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

Toros Don't Dig Graves at Mesa Cubtown

Calvin Graves drilled a double and a two-run single and Varonex Cuevas singled twice and scored two runs, leading the Cubs to an 8-5 victory over Los Toros de Tijuana (Mexican League) in Minor League Camp game action this morning at Mesa Cubtown Field #3.

The speedy Graves also made the defensive play of the game, an outstanding full-sprint running catch in left-centerfield. 

Miguel Torrero walked and roped a two-run single and Efren Espinoza singled twice, walked, and scored a run for Los Toros. 

The seven Cubs pitchers who worked in the game were from the Iowa (AAA) squad, and with five NRI pitchers having been sent down to Minor League Camp today from the MLB club, all seven of the guys who threw against Tijuana are probably "on the bubble."

Most (if not all) of the The position players who played in the game are likely destined for the Eugene/Mesa (Extended Spring Training) squad, and so most all of them are probably "on the bubble," too.   

For those of you who follow the Tijuana Toros in particular and the Mexican League in general, Mexican League Opening Day is Friday April 3rd, and Tijuana will be on the road at Mexico City Red Devils. So if you were planning to be in Tijuana to watch Los Toros on Mexican League Opening Day, you will need to divert to Mexico City.

Here is the abridged box score frrom today's game (Cubs players only):

CUBS LINEUP
1a. Tim Saunders, SS: 0-1 (K, BB, BB, R)
1b. Varonex Cuevas, SS: 2-2 (1B, 1B, 2 R)
2a. Tanner Witt, 2B: 0-2 (6-3, BB, F-8)
2b. Bryant Flete, 2B: 1-2 (F-8, 1B) 
3a. Shane Kennedy, 3B: 0-2 (L-9, 4-6 FC, BB, R, 2 SB) 
3b. David Bote, 3B: 1-2 (E-4, 2B, 2 RBI)
4. Kevin Brown, DH: 0-4 (4-3, 4-3, F-8, F-8 SF, F-7, RBI)
5. Kevin Encarnacion, LF: 1-5 (F-9, F-9, 1B, K, F-9, R)
6a. Alex Tomasovich, 1B: 0-2 (5-3, K) 
6b. Adonis Paula, PH-1B: 0-2 (P-4, 6-3) 
7. Calvin Graves, CF: 2-4 (E-3, 2B, 1B, 4-3, R, 2 RBI)
8a. Charlie White, RF: 0-2 (F-8, 4-3) 
8b. Shamiel Ubiera, RF: 0-2 (5-U FC, 6-3) 
9a. Tyler Pearson, C: 1-2 (6-4-3 DP, 2B, RBI)
9b. Erick Castillo, C: 1-2 (E-6, 1B, 2 R) 

CUBS PITCHERS
1. Felix Pena: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K, 2/0 GO/FO, 37 pitches (19 strikes) 
2. Carlos Pimentel: 2.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R (2 ER), 0 BB, 2 K, 1 BALK, 1/2 GO/FO, 30 pitches (20 strikes) 
3. Blake Cooper: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 ER), 0 BB, 0 K, 10 pitches (8 strikes) 
4. Austin Kirk: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 0/2 GO/FO, 14 pitches (9 strikes) 
5. Jeff Lorick: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 2/0 GO/FO, 16 pitches (11 strikes) 
6. Matt Loosen: 1.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 3 K, 1 WP, 19 pitches (14 strikes)  
7. Zach Cates: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 2 K, 0/1 GO/FO, 17 pitches (11 strikes) 

CUBS ERRORS: 1 
3B Shane Kennedy - E-5 (throwing error on infield single allowed batter-runner to advance to 2nd base and unearned run to score from 3rd)

CUBS CATCHERS DEFENSE

Tyler Pearson; 2-2 CS 

WEATHER
: Sunny and a bit breezy, with temperatures in the 80's 

ATTENDANCE: 47 

 

Comments

I had forgotten that Loux was still in the system. Can he still be considered to be a prospect any more. The same question for Maples.

[ ]

In reply to by DavidP

DAVID P: Barret Loux had both shoulder surgery AND UCL elbow surgery (TJS) over the past year-and-a-half. It's hard enough to come back from one, but to make it back from both (especially when the two surgeies occurred within such a short period of time) would be quite a feat. So far he looks OK throwing "live" BP, but it remains ro be seen how he fares in games. 

As for Dillon Maples, he probably needs to make the South Bend staff (bullpen) coming out of Minor League Camp. If he doesn't, he would be a definite release candidate prior to Opening Day. I don't think he will spend another season at Extended Spring Training. 

BTW, if Maples does get released, he can always go to college and be a punter (he was an outstanding punter in HS). He was all set to be a two-sport student athlete at the University of North Carolina when the Cubs almost literally signed him off the UNC football practice field in August 2011. Not every minor leaguer who gets released has that fall-back option. 

