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

TCR Friday Notes

I just wanted to thank Sweet Lou and Aisle 424 once again for their guest posts last week. Be sure to visit their blogs on a regular basis as well. I had one more guest column lined up, but the server issues last week preempted it. The plan is for it to be up next week.

Speaking of the server issue, everything seems to be working smoothly once again. Or at least it has since Monday when I got back. Anyone still having issues connecting? We did have to upgrade to a higher server package at three times the cost, so I'm now forced to take on advertising on my body parts for $5 a pop.

- The Cubs made some roster moves today, Marcus Mateo, John Gaub, Jeff Gray adnd James Adduci were optioned to Triple A. Darwin Barney, Bobby Scales, Robinson Chirinos were assigned to minor league camp leaving 33 in camp. It appears James Russell will be added to the 40-man roster and make the team (a 0 ERA in spring will do that for you) and Tom Gorzelanny and Carlos Silva will be the starters, leaving the bench as the final puzzle to be solved.

Starters: Soto, Lee, Fontenot, Theriot, Ramirez, Soriano, Byrd, Fukudome

Starting Pitching: Zambrano, Dempster, Wells, Gorzelanny, Silva (who has actually pitched decently since his first outing)

Bullpen: Marmol, Grabow, Berg, Caridad, Marshall, Samardzija, Russell

Bench: Hill, Nady, Baker with Hoffpauir, Blanco, Fuld, Colvin, Millar and Tracy fighting for those last 2 spots in theory.

If I'm keeping track correctly, that also leaves Mike Parisi, Chris Robinson, Ted Lilly and Angel Guzman to round out the 33 with Lilly and Guzman set to start the year on the disabled list. The Cubs are probably trying to work out a deal to keep Parisi is my guess(or move him to another club) and Robinson is just around to have an extra catcher.

- Say hello to new Cubs blogs, Cubs Locker and Cubbery: 100 Years and Counting. That makes 53 on the Cubs blogroll on the lower left sidebar. I don't know much about Cubs Locker, other than they've been around since 2006 so I guess they're not that new, but Cubbery is written by smalbrecht who many know from Parachat on game days. I'm not sure if he's paying residuals to Chad or not.

- Great quote discovered by Cubnut by Duke coach Mike Kryzewski on his seniors not living up to expectations:

“Just judge people for who they are right now. We are not the Yankees. We’re not – thank goodness we’re not the Cubs, who are my favorite.

- I can't remember if I linked to this before, but here's Alex Eisenberg's look at the Cubs farm system from Baseball Intellect and his top 15 Cubs prospects.

  1. Starlin Castro
  2. Hak-Ju Lee
  3. Brett Jackson
  4. Josh Vitters
  5. Jay Jackson
  6. Andrew Cashner
  7. Chris Carpenter
  8. Kyler Burke
  9. Ryan Flaherty
  10. D.J. LeMahieu
  11. Dae-eun Rhee
  12. Logan Watkins
  13. Chris Huseby
  14. Chris Archer
  15. John Gaub

- 10 minutes with Bill James and 1200 words on heart and Nomar Garciaparra from Joe Posnanski.

- Morgan Ensberg has a blog and it's really well-done. He, like everyone else in baseball or who talks about baseball or has ever watched baseball, has an opinion on Milton Bradley.

- I want to get up our yearly Cubs prediction contest by Monday. What would be some good questions? Here was last year's questions if it helps.

Comments

First player/coach ejected? I can't remember what all questions we had last year - or who won. Is the FA contest done yet?

"Number of Chicago Cubs IP for Samardzija?" "Number of Zambrano meltdowns?"

Which will we see first: ivy on the walls or the same old 'new' Zambrano?

