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

Holiday Hangover

Submitted by Rob G. on

Judging by the number of hits and comments, you guys are either ridiculously bored or still passionate about the Cubs...or just like to argue. I find myself rather indifferent after the holiday break, the Cubs instilling no confidence in me that they know what they're doing and seemingly content to blame the entire failure of 2009 on Milton Bradley and injuries.

I did score my usual swag of Cubs gifts for Christmas. The Angel Fan Wife got me this 1984 Cubs cap, plus I got a new Cubs jersey to add to my collection and various other Cubs-themed knick knacks that always seem to find my stocking including a Cubs-themed Connect Four. I tried to teach the G Twins how to play, but they seemed more interested in making pretty patterns with the red and blue pieces and then releasing the support bar from the bottom so all the tiles came crashing down.

Fun little sidenote about the G twins and living in a split household. Back during the playoffs while the Angels were making a little run, they were of course on the TV a lot. A few days after getting eliminated by the Yankees, I was watching another game and one of my daughters asked where the Angels were. I explained that they lost in the playoffs and that there season was over. Her little lip started to quiver, she whimpered "It's ooover...why?" and the sobbing began. Sadly, that probably won't be the last time she cries about baseball.

Here's the update to the Free Agent Frenzy contest. One person got Rich Harden right (for 10 pts), another Jason Bay(for 8 pts) and a third person got DeRosa to the Giants (for 5 pts).

Here's a link to an All-Decade Team at The Blue Workhorse. Corey Patterson is on it and I don't think it's meant to be sarcastic.

Stop by and wish Aisle 424 a happy birthday, one of the finer new Cubs blogs to emerge in my opinion.

A detailed look into how the Ricketts are financing their loans.

Ken Rosenthal predicts the Cubs will sign Ben Sheets.

May the New Year bring love, joy, peace and a pennant for the Cubs.

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Links
Cubs Nonsense

Comments

[ ]

Submitted by Ryno on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:18 pm

At the beginning of the off season I thought I read Ben Sheets wanted some ridiculous money considering his injury history and being out of commission in '09. If he signs with the Cubs (and I'm not totally opposed to it), I hope it's a smallish, one-year redemption contract. He can rake next year, not this year.

Submitted by Ryno on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:19 pm

Judging by the our web hits and comments, you guys are either ridiculously bored or still passionate about the Cubs...or just like to argue.
I would guess it's a little bit of all three... at least for me.

Submitted by Ryno on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:28 pm

In the article about Ricketts' financing of the Cubs:
"This is A-grade paper"...
Somewhere, an executive at Standards & Poors shudders and remembers saying the same thing about mortgage-backed securities.

Submitted by Aisle 424 on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:43 pm

Hey, thanks for the link and birthday wishes, Rob! I blame the failure of 2009 on Aaron Miles. Of course - you can't eliminate the injury problems completely, so Miles and injuries. Oh, and also the bullpen. But that is all: Aaron Miles, injuries, and the bullpen. And Soto being all fat and useless. That really wasn't an injury so you have to count it separately. And the middle infield consisting of the Lollipop Guild, so I blame: Aaron Miles, injuries, the bullpen, fat useless Soto, and the Lollipop Guild, but that is all. Plus the excruciating sale process. And racists in the bleachers. And Lou losing his edge. But that is all I blame: Aaron Miles, injuries, the bullpen, fat useless Soto, the Lollipop guild, the sale process, racists in the bleachers, and Lou losing his edge. And Milton Bradley.

[ ]

Submitted by Aisle 424 on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:05 pm

I could have sat right behind the plate in 422 when I bought my package in 1998, but I would have been in the last row and under the press box. So I chose slightly closer to the field, and out from beneath the press box with the sightline almost straight down the third base line. Luckily, I made that choice because they tore up the last couple rows of 422 and made them handicap accessible seating a few years later and I would have been relocated way down the lines.

Submitted by Paul Noce on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:49 pm

Milton ruined 2008 also? Damn. Pretty amazing feat since he wasn't on the team. :)

Submitted by The Real Neal on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:17 pm

I am starting to think that 2005 is the true Hendry level of team construction and anything that happens to seem to make the team better or worse will eventually just regress to a 78 win mean.

