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

Cubs Decade In Review: 2002 Season

Previous Reviews: 2001, 2000

Although the season ended in disappointment, the Cubs seemed to have something to build on after a mostly successful 2001 and a farm system rated as one of the best in the leagues with up and coming prospects like Corey Patterson, Carlos Zambrano, Juan Cruz, Hee Seop Choi, Mark Prior, Ben Christensen, Dave Kelton and Bobby Hill.

Despite the moderate success of 2001, huge turnover was in store for 2002. Kevin Tapani, Ricky Gutierrez, Matt Stairs, Todd Van Poppel, Dave Weathers, Eric Young, Ron Coomer and Rondell White all left via free agency (Tapani actually retired). They struck early on a deal in November to acquire Mark Bellhorn for Adam Morrisey. They ended up resigning Delino Deshields and Joe Borowski and brought Kevin Orie back to the organization. The big trade was with the Toronto Blue Jays on December 10, 2001 to bring in a shortstop with a slick glove and 20 home run power - Alex Gonzalez. The cost was reliever Felix Heredia and minor leaguer Jamie Deschaine. 9 days later they signed left fielder Moises Alou.  The rest of the offseason was a number of minor moves including trading away Michael Tucker to the Kansas City Royals for Shawn Sonnier,  and signing players like Chris Stynes, Phil Norton, Alan Benes, Will Cunnane, Donovan Osborne and Darren Lewis.

Spring training arrived and closer Flash Gordon went down and would miss the bulk of the first half. Assistant GM Jim Hendry orchestrated a deal with the Florida Marlins to acquire Matt Clement and reliever Antonio Alfonseca and his extra finger for Jose Cueto, Ryan Jorgenson, Julian Tavarez and a lefty in lo-A ball named Dontrelle Willis.

The season began against the Cincinnati Reds in Cincy and the Cubs lost 5-4 featuring the following starting lineup:

D. DeShields - 2B, C. Patterson - CF, S. Sosa - RF, F. McGriff - 1B, R. Brown - LF, A. Gonzalez - SS, T. Hundley - C, C. Stynes - 3B, J. Lieber - P

The 5-man rotation to start the year was Lieber, Kerry Wood, Juan Cruz, Jason Bere and Matt Clement. Bill Mueller and Moises Alou started the year on the disabled list. Kyle Farnsworth went on the disabled list on April 10th with a stress fracture in his foot and Carlos Zambrano was recalled. Zambrano pitched for a month out of the bullpen before heading to the disabled list himself in mid-May with a strained right elbow.

 Alou made his debut on April 15th and went 0 for 4. His OPS was below .600 until June 23rd and didn't go over .700 until July and he finally got it over .700 to stay on August 2nd.  The Cubs finished 8-16 in April and amazingly 7.5 games back of the Cincinnati Reds. The closest they would get to first place the rest of the season was 5.5 games back and that happened on May 7th.

Cubs v White Sox

On May 6th, the Cubs got Bill Mueller back from the disabled list, they put Todd Hundley on the disabled list with a bad thumb to make room. Alex Gonzalez went down with a strained hamstring on May 10th and missed two weeks. Hundley returned on May 29th but DeShields took his place with a bad hip. Corey Patterson had become the leadoff man by that point. Mark Prior made his debut on May 22nd and got the win in a 7-4 victory over the Pirates. He went 6 innings and struck out 10. The team went 13-16 in May and Sosa had 19 HR's and a 1.154 OPS through the first two months.

June arrived and Farnsworth and Zambrano returned from the disbaled list early on with DeShields back by June 12th. The only casualty was Jason Bere at the end of the month. The team was armed with 6 extra draft picks when Van Poppel, White and Weathers signed with other teams. Their first pick at #20 was used on RHP Bobby Brownlie out of Rutgers who slipped in the draft because of shoulder issues. Their three supplemental picks were spent on Luke Hagerty, Matt Clanton and Chadd Blasko. They also drafted Brian Dopirak, Justin Jones, Billy Petrick, Rich Hill Adam Greenberg, Micah Hoffpauir, Rocky Cherry, Taylor Teagarden (Did not sign) and Randy Wells in that draft. The team had its best month of the season going 12-14. Sosa was up to 27 home runs.

In July, Sosa was named as the lone Cubs All-Star representative. General Manager Andy MacPhail headed back to his presidency duties and assistant GM Jim Hendry took over full time on July 5th. The same day that was made official, manager Don Baylor was fired and Iowa Cubs manager Bruce Kimm was named the interim manager. The team was 12.5 games back in the Central at that point and even farther back in the wild card. They finished 11-15 on the month and Sosa was at 32 HR's, a 1.010 OPS, only 68 RBI's but 82 Runs. Prior was 4-3 with a 3.65 ERA, Wood was 9-5 with a 3.90 ERA, Clement 8-7 with a 3.87 ERA, Lieber 6-8 with a 3.76 ERA and Zambrano went 2-2 with a 3.58 in July after being moved out of the bullpen.Lieber would only make one more start in August and then fell victim to Tommy John surgery and missed the rest of 2002 and all of 2003.