Just heard Bruuuuuuuce on ESPN Chicago. Bench decisions will be made March 31st. Berg indeed did not get the pen spot and Russell did - he confirmed via Lou. Also, a Lou sound bite was played where he said, "All four guys pitched well this Spring (meaning Fat Boy, Wide-Out, Gorzy, and Marshall). I am just not impressed with Wide-Out, but who knows? Maybe Greg Maddux will teach him how to develop one more pitch and create more movement? Ha! We'll see in due time. Should Silva and Gorzo both pitch equally - what happens when Lilly returns???

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Justin Berg, he's a right handed relief pitcher. AZ Phil has him listed under the auto-renewal guys on the right hand side of the page. Kidding aside, I have lost track. 5 starters, Marmol, Grabow, Russel, Marshall, Smardijia, Russel ... doesn't that leave room for Berg or Gaub?

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Geez maybe I did. I was pretty caffinated. It doesn't make sense to me that both Berg and Russel will make it. What I gathered, unless I did get the names f'd up, is that Berg will be down, and Russel up. Maybe AZ PHIL can straighten this out?

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

as the post reads: Starters: Soto, Lee, Fontenot, Theriot, Ramirez, Soriano, Byrd, Fukudome Starting Pitching: Zambrano, Dempster, Wells, Gorzelanny, Silva (who has actually pitched decently since his first outing) Bullpen: Marmol, Grabow, Berg, Caridad, Marshall, Samardzija, Russell What doesn't make sense? Maybe he meant Parisi...

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Nope. That makes sense now. I guess I was not sure how many pitchers the team would be carrying to start the year. Also, I was thinking (always a source of trouble) that no way would Lou want two rookies in the pen.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

Lou likes rookies. Soto, Fontenot, Hoffpauir, Wells, Caridad. Koyie Hill was a rookie or near-rookie in 2007. It depends who they are. He didn't like Pie. He liked Fox but couldn't figure out a position for him.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

I like "Fat Boy and Wide-Out", remeniscent of Jay and Silent Bob. You may even want to go with "Wide-Out-Side" for Smardijszia.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

Submitted by The Real Neal on Fri, 03/26/2010 - 12:37pm. I like "Fat Boy and Wide-Out", remeniscent of Jay and Silent Bob. You may even want to go with "Wide-Out-Side" for Smardijszia. ================================= REAL NEAL: I believe "Fat Boy" and Wide Out" were the two A-bombs the U. S. dropped on Japan in '45.

[ ]

In reply to by Arizona Phil

AZ Phil made another funny! Historical/pop cultural note for those who are unfamiliar (i.e., I'm going to explain the joke now): From Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man_and_Little_Boy Fat Man and Little Boy (a.k.a. Shadow Makers in the UK) is a 1989 film that reenacts the Manhattan Project, the secret Allied endeavor to develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II. The film is named after the nuclear weapons known by the code names "Fat Man" and "Little Boy", and also potentially as a reference to the portly Gen. Leslie R. Groves and the seemingly much younger Robert Oppenheimer, the respective military and scientific heads of the project, who dominate the film. Also a Simpsons reference: "Fat Man and Little Boy" is the fifth episode of sixteenth season of The Simpsons and the last new episode of 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man_and_Little_Boy_%28The_Simpsons%29

1 hour til CHC/OAK on WGN...replay at 9pm (Eastern) on MLB Network.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

I really need to take a good luck at this - we talk here a lot about the 2008 Cubs - but the 2008 Cardinals were a 4th place (an 86 win 4th place) team. I just am not seeing a talent gap between them and the Cubs. Essentially these systems are saying that the Cards without Pujols are as good as anyone else in the NL Central. Does anyone really believe that?

well...WGN has their "bad music" CDs to play on tap. they're ready for the regular season. btw, this 80s revival is played out, but given the kids i run into, work with, and teach on campus there's a hell of a selfish "me me me" streak going on to match the 80s media revival. no one wants to get involved with anything, either...it's a very "spectator" lifestyle.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

I am probably just getting my young whipper-snapper phase on, but man it seems like kids today are more self centered than I ever remember... any they have the attention span of chihuahuas on meth.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

i'm seeing less kids smoking, less overall bitching, kids more focused on their education, but they seem to lack even a shred of imagination or adventure unless the adventure is some "package" they can buy into. even without the bitching many seem to be on a real "take it!" streak and are willing to walk over people to do it. too many aren't good at it and either don't follow it through fully or just end up causing drama because of it.

