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

Sweet Lou is NL's Manager of the Year

Lou Piniella won he NL Manager of the Year award today. Always a curious award that seems to honor lowered expectations than actual managing skill. Nonetheless, Piniella takes the honor and will likely just dump it into the spare closet as I'm sure he couldn't care less after the playoff debacle.

He would have probably gotten my first place vote as I thought the Cubs were about an 88-win team to start the year, so the Cubs certainly exceeded my expactations. Tony LaRussa was the only other manager that probably deserved some first place votes, but he finished 5th in the voting.

Past Cubs managers to have received votes in the Manager of the Year award since it began in 1983, once again thanks to reader WISCGRAD

Name
Year
Place
Lou Piniella
2008
1st
Lou Piniella
2007
4th
Dusty Baker
2003
2nd
Don Baylor
2001
6th
Jim Riggleman
1998
3rd
Jim Riggleman
1995
5th
Don Zimmer
1989
1st
Jim Frey
1984
1st

 

And I wrote this whole article without making a Dusty Baker joke. I have evolved

Lou and the Cubs have also retained their entire coaching staff from last year.


It's the last day to enter TCR's Free Agent Frenzy Contest for a chance to win  Cait Murphy's Crazy '08. Here are my picks:

Abreu - Cleveland 2
Bradley - Cubs 1
Burnett - Atlanta 7
Burrell - Atlanta 4
Dempster - Cubs 15
Dunn - Toronto 3
Furcal - Cubs 8
Lowe - Yankees 9
Perez - Atlanta 6
Manny - Dodgers 12
K-rod - Mets 10
CC - Angels 13
Sheets - Houston 5
Teixeira - Yanks 14
Wood - Cubs 11

I don't think the Cubs will sign all of those players or the Braves will either. It's just that it's so wide open right now that I really don't have a solid guess on any one of them.  So instead, I'm just trying to put the ball in play rather than swing for the fences and betting that the Cubs will sign SOME of those players.

Comments

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

some people have real issues with "drawing sides" and drawing me into it. again...this isn't a competition and i don't draw favorites...nor do i hate lou...nor am i a dusty booster. what i do like is...GOING THROUGH A SEASON HEARING PEOPLE TALK ABOUT *GASP* PLAYERS RATHER THAN THE ELDERLY MAN WHO DOESN'T EVEN PLAY THE GAME. yeah, that...again. we haven't had to hear about how lou is making people suck 1000 posts a week or other half assed conspiracy theories that hold more straw grasping and emotion than facts. we have a team good enough there's not arguement over which flavor of "shouldn't be there anyway" should play over each other and why it's the elderly man's fault they're not doing well or there's not other options. we hear about people who actually play the game. it's nice. fukudome had a bad season and it was actually HIS fault, not the elderly man in the dugout. neat concept.

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

yeah, im just clearing it up cuz i still seem to get called out every few months for being "pro-dusty" and "anti-lou" rather than being "pro-stfu-about-managers-and-conspiracies-because-youre-frustrated". worthless is a bit harsh...i just think they're overvalued by some as far as what they can make a guy do on the field. there's so many coaches watching "problem guy A" be a problem and for the most part it's them rather than the manager "fixing" them. granted, winning has helped a lot, but we've had a lot more discussions about what's right/wrong with players and their real game rather than looping it back into some elderly man. it's been nice. every manager has an "idiot list" and in a full season you can pull out a laundry list against them. it's just the way it is. it's just a lot nicer to me to hear people talking about real issues with players rather than it turning into an emotional conspiracy theory.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ti-padres111208&prov=yhoo&type=lg… So the Braves and Chicago Cubs have maneuvered themselves into favorites. The St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros appeared to fall out. Peavy gave his list of clubs he’d play for another good, hard look, and the New York Yankees continued to push hard, despite failing to make Peavy’s roster. Others have inserted themselves as well, including the Boston Red Sox and pitching-thin New York Mets. The Texas Rangers also tried, but were told Peavy would not consider pitching in Arlington under any circumstances. One American League executive looked over the exceptions to Peavy’s veto powers, noted the absence of AL teams, and surmised, “Looks like he doesn’t want to pitch against those hairy guys,” meaning the superior lineups of the other league. He wouldn’t be the first to conclude Peavy either loved hitting or loved his National League ERA. Either way, after weeks of work, by Wednesday afternoon the Padres had plenty of options, according to one front-office staffer, but nothing he’d consider close. Obviously, an adjustment here or there – particularly by the Braves or Cubs – would end the negotiating and return the process to Peavy, who would accept or reject a trade, presumably with the final year of his contract ($22 million in 2013) guaranteed. Peavy’s agent, Barry Axelrod, said the Padres have yet to ask them to approve a trade.

From Keith Law's blog, "The Dish," at http://tinyurl.com/66gp4q

"Edinson Volquez appears on three NL Rookie of the Year ballots, even though he’s not a rookie. It wasn’t even something esoteric like the days-on-the-roster rule; he threw 80 innings for Texas prior to 2008, and the cutoff is 50...

"The three voters who included Volquez were Jeremy Cothran of the Newark Star-Ledger, John Klima of the Los Angeles Daily News, and Jay Paris of the North County Times in San Diego."

