Cubs MLB Roster

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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

Dong Dinger Slams Door on Angel Comeback Bid

Dong-Yub Kim blasted a grand slam to cap at five-run 8th, as the Cubs outlasted the Angels 11-8 in Cactus League Extended Spring Training action this morning at Fitch Park Field #3 in Mesa, AZ  

DY Kim was one of seven highly-regarded Korean teenagers signed by the Cubs during the years 2007-10 (RHP Dae-Eun Rhee, OF Jae-Hoon Ha, SS Hak-Ju Lee, OF Kyung-Min Na, RHP Su-Min Jung, and RHP Jin-Young Kim were the others), receiving a $550K bonus as an 18-year old in February 2009. (The Cubs spent a total of $4M+ worth of signing bonuses on the Korean prospects).

Kim made his U. S. debut at AZ Instructs post-2009 as a raw, multi-tool outfielder, showing plus-speed, HR power, and a RF cannon-arm. He reminded me of a young, teenaged, Korean Jose Canseco. However, he sustained a torn labrum in his right shoulder at Instructs, causing him to miss the 2010 season, before finally returning to full active status in 2011.

Because of his shoulder injury, he no longer has a RF arm, and so he has been relegated to playing LF and occasionally 1st base. Although he has improved some defensively over the past couple of years, he still struggles to track high fly balls and hard-hit liners, and his outfield defense can best be described as below-average.

While his arm is not what it was when he signed, he still has plus-speed and is a good base stealer, and he will occasionally show-off his BP HR power (as he did today), although he does not hit as many home runs in games as he probably should because he is not a good hitter (he struggles to hit breaking balls, he strikes out a ton, and he rarely walks).

Cub fans will sometimes talk about this prospect or that prospect being at the crossroads and that this is a make-or-break year, but for Dong-Yub Kim, it probably is.

Here is the abridged box score from the game (Cubs players only):

CUBS LINEUP:
1. Danny Lockhart, 2B: 1-4 (K, 1B, 1-3, 4-3, R)
2. Carlos Penalver, SS: 1-4 (K, 1B, 6-3, 4-3, R)
3a. Jeimer Candelario, 3B: 1-3 (4-3, E-5, 1B, RBI)
3b. Mark Malave, 3B: 1-1 (1B, R)
4. Dan Vogelbach, 1B: 1-4 (2B, 3-6-3 DP, K, K, R)
5a. Gioskar Amaya, DH #1: 1-2 (F-9, 2B, BB, R)
5b. Wilfredo Petit, C: 0-0 (BB, R)
6. Trey Martin, CF-DH: 1-3 (P-4, L-4, 1B, F-9 SF, RBI)
7. Xavier Batista, RF: 1-2 (2B, BB, L-8, BB, 2 R, RBI)
8a. SLOT WAS SKIPPED FIRST TWO TIMES THRU BATTING ORDER
8b. Trevor Gretzky, DH #2: 1-2 (K, 1B, R)
9. Dong-Yub Kim, LF: 1-4 (6-3, K+WP, F-8, HR, R, 4 RBI, SB)
10. Wilson Contreras, C-DH: 1-3 (4-3, 1B, E-6, 2 RBI)
11. Garrett Schlecht, DH-CF: 0-2 (HBP, K, P-5, R)

CUBS PITCHERS:
1. Ian Dickson: 3.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 1 K, 50 pitches (33 strikes), 5/2 GO/FO
2. Sheldon McDonald: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 GIDP, 23 pitches (19 strikes), 4/1 GO/FO
3. Pete Levitt: 2.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 1 K, 1 GIDP, 26 pitches (19 strikes), 4/0 GO/FO
4. Felix Pena: 2.0 IP, 5 H, 5 R (5 ER), 2 BB, 0 K, 39 pitches (23 strikes), 2/4 GO/FO

CUBS ERRORS: 1
SS Carlos Penalver - E-6 (errant throw on attempted force play at 2nd base allowed runner to advance to 3rd base - eventually scored unearned run)

CUBS CATCHERS DEFENSE:
Wilson Contreras: 1-1 CS, 1 PB
Wilfredo Petit: 0-1 CS

CUBS OUTFIELD ASSISTS:
RF Xavier Batista - threw out batter-runner 9-6 trying to stretch single into double

ATTENDANCE: 19

WEATHER: Sunny and a bit breezy at times with temperatures in the 80’s

Comments

Looks like another solid outing for the leftie, Sheldon McDonald. Even with all the offense in today's game a couple of innings of effective shut down offense. Interesting he pitched earlier in the game than in previous outings last week.

[ ]

In reply to by Raisin101

Tue, 04/17/2012 - 10:20pm — Raisin101 Re: Dong Dinger Slams Door on Angel Comeback Bid Hi Phil, How has Ian Dickson looked so far? ================================ RAISIN: Ian Dickson has looked very good. He looked OK at Instructs last fall, too (1.69 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, and a .211 Opp BA), except his control is better now than it was then. Dickson is a big kid (6'5 with long arms) but he doesn't throw hard. He has been throwing strikes, though, and he is good at changing eye levels with his fastball. He also has a solid change-up and a curve that he throws for strikes, and he mixes up his pitches very well. He seems to be a bright bulb. When the Cubs drafted Dickson (2011 35th round - $100K "over-slot" bonus), they were kind of taking a chance because he hadn't pitched in almost a year after suffering a torn ACL shortly after throwing a no-hitter in the Valley League (a summer collegiate wood bat league) following his sophomore year at Lafayette. I remember him strapping a big old ice bag around his knee after every outing last fall at Instructs, but I haven't seen him do that this year. He actualy might be a decent starting pitcher prospect. Nothing special or eye-popping about him to this point, but he could be effective if he can continue to throw strikes. He reminds me a bit of Randy Wells.

[ ]

In reply to by bartlettcubsfan

Tue, 04/17/2012 - 11:22pm — bartlettcubsfan hey phil, how about the other korean kid, jin young kim, doing? heard that he gained some weight... ================================== BARTLETT: Jin-Young Kim has put on some weight. (Not a good thing, BTW). For a kid who got a reported $850K bonus, he has not been impressive. He gets hit fairly hard (sometimes very hard) almost every time he pitches, and that's going back a couple of years now. I liked Taiwanese RHP Yao-Lin Wang better when they were both at EXST last year, and I haven't changed my mind. JY Kim has a long ways to go to become a legitimate MLB prospect.

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    LHP Blake Weiman appears to have been the last cut from the AAA Iowa roster. He is with the Tennessee group at Minor League Camp.

     

  • crunch (view)

    bruce bochy is hobbling rather badly for a guy who's had 2 hip replacements.  his gait is extremely wonky taking the lineup card to the ump.

  • 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.