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

A's Score Often and Late to Trump Cubs at Fitch

Chris Bostick, Kelvin Rojas, Rhett Stafford, and Miguel Marte ripped consecutive two-out RBI hits in the top of the 8th to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead, as the AZL Athletics scored six runs over the final two innings to defeat the AZL Cubs 8-4 in Arizona League action at Fitch Park Field #3 in Mesa this morning.

box score

Cubs 2011 17th round draft pick John Andreoli (U. Conn) made his pro debut today, playing RF and batting 6th. He reached base in each of his first three plate appearances, lining a first-pitch opposite-field single into RF in his first pro AB, grounding a single sharply between short and third in his second AB (and then stealing 2nd base), and walking and later scoring a run his third time up. He popped out to the catcher on a bunt attempt on his 4th PA.

Andreoli displayed a strong arm in RF and plus-speed on the bases. The big question with him is how much he will hit at the higher levels, and whether he will ever hit for power. He reminds me of a RH version of Jim Adduci.

18-year old LHP Brian Smith (Cubs 2010 40th round draft pick - Canadian Junior National Team) got the start for the Cubs today, and worked three innings (59 pitches - 40 strikes). He allowed two first-inning runs with one out on a single, a double, and a triple by Bostick, Rojas, and Stafford (respectively), but left Stafford stranded at 3rd and threw shutout ball in the 2nd and 3rd. Overall Smith allowed two runs on five hits and a walk, while striking out five (all swinging). He threw a lot of pitches (59) in his three innings, but he also got a couple of big strikeouts when he needed them.

In 12 games (10 GS) in what is definitely a hitter's league, Smith is 3-3 with a 3.66 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP, with 19/37 BB/K and only one HR allowed in 39.1 IP.

After having a 16-game hitting streak stopped last Thursday, Marco Hernandez has started another one, this time five games and counting (and 21 out of 22). Hernandez smacked an RBI double (near HR) down the RF line and off the fence in the bottom of the 3rd today (although he was thrown-out trying to stretch the double into a triple), and is now 9-22 over his last five games. Overall he is hitting 354/392/516, and is tied for second in the AZL in doubles, is 3rd in RBI, 6th in runs scored, 7th in batting average (teammate Gioskar Amaya is 6th), and is tied for 8th in the league in triples.

Comments

Hey AZ Phil, thanks for all the great recaps and the in-depth info. How long does it usually take before a draftee shows up to play in a ball game? How long do you expect it to be before players like Baez, Vogelbach, Maples, Dunston, etc., appear in an AZL ball game? And, this is a separate topic, what do you think of Eric Jokisch? Also, any thoughts on Yao-Lin Wang? I haven't seen much of anything about him, but he's been used primarily as a starter and he's K'd around one batter an inning in his two years in Rookie and A- ball.