"Reds manager Bryan Price indicated Monday that Jason Marquis and Paul Maholm are good bets to make the team's rotation." damn...not the best group of ex-cubs. CIN was looking interesting a couple years ago...now they're at this point.

Wasn't there some talk of a Castro for Zach Wheeler trade a ways back? Whew! Sucks, though - I hate seeing all these pitchers go down.

@CarrieMuskat 46s46 seconds ago #Cubs seem to be leaning toward 3 catchers. Maddon says having Welly will help them keep Montero, Ross healthy, also extra bat.

[ ]

In reply to by Stevens

I don't know about increase, but let teams know they won't give him away. TheJedi are very good at playing the PR trade game. And frankly, they do have room for Beefy.


C: Montero, Ross, Castillo

INF: Rizzo, LaStella/Alcantara, Castro, Olt

OF: Soler, Fowler, Coghlan/Denorfia, Sweeney

Alcantara is going to play 7 positions by June, but being able to pinch hit Montero or Ross late in games would be a neat luxury.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

And the Cubs are in a good position in that they are not in a rush to make the move. The roster will likely shift a lot this year with so many young guys. If no one offers anything decent by the end of Spring Training, you could start the season like this. Then after a few weeks another team realizes their back-up catcher is not working out, or an injury hits, and they can move him then, at which point perhaps someone like Bryant or Baez is going to be called up anyway.  If the Cubs are in the position where they have to take a hit on the trade, it means that many other things are all going really well, and we won't care.

[ ]

In reply to by WISCGRAD

it's been this way for months. there's been very few teams looking catchers and when TOR picked up a new catcher, making d.navarro expendable, things got worse for the cubs. handing d.ross a 2 year deal pushed them further into a corner...if you want to call it that. given the elements of this "storm" they can continue to wait for some other catcher to catch an injury or try to out-compete TOR's desire to trade away d.navarro by undercutting welly's value even more. his value in trade has been sunk for months. i just wonder how cool welly will be with being the "3rd catcher" when he could start for some teams and be the main backup on others...we'll find out soon if he's not traded how cool he is with it.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

I mean, okay, but say Carrie Muskat tweets "Wellington Castillo demands trade"...and then what? Do Theo/Jed care what their 3rd string catcher demands? Do other teams think, "hey, here's a guy who knows what he wants, let's go get him"? Or, does Castillo paint himself as a whiner and clubhouse malcontent by making demands as an arb-eligible 3rd string catcher? I don't think any demand would either protect his future or increase his wallet thickness. Get better at framing pitches. Improve your hitting and patience. Then teams will start to care what you want and when you want it.

[ ]

In reply to by Stevens

usually the player in question ends up being traded or making a "i'm happy here, this was overblown" statement...all the while the press strokes themselves from beginning to end covering it. that said, it was just pure wild-ass "tossing it out there" speculation on a trade demand. i just can't imagine him or his agent are cool with this unless they know he's going to see 400-ish PAs and work behind the plate. when it comes to his D...is that 1 to 1.5 extra called strikes per game worth ignoring the other aspects of his D game? framing pitches was the hot thing this winter, but it's hardly a make/break thing for a catcher when he brings other plus tools to his D game. for people that care about dWAR, he put up 4.0 value on that in his 210 games over his last 2 seasons behind the plate.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

I get it was wild-ass. I just don't get why anyone would care if he made demands. Or why that would help a player of his stature. As for his D, or really his whole game, I admit that I don't know what Theo/Jed didn't like. But that they acquired 2 catchers says enough about what they think of him, at least for now.

[ ]

In reply to by Stevens

Beefy isn't going to demand anything, if anything they'll try and sneak him through waivers at the end of spring training if they don't have a roster spot or a trade partner.

There's a reason he hasn't been traded yet and it's because he's a barely serviceable starter and not veteran enough and not good enough defensively to be a back-up.

At best you're talking Corey Black upside in a trade I'm guessing. Everyone agrees at this point he's terrible at framing pitches, it was one of the first things I noticed when he came up and a lot of others on this board did as well, and the somewhat flawed metrics agree and most importantly obviously TheJedi agree or they wouldn't have gotten 2 new catchers. He's a decent enough hitting catcher that can get hot that you don't want to give him away and he is decent at throwing out runners, but a player is only worth what someone will give you for him and obviously it's not much at the moment.

 

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

there's about a 0% chance you could get him through waivers... the guy is healthy, has pop, doesn't have a leaky glove, and throws out about 1/3rd of base runners who test him. not to mention the guy makes 2m and has years of club control left. david ross just got 2.5m (for 2 years, each year) after putting up 2 extremely pathetic seasons with the bat, half the workload, and showcasing a decrease in arm strength last year. 2m for welly is a deal compared to that.