The rest of the season was pretty much a bore, the Cubs did move Tom Gordon and Jeff Fassero to the Cardinals and Astros for some minor league arms and traded Bill Mueller at the beginning of September back to the San Francisco Giants to help the Giants playoff run. Mark Bellhorn was the biggest suprise of the year hitting 27 home runs with a .886 OPS playing third and second base and even a little first and shorstop along with two innings in left field. Sosa led the league in home runs with 49 and runs scored with 122. McGriff posted a solid .858 OPS with 30 Home Runs and 103 RBI's.  Alou (.757 OPS), Mueller (.757), Gonzalez (.737), Hundley (.722) and Patterson (.676) contributed to the poor offensive showing and 67-95 record and 5th place finish. All of the regular starting pitchers had ERA's under 4 except Jason Bere (5.67) but he only made 16 starts. The team led the league in strikeouts for a second straight season with Kerry Wood and Matt Clement finishing third and fourth in the league and the first duo of Cubs pitchers to surpass 200 strikeouts since Fergie Jenkins and Ken Holtzman in 1970.

Comments

Wonderful work on the decade series Rob. Beanball Ben...haven't thought about him in years. Hurt his arm and never returned. Some thought his injuries were voodoo doll related as his bobblehead doll came with pins in the shoulder.

it's so easy to forget how awesome and uber-rare of a talent prior was. the guy went through the minors, but had no business there. he was literally and truthfully all-star caliber MLB quality straight out of the draft. you so rarely see a talent like that run through anyone's system.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

Crunch -- You are so right. It's unfortunate that Prior is remembered primarily for his frequent injuries rather than his unbelievable talent. There are still those who insist that Prior was a weak, hypocondriac and don't believe that he was really injured. It's a shame... It's probably not a popular opinion to hold, but I wouldn't mind the Cubs offering Prior a minor league contract. I'm not sure where his rehab stands, but it sure would be nice to see him be an effective MLB pitcher again.

[ ]

In reply to by Sweet Lou

Sweet Lou, I personally don't think he was a hypochondriac nor weak, but he did have two very unlucky breaks with running into Giles and the line drive off his elbow. But besides that he was just another pitcher of this generation and hurt his arm and could never get healthy. But I agree I would love to see him sign a minor league deal with the Cubs. Then I wouldn't be so afraid to wear my Prior jersey I spent $150 on.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

more reason to hope castro isn't rushed...he could be a top-10/20 next year most likely. it would make me sick to see the guy come up, flail for a few years, and put it together right in time for that year 4+ arbitration. the kicker is he's probably cubs 2011-bound unless ryan theriot really shows something this year making paying him bigger bucks worth doing...he seems to be 2nd-base-bound for 2011 given what the cubs are hinting. hopefully either riot earns his slot and arb. paycheck in 2011 or castro's power and polish arrive ahead of time.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Wait til Tim Wilken gets started. Then we'll see some Cubs on that list. "Any time you're ready Tim!"

to the Mets via Rotoworld and some Spanish language news service

Isn't 2002 the year it became the "in" thing for fans to get drunk at Wrigley? I like this series, but one thing you leave out Rob is the number of home night games. The theory goes, the '69 Day Cubs were wore to a frazzle, so as the night game negotiations went on, Cubbies win percentage got better. Maybe the whole thing is a ball of crap, since the schedulers don't mind day game followed by night game followed by day game, Cub's body clocks is some kinda screwed. I wonder some times if players hate Cubs day games more than they let on, since it's hard to get rid of cobwebs from last night and play ball at 1:20 the next day. (don't get me wrong, I'd do it for the love of the game).

[ ]

In reply to by artskoe

I think 2003 was pretty much the year the buzz started to rise to its current level. In 2002, there was definitely a buzz around the Cubs, but it was a quiet one. Baseball fans knew, but those who follow casually probably didn't realize the team would be able to contend so soon. It was the last (only?) time I felt OK watching a bad Cubs team, because I felt they were headed in the right direction and the future was bright.

per CCO, XM hosts reporting Cubs interested in Damon for CF. http://chicagocubsonline.com/archives/2009/12/cubsrumors12269.php?utm_s… according to Jim Duquette (radio host on XM). The former Mets and Orioles GM mentioned, on two different occasions, Thursday during Power Alley with Seth Everett (XM Radio) that he had heard the day before the Cubs are "very interested" in Johnny Damon to play centerfield. ...a Cubs' outfield of Alfonso Soriano, Johnny Damon and Kosuke Fukudome would be the worst defensively in all of baseball. (Amen).

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.