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In reply to by Charlie

Submitted by Charlie on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 8:45pm. Hey AZ Phil, thanks for all the great recaps and the in-depth info. How long does it usually take before a draftee shows up to play in a ball game? How long do you expect it to be before players like Baez, Vogelbach, Maples, Dunston, etc., appear in an AZL ball game? And, this is a separate topic, what do you think of Eric Jokisch? Also, any thoughts on Yao-Lin Wang? I haven't seen much of anything about him, but he's been used primarily as a starter and he's K'd around one batter an inning in his two years in Rookie and A- ball. ================================================== CHARLIE: It's unlikely that Baez, Vogelbach, Maples, or Dunston will play in the AZL. It's much-more likely that they will make their pro debuts in the AZ Instructional League next month. Besides John Andreoli (who made his pro debut today), the only other 2011 draft picks I have seen at Fitch Park in uniform who have not yet played in games are 1B Rock Shoulders and INF Danny Lockhart. BTW, 2011 Cubs 38th round draft pick RHP Casey Lucchese (College of Charleston) either had his contract voided or the contract did not go through for some reason. Because he is a college senior with no eligibility left, Lucchese would (like 37th round pick RHP Steven Maxwell) ordinarily remain on the Cubs Rule 4 Negotiation List until one week prior to the next June draft, but if he signed and then the contract was voided, he is a free-agent. As for Eric Jokisch, I have seen him pitch only twice, once last year (one inning, and he struck out the side using change-ups & curves) for the AZL Cubs, and then once in Minor League Camp this past March in a "live" BP session where he threw only fastballs while getting in shape for the start of the 2011 season. (Jokisch did not attend AZ Instructs last Fall). I have seen Yao-Lin Wang pitch a lot over the past two seasons, though, because he was at Extended Spring Training both last year and this year, and there is no question that Matt Loosen, Luis Liria, and Yao-Lin Wang were the top three pitchers at EXST this year. Both YL Wang and Boise CF Pin-Chieh Chen were members of the Taiwan Junior National Team prior to signing with the Cubs, and so they are more advanced (polished) than a player or a pitcher their age would normally be. Because Wang frequently piggy-backed with Jin-Young Kim this year at Extended Spring Training I had a chance to compare the two more closely than I otherwise might have been able to do, and Wang was just flat-out the better pitcher of the two, even though Kim got the bigger bonus. Now there are various reasons why Wang might have looked better (Wang is a year older than Kim and has experience in international competition), but I do believe Wang is going to be an MLB pitcher, and I'm not so sure about Kim. At the very least I would say Wang will be another Hung-Wen Chen (who returned to the Iowa Cubs this week from Campeche after developing into one of the top closers in the Mexican League and helping to pitch Campeche into the MEX playoffs). YL Wang throws a fastball, curve, slider, and change, and he pitches aggressively and really tries to seek & exploit a hitter's weakness. Despite a bit of a pitch-to-contact philopsohy he apparently learned to help depress his pitch-count and maximize his efficiency, he still manages to miss a lot of bats. I really like Wang a lot.

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In reply to by Jumbo

It's funny, I was playing slow pitch softball the other week, first time I played in years and first pitch I swung at I missed. From that point on, I was panicking about striking out (only 2 strikes in this league) and so anything that I thought was hittable, I whacked at, regardless of whether I could really drive it... all the time knowing in the back of my mind, that working a walk is probably a better outcome than hitting the ball into 10 defenders with a no HR rule. Vitters is just the type of hitter who would benefit most from not making "poor" contact. He's not fast, and he doesn't have enormous power. Hopefully he gets it over his next 8 months of baseball.

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In reply to by The Real Neal

I posted that link because I've seen people comment the exact thing that Vitters stated - improving his quality of contact. I don't think he can't tell a ball from a strike. I think he just goes up looking to get a hit and gets the bat on the ball. He's clearly looking to improve his approach, so we should all at least be pleased with that notion. The first step is to not hit a ball into play. The next step is to take a pitcher's strike and wait out a better pitch. Based on his numbers he's making progress, but I'm not sure if he's completely tackled step 1 yet. Someone who sees him routinely would be able to comment on that

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In reply to by Jumbo

A lot of the time though people who talk about "quality of contact" are really just saying "I don't understand how chance plays into baseball". Just because someone has a low BABIP doesn't necessarily mean that they're making poor contact, or the inverse. Many times, I would even go so far as to say it's more often than not, they're just having bad luck. There's a huge amount of observation bias that goes on when you talk about "quality of contact" and BABIP. When Slappy Campana had a .423 BABIP in the PCL, it wasn't because he was rifling line drives all over the place, and when Vitters had a .240 one in the SL it didn't necessarily mean he kept tapping out to short.

This might be a dumb question (and I am in no way trying to defend Z), but why is it such a big deal for a guy to leave the clubhouse in the middle of a game? In some blowouts, guys will go shower and get dressed before the game is over. Is it a baseball etiquette issue or is there some functional reason a player has to stay until the end of the game?

Nice come-from-behind win on the road for Iowa last night. I'd like to say that B. Jackson got the big hit, but it was Montanez with a three-run double in the ninth. Jackson did walk ahead of Montanez and score the winning run. Jackson also had a triple and a single on the night. This probably goes without saying, but LaHair hit another four-bagger.