Submitted by Old and Blue on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:01 pm

"Judging by the number of hits and comments, you guys are either ridiculously bored or still passionate about the Cubs...or just like to argue." If I remember right, I tried to pick a fight with Real Neal, which is like trying to argue with an Ayatollah. I say that with affection, TRN.

Submitted by artskoe on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:07 pm

What, no blame to the stainless steel urinals? Smokey Links aisle cart? Bud Lite roof? Torco sign? etc., etc...

[ ]

Submitted by John Beasley on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:33 pm

At any more than $5 million, why would the Cubs not offer arbitration to Harden? What's the "risk" that Hendry was talking about? The risk of looking dumb after botching another first-round pick?

Submitted by Rob G. on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:31 pm

Beltre to Red Sox for 1/$9M with a $5M player option for next season or $1M buyout. guess they're counting on winning a lot of 3-2 games next year...

Submitted by Rob G. on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 01:40 pm

http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/3177
If Sheets' agent is looking of mega-millions, he won't find it with the Cubs, who are scraping together the dough to afford a veteran right-handed reliever and maybe a veteran backup outfielder.
If Sheets hasn't signed with somebody, say, by Valentine's Day, I can see the Cubs offering some sort of a deal with a low base plus incentives. But nothing's imminent, based on the talk I've had with people today and throughout the winter.

Submitted by Wes on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:34 am

May the New Year bring love, joy, peace and a pennant for the Cubs. I guess 3 out of 4 ain't bad, because this team sure as fuck isn't winning the pennant.

Submitted by mjmiller73 on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:41 am

I'd bet that the training staff has Sheets as the top-rated remaining FA.

[ ]

Submitted by Ryno on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:11 am

Ben Sheets: Keeping doctors and trainers employed since 1978. I joke, but that would be a high reward/medium risk transaction. He is He was such a great pitcher, if he can regain that fastball/power curve form he'd be a big deal. Unfortunately, I think Rosenthal was just making predictions on all the free agents. This rumor isn't rooted in any fact.

Submitted by Doug Dascenzo on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:37 am

After reading that article on Ricketts, I'm getting seriously concerned that this guy simply doesn't have the money to keep this team competitive. You never want an owner leveraged to the hilt just to buy the team. Owning a sports franchise needs to be a hobby for someone insanely rich (i.e. billionaires), not a financial burden for someone who needs all kinds of loans and investors to afford it. Ricketts simply doesn't have that kind of cash, and thus I'm worried he will be far too concerned with payroll and finding new revenue streams. Damn, I wish Cuban was more polite.

[ ]

Submitted by garsky on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:10 am

Actually, I'd be surprised if there were any pro sports teams that were bought with cash, with no financing. And the amount financed was $425 million, of the $824 million purchase price. That's not really leveraged to the hilt. I'm more concerned with having a GM who can't build a winner with the 3rd or 4th highest payroll in baseball.

[ ]

Submitted by navigator on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:49 pm

You're leaving out the subordinated loans. The article says $674 million of the $845 million purchase price is debt. As far as I can tell, the Ricketts family sold stock worth $403 million to do this deal. Of that, apparently $170 million in cash went to purchase and another $175 million went into the deal as a subordinate loan---a loan basically to themselves. The structure of this purchase makes me wonder just what the Ricketts mean when they say they plan to plough all the profits the Cubs make back into the organization. Maybe they'll just use profits to retire these loans rather than refinance them. That will always remain an option but it's not exactly what Cubs fans are expecting. I don't know what the average interest is on this financing package but if it's between 4 and 5% then the carrying cost is around $30 million/year. That could be paid for by reducing team salary to $110 million (I'm guessing that's the base they're working from now) in the next couple years or by increasing revenue.So far it looks like they're going the revenue increasing route...significant ticket price jumps, more advertising in the park, new income streams in the future from spring training facilities..etc.while freezing the team budget.

[ ]

Submitted by navigator on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:36 pm

Just to summarize what's new this year in Cubsenomics, Cubs go from a debt free operation, to one that owes $675 million dollars. Debt service is approximately ($30 million) Net Income last year approximately $30 million 10% Ticket price increase this year raises $15 million New income probably is eaten up by 9 arb eligible Cubs.