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

We haven't talked much about it... OK we haven't talked any about it, but Perry is probably NL Coach of the Year. 2006 Cubs last in OBP (.319) last by a wide margin in ISO OBP (.051) 2007 Cubs 9th in OBP (.333) tied for last in ISO OBP (.062) 2008 Cubs 1st in OBP (.354) tied for second in ISO OBP (.076) I'm not a big Lou fan, but you have to give him and Hendry some credit for bringing in Perry and letting him do his thing.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

not to take away from the fine work I'm sure Perry is doing, but that conclusion seems misguided. It's probably more of a function of the players they've acquired and given playing time to...or as Lou said, if you want OBP players, you acquire them in the offseason (paraphrasing obviously)

some of the regulars, BB/PA since 2006-2008

Soto - N/A, .083, .111

Lee -.123, .109, .102

DeRosa - .077, .102, .117

Theriot - .111, .083, .111

Ramirez - .076, .077, .115

Soriano - .092, .050, .080

Edmonds -.130, .100, .151 (as a Cub), .098 (as a Padre)

Johnson -.064, 063, .051

Fukudome - N/A, N/A,  .138 (compare to Jones at .061 and .069 the previous 2 years)

Ward - .114, .165, .134

Ramirez has certainly shown improvement and Soriano and DeRosa, to a certain degree, Lee has trailed off though (probably due to age and a loss in power). But seems more like the new players than the coaching.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Yeah, I thought about that. There's been a lot of talk about Fukudome inspiring it. You have to take out the IBB's if you really want to get down to it. The difference in this year's team and last year's team comes down to Fukudome in right, the center fielders, and Soto at catcher. Even if you don't want to give Perry the credit for making DeRosa and Ramirez get noticeably better - what are the odds that the previous regime would have made guys like Soriano, Soto and DeRosa worse?

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

I look forward to it...

here's the Cubs who were on the 2006 and 2007 Cubs, you should definitely factor out IBB's and factor in age patterns and all that wonderful stuff, but here's the quick and dirty.

blue it went up under Lou, red it went down under Lou

Ramirez: .076, .077

Jones: .061, .069

Lee: .123, .109 (lee of course only had 204 PA's in 2006)

Theriot: .111, .083

Barrett: .079, .074

Murton: .089, .100

Cedeno: .031, .038

Pagan: .081, .063

seems like I'm missing someone, but looks like a wash to me....

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Gotta call sample size on Theriot too. Actually have to call sample size on all that. None of it is statistically significant. The thing with the John Hill study he did a few years ago, it gives big enough sample sizes when you look at it team-wide, but it's not really the proper way to do it. The other problem is that he didn't do line of best fits for the age expectations, he used averages, which is incorrect. Say you have two players both age 30. One player's walks have been this over the last five years: 20 30 40 50 60 The second player's walks have been like this 40 42 44 46 48 If you are just eyeballing that, you would guess player one will walk 70 times and player 2 will walk 50 times in the coming year. When Hill did it, he said both players would walk 4.6% (made this up) more times, because a 30 year old on average walks 4.6% more often than he did in his 29 season. To do it correcly you would use the best fits, 70 and 50 in this rudimentary example and then look at what they actually did and base your assessment on that. You may think that it's not a big deal and it would even itself out, but when you're talking about players like Sosa and Bonds, that type of thing can have a huge impact.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

I don't have much use for Perry's "thing," if it's to advise hitters not to swing. Perry had a bad effect on the three guys who needed a hitting coach, Fukudome, Pie and Cedeno. Fukudome got so much praise for drawing walks and raising pitch counts that he began to just stand there like a statue. The umps responded by doing what they always do with guys who they think are not "being hitters"--they widened his strike zone. Once they took those close pitches away from him, he was useless with a bat in his hand. If that's not Perry's fault, whose is it? If Fukudome needed help or advice, what was he supposed to do, ask his translator? Call home? The experienced guys on the team, the ones who put up the numbers that made Perry look good--I doubt they rely on a hitting coach much. With a team of veterans, I'm not sure what any of these major league coaches do, other than dial the bullpen and pick up after batting practice. It's nice work if you can get it.

[ ]

In reply to by VirginiaPhil

Fukudome's walk rate by month, subtracting out IBB"s

April - .137, May - .129, June - .142, July - .091, August - .121, Sept - .096

that's not that big a drop-off in the 2nd half and could just as easily be explained by pitchers challenging Fukudome more since they knew he couldn't hit it more than 110 feet than a widening strike zone.

And maybe Fukudome just didn't listen to Perry, or maybe he tried some stuff and didn't help.

Lou hasn't heard about Peavy from Hendry and Brian Roberts trade isn't dead break out Cubnut's diagram on Roberts trade history!!! per Gordon Wittenmeyer... http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1277176,CST-SPT-cub13.arti… =========== 'I think it's only talk (regarding Peavy),'' said Piniella... ''I really haven't talked to [GM] Jim Hendry much at all about our situation. We had a nice conversation at organizational meetings a couple of weeks ago. At that time, we hadn't talked about Peavy. I really learned about Peavy just watching ESPN. I haven't had any substantive talks with Jim about it.'' That means only one thing: The Cubs aren't serious about Peavy. Piniella hasn't been out of the loop on any significant player move since he was hired, much less one that would approach this magnitude. ===== Another baseball source said Wednesday that the Cubs' yearlong efforts to land Baltimore leadoff hitter Brian Roberts aren't dead, suggesting the Orioles might be more willing to move him with only one year left on his contract, pending the outcome of extension talks.

Recent comments

  • 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!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.