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In reply to by VirginiaPhil

Submitted by VirginiaPhil on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 10:03am. Nice come-from-behind win on the road for Iowa last night. I'd like to say that B. Jackson got the big hit, but it was Montanez with a three-run double in the ninth. Jackson did walk ahead of Montanez and score the winning run. Jackson also had a triple and a single on the night. This probably goes without saying, but LaHair hit another four-bagger. =================================== VA PHIL: A scout from another organization (not TEX and not CUBS) was at Fitch Park the other day talking about "4-A" guys who have emerged from AAA and have developed into everyday players in recent years, and he mentioned Nelson Cruz, who had a break-out year in his 4th season in AAA (2008) after he was out of options and had been outrighted to the minors and had been basically written-off. Cruz was 28 (same age as LaHair) when he put up almost the exact same numbers in the PCL as LaHair has put up this year. It doesn't mean LaHair will necessarily be another Nelson Cruz, but it also means it's not automatic that he won't be, either, but we'll never know if he doesn't get a chance to show what he can do. There is a widespread prejudice against "4-A" players that can blind a team from seeing that what they actually have is a "late-bloomer," whether it be a minor league 6YFA like Ryan Ludwick or Garrett Jones, or non-tendered guys like Jayson Werth.

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In reply to by The Real Neal

they did nothing for decades. i hope every broken record stays the property of the drug users and the suits have to constantly defend it. this has been an issue since the 70s, and horrible since the early/mid 90s...critical mass didn't hit til some people dared to mess with historical numbers. yawn. almost everyone involved saw no reprocussion aside from a personal hit to their pride. people should throw shit at guys like mark mcgwire for the people/reporters/etc he dragged through the mud defending his lies to the game...instead he gets a coaching job and standing ovations.

twins "wtf do we do with joe mauer" fun-time continues...they're trying him in RF tonight. what a horrible leash they tied themselves to with the guy...unless he starts hitting soon he won't be getting many more contracts for dandruff shampoo and video games.

i'm either blind or dumb or both, but noticed that firstinning has added a "show season stats' on your player list page which is neat. For all I know it was there the whole time. Seems they've lost all data for 3 days though earlier this week. anyway, didn't really notice how good Welington Castillo's numbers were on the year, granted he's been injured a lot. Really showing power though over the last 2 seasons.

In a subscription only article posted today at Baseball America, Oneri Fleita says he hopes Trey McNutt can pitch in the AFL post-2011 to get his innings up over 100 (he presently has thrown only 72 IP). Each MLB club contributes four pitchers to it's AFL-assigned team, with one of the pitchers designated as a starting pitcher (which would be McNutt). Each of the designated starters usually gets one (occasionally) two starts per week (throwing about 30 innings total) over the six-week long AFL schedule.

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In reply to by crunch

Submitted by crunch on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 10:23pm. about time the cubs sent a guy to the AFL worth following closely...i don't remember being too excited about anyone getting AFL work in the past few years. ================================== CRUNCH: Jake Muyco was the Cubs designated starting pitcher sent to the AFL last year, but Andrew Cashner was the Cubs designated starting pitcher with the Mesa Solar Sox in 2009 and he was one of the best starters in the AFL that year. Then the Cubs moved him back to the bullpen in 2010, before moving him back to the starting rotation this year. With Josh Vitters having played in the AFL twice already he probably wouldn't be assigned there again (he's more likely to play winter ball in Mexico or Venezuela), but some combination of LHRP Jeffrey Beliveau (a virtual lock), RHRP Kevin Rhoderick, LHP Chris Rusin, RHP Jay Jackson, RHP Nick Struck, and/or LHP Brooks Raley, 1B Rebel Ridling, 2B D. J. LeMahieu, IF-OF Ryan Flaherty, and/or IF-OF Logan Watkins, and OF Brett Jackson, Matt Szczur, Evan Crawford, Matt Spencer, and/or Ty Wright (depending upon the needs of the Solar Sox) could be there this year. Like Vitters, C-1B Steve Clevenger has been there twice, so he probably wouldn't go back there again either. There are exceptions, but Latin players usually don't play in the AFL because they are expected to play winter ball in their home country, but occasionally you will see a Cubs Latin player on the Solar Sox (Starlin Castro and Welington Castillo in 2009, Esmailin Caridad in 2008, Angel Guzman in 2004, et al). If that happens this year, I would think IF-OF Marwin Gonzalez is the most-likely candidate, since he is on the bubble as far as whether he gets added to the 40-man roster post-2011. (I would say he would be more of a lock to get added to the 40, but the Cubs might not feel that way).

