibanez is a COOL DUDE. As of right now, Ibanez is actually a hero in Philadelphia and has already become above and beyond one of the city's favorite players (can Chicago say this of Milton Bradley?). Loooong way to go, but Ibanez has far and away been better than Bradley this year. Better hitter (by far), better fielder (perhaps), better baserunner (by far) and, of course, better health-wise. I actually had hoped the Cubs would have signed Ibanez over Bradley despite the fact that Ibanez is 7-8 years older and because of his reputed/alleged poor outfield defense (I didn't expect the Phillies to sign Ibanez for whatever reason). I reading about Ibanez's workout regimen last year, which includes lots of stretching and core work, and it totally demonstrated a really enlightened and smart effort/approach to staying strong physically and mentally. In short, Ibanez seems to "get it" and I would be really surprised if Bradley comes close to outplaying Ibanez over the next three years. Just sayin.

Harden to DL? And the ugliness just keeps coming. This getting ugly fast. I said this for weeks, we need to get healthy. If this team is not healthy it is not deep enough nor good enough to win. And as bad as the minors are, you can't expect any real help from there.

There are many cases on this team of players really struggling offensively, but a couple players we haven't had to worry about are now ice cold. Both Soriano and Theriot started off the season great, really carrying this team early on. But now they have been struggling for a awhile. Soriano since April 24: 24-105 (.229) Theriot since April 26: 20-89 (.225) Really right now the only regular hitting well is Fukudome (pleasant surprise to me). If you look at the numbers it really is surprising they are still over .500. We really need ARam back and some of these players finally get out of the bad funks (Bradley, Lee, Fonty, Soto).

I don't think I've seen the Cubs offense struggle this much in a very very long time. I don't know if there is a solution, you can't just plug in Fox and think he's going to do something when the other guys aren't doing squat. It sucks to be a Cubs fan right now, lets hope beyond hope that they can turn it around somehow.

that's all I got... 2004 redux...great team on paper, can't stay healthy.

Last year's OBP for the Cubs: .354 This year's, so far, .329, just above Pittsburgh. Last year almost all the hitters worked the count consistently. This year Fukodome is working the count consistently. That's the big difference I'm seeing.

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In reply to by navigator

is that Hendry will offer any and all top prospects for marginal talent. We don't have much in the minors, but I really don't want to lose what we do have to acquire a Steve Trachsel-esque pitcher or a hitter of such level. My reasoning is based on two points. First we are not struggling because we have lesser talent. Thus we are not likely to put anyone currently in our lineup on the bench (with the exception of Fontenot and Marshall). Thus anyone we acquire will be either to fill on for injured players or be a minor player; in either case, we will likely overpay for what the player will bring. Unless we are willing/able to bench Bradley (if he doesn't come around) or a starter is out for the year, I think a trade is not going to be the impetus to win. We need to be healthy and playing at expected levels, not trade to hope for some magic. Second we finally are beginning to develop some players on whom we can base our future. The team is getting old in many places and Hendry's back-loaded contracts make any major free agent acquisitions less likely. Finally we have a few players who are either giving us high hopes (Thomas, Jay Jackson and particularly Vitters, for example) or can project to be good (Cashner, Castro or Searle for example). I want to retain these possibilities, even at a lesser level; I like that we have a group of pitchers that look like they will at least be serviceable middle relievers in Blake Parker, Jeff Stevens, John Gaub and Alex Maestri. Mainly I want to win or lose with what we have; if we are not good enough, I don't think a trade will help us enough to make a difference. And any such trade will likely hurt us more in the future than any help we receive now.

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In reply to by springs

That's why I am not that concerned with the record. If they end up stinking up the joint then maybe they become sellers in July and it would be interesting to see them restock the minor leagues a bit. The question then becomes, has Hendry developed a minor league scouting structure capable of making the right choices there. Right now I don't have a lot of faith that he has. As we start to complain more and the boos begin to fill Wrigley, naturally Piniella and others will start to complain about us fans not having any patience. He missed the first 96 years of that patience, so I'll have no sympathy when the boos do start coming. Frankly, I just hope that if the team sucks this year that the fans would stop coming, then the team can begin to wonder which they'd rather have. An empty stadium or a stadium full of boo birds. Either way the only answer is winning. Hendry and Piniella raised the bar and if they can't finish what they started the Cubs management should do what the Bulls did when Doug Collins couldn't get to the next level.