[ ]

Submitted by garsky on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:42 pm

I left out the subordinate loans because, as loans to themselves, they're not really loans per se; there's no payback schedule and they're not subject to being called. MLB agrees, since the deal couldn't have been made if they were considered real debt. And they can't be paid back until the other, real loans are. The Ricketts family may well ignore it until such time as they sell, or they may convert it to real debt once the outside lenders are paid.

[ ]

Submitted by navigator on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:03 pm

I have no idea WHAT you're talking about. Subordinate loans are loans like any other, they're just riskier because they're unsecured for all intents and purposes. And where did you learn that they earn no interest? Riskier loans should earn more than the bank loans do.

[ ]

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:36 pm

don't think he was implying there was no interest...just that, as you noted above, they basically are loaning the money to themselves and probably aren't going to make a call for that loan if they run into problems down the line.

[ ]

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:49 pm

don't forget, the deal was leveraged per request of Sam Zell for tax purposes even if the Ricketts wanted to pay cash. plus any business is going to be run to be self-sufficient and not require infusion from their personal bank accounts. The McCourts pretty much borrowed all the money to run the Dodgers and it hasn't really been a big issue on their payroll

Submitted by Cubster on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 01:10 am

No Gila Monster... CarrieMuskat: Report out of AZ says #cubs have dropped Gila River from list of possible spring sites. Mesa is still alive, with location off Loop 202

Recent comments

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Mastrobuoni can't come back, yet

    Wisdom does have an option left. He can hide in Iowa if Jed DFA's someone else

    Does Brennan Davis get shown the door? I know it's too early for that, but these injuries are crunching the roster of a 12-7 team playoff demands and BDavis isn't going to help anytime soon.

    Someone has to go to add Peralta. And Canario isn't going to get to play everyday regardless of RHers or LHers. Neither is Tauchman. Also don't see PCA getting a chance over Peralta.

    If Jed does those moves:

    4 OF: Belli, Peralta, Canny, Tauch

    2 C: Gomes and Amaya

    2 DH: Cooper and Mervis

    5 INF: Busch, Nico, Dansby, Morel, Madrigal

    Little short on OF depth but two injuries will do that  

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I have had the pleasure of watching some of the young A's pitchers lately (first Joe Boyle the last day of Minor League Spring Training in March, and more recently Luis Morales last week and Steven Echavarria yesterday at Extended Spring Training), and it reminds me of the Miami Marlins a couple of years ago. A really nice collection of young pitchers. It will be interesting to see what the A's will get for two years of ex-Cub Paul Blackburn at the Trade Deadline (there should be a robust market for Blackburn). 

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Good deal

    MB needs some talent infusion!

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Childersb3: Very possible. Suriel, too. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    DJL: if a pitcher is recalled to be the 27th man for a doubleheader and then is optioned back to the minors the next day, the 15-day "clock" does NOT reset. The one day call-up for the doubleheader is treated like it never happened with respect to a pitcher having to spend at least 15 days on optional assignment before he can be recalled. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Probably the only reason David Peralta is still in the organization (he is at AAA Iowa) is to be available in case anything bad were to happen to Ian Happ (which it just did). So if Happ needs to go on the IL, the Cubs can select Peralta to play LF, DFA Wisdom (and hope he and what remains of his $2.725M salary gets claimed off waivers), and recall Mervis to platoon at DH with Cooper (with Canario / Tauchman sharing RF), at least until Suzuki and Happ are back...

     

  • crunch (view)

    i'd just like to take a moment to express to the world i'm still pissed willson contreras is not a cub when the pricetag was 5/87m (17.5m/yr).

    it would be nice to have a legacy-type player to stick around, especially one with his leadership and the respect he gets from his peers.  cubs fans deserved more than 1 season of contreras + morel...that was gold.

  • crunch (view)

    happ, right hamstring tightness, day-to-day (hopefully 0 days).

    he will be reevaluated tomorrow.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    I guess I'm not looking for that type of AB 

    Just a difference of opinion

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    I don’t see Tauchman as a weak link in any position. He simply adds his value in a different way.

    I don’t know that we gain much by putting him in the outfield - Happ, Bellinger and Suzuki and Tauchman all field their positions well. If you’re looking for Taucnman’s kind of AB in a particular game I don’t see why it can’t come from DH.

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