Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus one player is 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 3-28-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
* 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: 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 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Patrick Wisdom, INF 

15-DAY IL: 1 
Jameson Taillon, P 

60-DAY IL: 1 
Caleb Kilian, P 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

The Jim Hendry Way to Build a 40-man Roster

My latest little pet project at Wiklifield after completeing the team-by-team transactions is to put together player pages on the entire Cubs organizations from the majors to the minors. I got through the basic info on the 40-man roster this weekend and have discovered with some very simple coding, that I can start putting together some interesting lists. One such list is how the Cubs' 40-man roster was put together, so I thought I'd share.

So here's the breakdown from the Cubs' 40-man roster found at Wiklifield (not to be confused with the 40-man roster maintained by Arizona Phil):

Amateur Free Agent Signings (5): Esmailin Caridad, Welington Castillo, Rafael Dolis, Angel Guzman, Carlos Marmol, Carlos Zambrano*

Drafted (10): Mitch Atkins, Tyler Colvin, Sam Fuld, Micah Hoffpauir, Sean Marshall, Blake Parker, Jeff Samardzija, Geovany Soto, Ryan Theriot, Randy Wells

Free Agents(5): Marlon Byrd, Ryan Dempster, Kosuke Fukudome, Ted Lilly, Alfonso Soriano

Minor League Free Agents(2): Andres Blanco, Koyie Hill

Rule 5 Draft(2): Mike Parisi, David Patton

Trades(13): James Adducci, Jeff Baker, Justin Berg, Mike Fontenot, John Gaub, Tom Gorzelanny,  John Grabow*, Jeff Gray, Derrek Lee*, Marcos Mateo, Aramis Ramirez*, Carlos Silva*, Jeff Stevens

The * indicates players that were originally acquired via some other method than free agency, but then were either signed to extensions before hitting the open market or resigned once they did. There's also the case of Carlos Silva who was traded for a player signed through free agency and then basically a swap of big and bad contracts. That's 4 players that although originally acquired on the cheap, eventually cashed in big time with the Cubs and make it 5 with Silva who already cashed in with the Seattle Mariners.

So for this exercise, you could give a half credit for originally acquiring Lee, Grabow, Ramirez and Zambrano through cheaper methods than free agency, but were eventually paid free agent bucks (or close to it) by the Cubs. Silva you might as well call a free agent. So doing a little fuzzy math gets you 7.5 via free agency, 4.5 through amateur free agent signings and 10.5 via trades. That still means Hendry has certainly earned his "Trader Jim" moniker.

Of course, the next thing to do is compare this with other clubs, first in the division and then by payroll to see how Hendry compares to his peers. Breaking down the entire league would probably take more time than I have, but I did go through the St. Louis Cardinals. Here's what I came up with:

Drafted(23), Free Agents(9), Rule 5(1), Amateur Free Agents(2), Trades(3).

A lot of the free agents are bullpen arms which aren't going to break the bank and Chris Carpenter was signed on the cheap originally as a rehab project and then cashed in, very similarly to Ryan Dempster. I counted Ryan Ludwick as a free agent signing although I guess he could be considered a minor league free agent signing if you wanted to. Pujols was originally drafted and of course cashed in since then.

What does it all mean? I'm not sure other than I found it interesting and there's probably a 100 different ways to build a better mousetrap.

Comments

This is an interesting concept, but in order to make it a useful tool, you're missing an awful lot of info, IMO. Eventually, you'd want to look at all teams across a number of years to try to identify correlations between how rosters were constructed (relative to expenses available) and on-field performance. Also, I think "trades" is definitely too broad of a category. Aramis Ramirez as a Cub and Bobby Hill as a Pirate are not really comparable. Even though both players were acquired via trade, the circumstances were so polar that they almost deserve to be coded as separate categories. That creates another problem - the subjectivity of whether a certain player's trade was a salary dump (Ramirez) or a shrewd move by management (Dontrelle Willis). I like the idea that you've touched upon here, but there's a lot of missing information before this could be a useful tool.

Looks like Carrie Muskat was weighting for everyone else who wanted to write about Geo Soto "losing" 40 lbs before she finally weighed in with this, Soto slims down prior to season . An article about how Geo has slimmed down has turned into a rite of spring for Carrie. She wrote basically the same thing last year and the year before that and the year before that. Last year's column, which you may have forgotten about, was called Soto maintains aggressive approach and even though Geo was around 20 lbs heavier than the year before at that time it didn't stop Carrie from writing this
2-12-09 Pitchers and catchers report on Friday. Soto looks as if he's lost weight, but says that he's at his playing weight. "I just tried to do the same thing," Soto said of his workout program. "You have to prepare for the season for eight months. You might as well go to the track and the field and work on what you need to work on. When you're down [weight-wise], it's easier to keep it down."
But then Geo went off to join the WBC Puerto Rico team where he ballooned another 20lbs up to around 250. 4 springs in a row, same news about Soto. He's in great shape when he shows up. So, I'm just guessing but it looks to me like Geo's problem isn't showing up in great shape, it's keeping the weight off once he starts playing baseball again.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

Calero made $500,000 last year with the Marlins, and his highest salary ever was $1.6 million with the A's in 2007. If Hendry offers $1.5 million (perhaps some incentives for games finished) on a one-year deal and signs Nady/Dye for around %3.5 million, the roster should be finished at close to $137 million. Nady and Dye are two of the most liked and repsected players in the game, and either one would bring substantial intagibles to the clubhouse.

Recent comments

  • hellfrozeover (view)

    I would say also in the bright side column is Busch looked pretty good overall at the plate. Alzolay…man, that hurts but most of the time he’s not giving up a homer to that guy. To me the worst was almonte hanging that pitch to Garcia. He hung another one to the next hitter too and got away with it on an 0-1. 

  • crunch (view)

    amaya blocked like 6-8 of smyly's pitches in the dirt very cleanly...not even an exaggeration, smyly threw a ton of pitches bouncing in tonight.

    neris looking like his old self was a relief (no pun), too.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    In looking for bright spots the defense was outstanding tonight. The “stars” are going to need to shine quite a bit brighter than they did tonight offensively though for this to be a successful season.

  • Eric S (view)

    Good baseball game. Hopefully Steele is pitching again in April (but I’m not counting on it). 

  • crunch (view)

    boo.

  • crunch (view)

    smyly to face the 2/3/4 hitters with a man on 2nd in extras.

    this doesn't seem like a 8 million dollar managerial decision.

  • crunch (view)

    i 100% agree with you, but i dunno how jed wants to run things.  the default is delay.  i would choose brown.

    like hellfrozeover says, could be smyly since he's technically fresh and stretched.

    anyway, on a pure talent basis....brown is the best option.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Use pitchers when you believe they're good. Don't plan their clock.

    I'm sorry. I'm simply anti-clock/contract management. Play guys when they show real MLB potential talent.

    If Brown hadn't been hurt with the Lat Strain he would've gotten the call, and not Wick.

    Give him a chance. 

    But Wesneski probably gets it

  • crunch (view)

    alzolay...bro...

  • crunch (view)

    wow.  what a blown call.  go cubs, i guess.