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In reply to by navigator

Last year we were ranked first in bases on balls, this year tenth. OPB is a function of batting average + walks, which is why our ranking in the league has fallen to about the same levels for OPB and walks. They're not working the count this year like they did last year. Which is one of the reasons why the power is down. That and Ramirez is AWOL this year and Bradley is nothing more than a caricature of himself and Lee has turned into a contact hitter and DeRosa is gone and nobody in their right mind serves up a fastball to Soriano and ... the list goes on I guess. I agree with you about Hendry that he's screwed the pooch in order to stock the team with has beens but the only way around that is to remove Hendry. He's not gonna get rid of himself. Which is why my mantra lately is that I'm ready for a reboot. I just wish the sale would get finished because despite any happy talk you hear from Hendry and/or Ricketts, any time new management comes in there is a re-org. That's just how things work in business. I'm just waiting for Hendry's next move to move the few prospects we have for Peavy and then watch Peavy go down as another overpriced, hurt pitcher.

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In reply to by Old and Blue

OPB? I thought we were talking about OBP. Look, you aren't just a little bit wrong. You're totally wrong. The Cubs walk rate per plate appearance last year was 9.96%. This year it's actually a little bit HIGHER -- 10.03%. You need to rethink your theory that they're not working the count like they did last year when the 2009 Cubs are actually walking at the same rate as last year's edition. As I said earlier OBP is mostly a measure of batting average. Lower team batting average means fewer plate appearances and that's why total walks are down even though the walk rate is up.

You guys crack me up. At the beginning of the season someone says to you. "Soto,Lee, Fontenaught and Bradley are not hitting and AramRam is on the DL, predict how the Cubs will be doing." What would you have said 'probably playing .650 baseball'? The bats are struggling. With the possible exception of Lee, there's no reason to think those struggules are anything more than a temporary blip (though Lee has been doing better as noted). I didn't watch much of last night's game, but Wainwright and Carpenter are pretty damned good pitchers who were pretty sharp when they beat the Cubs. I assume Peavy was the same. So the 5 game losing streak is summed up by a Soto line drive that was a foot two short, one good start by a mid-range starter and 3 ace caliber pitchers shutting down a team that's in a bit of a funk, and missing it's most well rounded hitter. Shrug. It's a long season.

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • crunch (view)

    booooooooooo

    also, wisdom and taillon are both in chicago.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Tonight’s game postponed. Split games on Saturday.

  • crunch (view)

    cubs getting crazy good at not having player moves leak.

    taillon we 100% know is pitching tonight.  who he's replacing and any additional moves are unknown as far as i can tell.

    p.wisdom was not in today's lineup in iowa (rained out) and he was removed from the game last night mid-game, but not for injury.  good bet he's with the team in the bigs, too.

  • Bill (view)

    A good rule of thumb is that if you trade a near-ready high ceiling prospect, you should get at least two far-away high ceiling prospects in return.  Like all rules-of-thumb, it depends upon the specific circumstances, but certainly, we weren't going to get Busch for either prospect alone.

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Right on schedule, just read an article in Baseball America entitled "10 MLB Prospects Outside The Top 100 Who Have Our Attention".  Zyhir Hope was one of the prospects featured. It stated that he's "one of the biggest arrow-up sleeper prospects in the lower levels right now."

     

    Not sharing to be negative about the trade, getting a top 100 prospect who is MLB ready should carry a heavy prospect cost.  But man, Dodger sure are good at identifying and developing young talent. Andrew Friedman seems to have successfully merged Ray's development with Yankees financial might to create a juggernaut of an organization.  

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    I suspect Brown will spend some time in the bullpen due to inning restrictions.  Pitched only 93 innings last year and career high is 104 innings in 2022.  I would expect them to be cautious with a young player with his injury history.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    I wanted Almonte gone last week, but that was before Merryweather went down and Little got demoted. Almonte in his last 5 appearances has gone 4.1 IP with no ER or Runs. NO hits, 3 BBs and 8 SO. He did hit 96 with his 2S FB in AZ on Tues.
    I don't see Jed waiving him when we have injuries all over and guys with options that can be sent down.
    I probably won't like the move Jed makes, but he can't play the "let's hope no one wants his 1.7mil remaining deal and we can hide him in Iowa" card.
    That's why I think the current Bullpen stays as is and Wicks goes to Iowa.
    I don't like that, but that's the fix I see.
    We'll find out soon enough!!!