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

Game 61 Thread - Maholm vs. Scherzer

The Cubs are actually an almost reasonable 12-15 at home, so maybe they won't get crushed tonight. But as Cubnut noted on Twitter the other day, the Cubs record in last 22 games that didn't involve the San Diego Padres is 2-20.

Tigers Cubs
Jackson, CF
*Campana, CF
*Boesch, RF
Castro, SS
Cabrera, 3B
*DeJesus, RF
*Fielder, 1B
Soriano, LF
Young, LF
*LaHair, 1B
Peralta, SS
*Clevenger, C
Laird, C
Barney, 2B
Worth, 2B
*Stewart, 3B
Scherzer, P
Maholm, P

Big news the last 2 days out of Cubs camp is the signing of Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler and the firing of hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo.  For Jaramillo, he was obviously done the moment they hired Epstein and Hoyer, but there was never a rush to get rid of him. He was under contract and it was one less thing they had to scramble to replace before spring training. And it didn't hurt anyone giving Jaramillo a test run, check out his ideas, see how well he meshes with the new group and maybe they'd learn a thing or two from each other. It's not what the new group envisions so they've put in their own guy for the time being, James Rowson. He was serving as the current minor league hitting coordinator, a job he held with the Yankees over the last 4 years (6 in total with the Bronx Bombers). Phil Rogers heaped this praise upon him in a tweet.

James Rowson, the minor-league hitting coordinator who is replacing Rudy Jaramillo as the Cubs' hitting coach, had impressed Theo Epstein & Co. with his work on prospects like Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo. He's considered excellent in helping hitters improve their plate discipline and learn to "grind out'' at-bats, and benefited from working under Kevin Long with the Yankees.

Nevermind that Baez had one walk in Extended Spring Training (he does have 4 in his very brief time with Peoria though).

As for Soler, it's a minimum 9/$30M deal that could escalate far higher as he'll have the option to go to arbitration each year he's eligibile versus whatever he's guaranteed in his contract. It's certainly not cheap, but the Cubs were desperate to add assets to their talent pool and this was one of the last times they'll be able to simply outbid opponents on prospects. So there were more forces at work here than just, "Is Soler worth that many years and that much money?" Regardless, he'll certainly shoot to the top 3-5 prospects in the system depending on who gets promoted this year and has All-Star potential with big power and a big arm. And the Cubs own his right until he's 29. Hard to complain unless he's a complete wash out.

As for the game, happy to see Campana in there just because if there's ever a team that you want to test their infield defense, the Tigers are that team. Choke up on that bat and put that ball in play Crazy Legs.

Comments

Theo (paraphrase) believes as Castro gets older, he's pretty certain he'll develop more power and pitchers will throw him less strikes and then it'll be up to him to be more selective. Not terribly worried about it right now considering his age and says most players would be figuring these things out in AA or AAA right now.

[ ]

In reply to by Dr. aaron b

He's 22. How can you know he's not a franchise level guy? He's among the league leaders in stats among shortstops, at 22. His worst stat, OBP, still has him at the 12 spot among MLB shortstops. He is second in the MLB in hits among shortstops. At 22. He is 7th in the MLB among shortstop in OPS, at 22, and his power hasn't even begun to really develop yet. He has a .299 RISP average. At 22. He hits to all fields. At 22. He hits breaking stuff as well as he hits fastballs. At 22. Fangraphs has him at the top of its list of Tier1 shortstops: http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/june-shortstop-tier-rankings/ At 22. I don't think this is Cubs fans overhyping a guy, unless every stats hound and sports writer has decided overnight to become a fan of one of the worst teams in recent baseball history.

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

I agree 100%, but the real question is how good does Castro have to be for his critics? I don't feel his fans on this board are blind to his shortcomings, but I wouldn't call him a 'franchise player'. Right now, he's a very, very good player who at 22 still has ample room to improve a number of aspects in his game. I'm more inclined to wish the Cubs could find, develop, and/or trade for a lot more Castros. We can only hope Rizzo, Baez, Almora, BJax, and Soler will be as good. The real thing Castro needs is a manager or mentor who will push him to be the best player he can be. I hoped Baker and Pinella would fill that role, and my jury is still out on Sveum.

[ ]

In reply to by Tito

Yeah, it's cool until you're actually responsible for producing results. Then you suddenly have to show competence at doing your job. Jim Frey and Hawk Harrelson come to mind as guys promoted way above their abilities (though technically, they were only made GMs, not team presidents). In my mind, I saw Hawk saying, "I'm GM? COOL!" I know you were just making a joke -- and I laughed, but it also got me thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know).

Campana's 3 steals gives him the major league lead with 21 now. Castro is tied for 5th with 16. 9th as a team in majors, 4th in NL though. Offense 14th in runs scored in NL/27th in majors.

[ ]

In reply to by SheffieldCornelia

Way too early to tell. There isn't a Bryce Harper/Strasburg/Prior who has been hyped forever. Potentially Mark Appel (or anyone else who doesn't sign, but Appel seems the likeliest). Early thoughts are not much on college pitching, good college hitting. Some good HS hitters being discussed, including a few catchers being talked about as top 5 picks. Will become clearer after summer showcase tourneys and, of course, much clearer as next year's fall and spring baseball occurs.

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.