[ ]

In reply to by jacos

my family was too poor to have sticks and dead raccoons...we just sat on the floor and breathed oxygen. we made a game of it, seeing how many imaginary balloons (too poor for balloons) we could blow up. then we found an atari 2600 that someone threw away shortly after buying it because it was a flaming piece of crap. we broke it apart to use as sticks to kill raccoons with. good times.

When we were kids we played with sticks and dead racoons. --- when I was a kid I had to walk 2 miles to school in sub-zero weather without earmuffs only to find school was closed. as expected, my ears fell off. Then they invented the radio, so they could announce school closings. Later on, I went to a Hot Tuna concert and stood next to the speakers and couldn't hear for weeks, of course without ears, nobody knew.

Rob: Len just mentioned that Tracy and Hoff are battling for the last "spot." I don't know if he misspoke or if you missed something. But your projection looks right to me.

Sitting around 88-89 MPH in this relief appearance. I was present at his debut in 2008, and he ran it up to 98 that day. His delivery looks to slow to me right now; I'd like to see him amp up the windup, especially out of the pen, but maybe that exacerbates his control problems. An uneventful two outs so far.

Rob -- Thanks for the shout out and the opportunity to write a guest post. I appreciate the opportunity.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

God damn! I saw that too. What a pile of shit as Fuky tries to score on a shit pop-up off the bat of Millar. 1-out and 2nd/3rd. Terrible. I really do not want Millar on this team. Can't they ,just hire a part-time comedian if they need a "clubhouse lightener" so bad? Or, just have Seinfeld on?

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

I'm not a subscriber, but if I get the idea of where they're going, is BP actually suggesting there's a 50/50 chance of a runner scoring on a sac fly? Do they present any data? Even if the data says the runner scores 50 percent of the time, sending the runner more often will only lower that percentage. I might not be understanding that article fragment, but from what I see, it doesn't make mad sense.

[ ]

In reply to by John Beasley

The guy essentially said that you should always send the runner from third regardless of how deep the ball was hit or who it was hit to, because the marginal value you get from the run scoring (having one run with 1 out is a little better than having no runs and a guy on third with 1 out) always justifies the chance of him getting thrown out. Fukudome getting throw out yesterday was a classic example of why the writer is a moron - because he said "only 10% of runners get thrown out, therefore the runner should always go, no matter what", not realizing that the 10% that get thrown out are on balls that are hit shallow like the one yesterday. The real reason that it was a stupid call, though, is because you risk hurting Fukudome and the catcher in a fucking spring training game.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

The sac fly should at least make it into the outfield. IIRC, the ball Fukudome was sent home on barely made it out of the infield.

"Ken Griffey Jr. hit a walkoff grand slam off Kip Wells as the Mariners edged the Reds 6-5 on Friday." awwwwww...man...why couldn't that one have been on tv.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    yeah, for me this isn't about who's better at 3rd.  it's madrigal, period.  for me it's about who's not hitting in the lineup because madrigal is in the lineup.

    occasional play at 3rd for madrigal, okay.  going with the steele/ground-ball matchup...meh, but okay, whatever.

    seeing madrigal get significant starting time...no thanks.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Yeah I am very disappointed Madrigal is starting. He has no business as a starter. He is AAA insurance, a back up at best. Sure his defense looks fine because he plays far enough in that his noodle arm isn’t totally exposed. It comes at the cost of 3B range.

    He’s garbage, and a team serious about winning would NOT have him starting opening day.

  • crunch (view)

    in other news, it took 3 PA before a.rizzo got his 1st HBP of the season.

  • Eric S (view)

    With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • 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.