If Ricketts brings Hendry back, at the very least they have to replace Quade. Q-ball is awful. Bring in someone who is going to stress fundamentals and playing prospects over journeymen, and who has some comprehension of how to work a pitching staff.

LHP (ex-OF) Kyler Burke threw 3.2 IP of hitless/shutout ball with six strikeouts piggy-backing with Ben Wells at Boise tonight. In his last ten games at Boise: 1.86 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, .171 Opp BA 29 IP, 18 H, 8 R (6 ER), 11 BB, 26 K Despite his potential as a pitcher, Burke is unlikely to be added to the Cubs 40-man roster post-2011 because he hasn't pitched above short season ball and because he still has control lapses from time-to-time. But the Cubs will probably add him to the 40 after next season (even if he hasn't made it past Daytona), because otherwise Burke can be a minor league free-agent (6YFA) post-2012, and I doubt that the Cubs will want to lose him. BTW, Burke will probably attend Instructs next month, and he is the type of "mystery" pitcher scouts from the other MLB organizations will be watching closely to see how he develops. So if he pitches lights-out at Instructs it would not be inconceivable that Burke could get lifted in the December 2011 Rule 5 Draft. Lefties who throw in the mid-90's are worth their weight in gold.

A great day in Cubs history. Jim Hendry FINALLY gets fired. Long overdue!! Nice to see the Ricketts Family wake up. I am so happy right now and excited for the future of the Cubs, even without knowing who the next GM is. The past few years have been such a downer and I have barely watched many games as my interest has waned after knowing the Cubs would NEVER been able to win a WS with Jim Hendry as the GM. I was 100% correct. I called for his firing years and years ago and t took many of you a long time to join the train, but finally saw what I saw years ago. Now the Cubs can start fresh, get a competent GM, rebuild and look 3 years down the road to start contending again. This team/organization is in disarray and will take some time to rebuild from the mess Hendry created. No more Teflon Jim!!!! Ding dong the witch is dead!! Go Cubs!!!!

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In reply to by Ryno

While it would have been nice to save a few bucks and get some B/C level prospects for our trash, it doesn't matter too much. This team has only a couple pieces on it that will be long term answers for a team intending to win a WS. This team needs to be gutted. Bye Z, Bye Aramis, Bye Fukudome, Bye Soriano, Bye Pena, etc. All those players are not going to be an asset in helping the Cubs win in the future. They are only weighing us down at this time. I understand this is going to be a long ugly road for the next 2-3 years, but with the right GM and a solid payroll, there is no reason 2015 couldn't be our year! Go Cubs!

Tom: "Jim, have a donut and explain to me why Carlos Pena is still on the roster, and we are paying for it." Jim: "*garbled* feel like he's going to be a key part for us next year." Tom: "He hit .196 and cost me $10 million, what do we have to pay him for hitting .225?" Jim: "Well, I think we could get him for probably $12.5. He oozes leadership and winningness, you know." Tom: "But we could have traded him, saved, say, your salary for this year, and then re-signed him anyway, right?" Jim: "Technically yes, but you know, that's a lot of paperwork to go through." Tom: "OK, clean up out your office, we'll do the press conference Friday morning."

Ricketts on Two reasons for change -not enough wins -needed new leadership to win WS Looking for new Gm " today" No time line Candidates will be outside of organization Search will be "private process" no updates or comments Wants to continue to build players through organization Wants world series champ for fans. Questions? Why 7 /22? "respect for Jim" and help thru draft and trade deadline

Let the months of speculation begin! Go TCR! Heard B Levine (who must be crushed), who opined that Rick Hahn fits the bullet points Ricketts discussed. Turned down a Cardinals GM job apparently, and a Mets finalist.

Recent comments

  • 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. 

  • 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!!!