Assume 3 catchers and no trades: 11 pitchers. 8 starters and 6 bench guys. Fowler, Coglin, Rizzo, Soler, Montero, Castro, Olt, Baez. Bench: Castillo, Ross, Denorfia, LaStella, Alcantara and Sweeney/Szczur. so other than the 4/5th OF, it looks like Lake or Baez/Herrera is the final cut? and who goes when Bryant arrives?

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

"and who goes when Bryant arrives?" Instead of Baez, who is hitting .115, they'll keep someone they can send down painlessly. He's not gonna break camp if he doesn't nudge that average up a bit. So keep Lake, test Bryant in the OF. It doesn't take much to make a passable left fielder, and if he already has arm fatigue it could be third base is not his position anyway, even if he can field it ok. Baez now is going to need to fight off Russell. He has his work cut out for him me thinks. By the time Bryant comes up they'll either probably have a taker for Castillo or they can just send Lake off somewhere.

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

Baez isn't going to make the team, my guess from earlier presuming the standard 13 position player/12 pitcher mix

C: Montero, Ross

INF: Rizzo, La Stella/Alcantara, Castro, Olt

OF: Soler, Fowler, Coghlan/Denorfia, Sweeney

leaving your extra spot for Welington, Herrera,  Szczur, Lake, etc (my $$ would be on Herrera)

SP: Arrieta, Lester, Hammel, Hendricks, ???

RP: Rondon, Strop, Motte, Ramirez, Grimm, Coke, ???

two spots for Wood, Jackson, Doubront, Wada, Britton, Schlitter, etc (my $$ on Wood as SP and Jackson to pen)

I do find the amount of angst on who is going to break with the club rather disproportional to the amount that it matters. I don't know the numbers off hand, but guestimating  teams probably change 20-30% of the backend of their roster every year. You'll go through 7-10 SP's on a year most times and I'm guessing around 15-20 relievers, plus 3-5 bench players and probably a starting position player or two. That's all off the top of my head, adjust your numbers accordingly.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

"I do find the amount of angst on who is going to break with the club rather disproportional to the amount that it matters" I can't speak for others, but hopefully it's not angst. Something to talk about whilst waiting for something interesting to happen maybe? I don't know what the word for that is, but I'm pretty sure it ain't angst. Teeth gnashing? No. That's two words.

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

I don't think it's angst either, but I'm rooting for a few of the bubble guys like Szczur, Britton or even Daniel Bard who is really a long shot but might get called up later. J Herrera makes me say, meh, but he represents what Rob is talking about in terms of the that 20-30% roster shuffle for when Bryant or later when Russell gets the call. At some point, As far as rooting for the kids, I'd love to see Dallas Beeler get another chance but that won't happen without some key starter getting injured (hopefully none of the top 4). Finally, Blake Parker vs Brian Schlitter. Iowa shuffle material again this year?

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

I'm rooting big time for Szczur (or, as the Great Maddonini calls him, Julius Szczur). The rest I don't really care too much about, since there's just about 0 chance Bryant isn't up by whatever his date is. Even if Szczur is sent down I'm sure he'll be back up during the Rob Shuffle at some point but I'd love to see the guy break camp. Because bone marrow.

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

I'm rooting for Szczur, too, for three reasons. 1) His baby-blue eyes will translate into mega jersey sales in the female sizes, especially when the Bryant rack has been picked clean. 2) Has a great story: saved a kid's life at some danger/cost to himself 3) He also saves no-hitters, as Chris Rusin can testify. Also made a great effort to pull off a Reed Johnson catch to save Arietta's no-no. Maybe he'll be the Cubs' salvation!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/03/17/kris-bryant-cubs-fr…

The inevitable Boras tantrum on Bryant showed up about 2 weeks earlier than I expected

"Everybody in baseball is saying he's a major-league player ready for the big leagues. I have players call me. Executives call me. The Cubs' people want him there. Everyone says, 'They cannot send this guy down.' It's too obvious.

"This isn't a system choice. This isn't a mandate. This is a flat ownership decision. Do they really want to win here?''

~snip~

"Ownership doesn't have anything to do with it,'' Epstein told USA TODAY Sports. "We're making an organizational decision. And I'll be the one, as president of baseball operations, making the decision.

"You never have a second chance to promote somebody the first time. You want to make sure they're in the right place. In Kris' case, we know he's ready offensively, we just want to get him in a good rhythm defensively.

"We do a better job at player development than we do strategizing on how to save a few dollars here and there. That's what we want to be all about. We don't think we screwed him up, and we don't think we're going to.''

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Let's be real. Boras's problem is Hendry isn't GM here anymore. If he was, Bryant, Russell and Baez would be in the starting lineup with Johnson in the rotation. Schwarber would be up in July. Unfortunately for Scott, idiots are no longer in charge of baseball operations anymore.

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.