Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

39 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (one slot is open), plus two players are on the 60-DAY IL and one player has been DESIGNATED FOR ASSIGNMENT (DFA)   

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and nine players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, three players are on the 15-DAY IL, and one player is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-23-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Hector Neris 
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
Christopher Morel
* Matt Mervis
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 9 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 3
Kyle Hendricks, P 
* Drew Smyly, P 
* Justin Steele, P   

60-DAY IL: 2 
Caleb Kilian, P 
Julian Merryweather, P

DFA: 1 
Garrett Cooper, 1B 
 




Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Toros Don't Dig Graves at Mesa Cubtown

Submitted by Arizona Phil on

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 

 

Tags
Cubs Minor League Spring Training Game Recap
Calvin Graves
Varonex Cuevas

Comments

Submitted by DavidP on Mon, 03/16/2015 - 03:40 pm

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.

[ ]

Submitted by Arizona Phil on Mon, 03/16/2015 - 03:18 pm

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. 

Submitted by crunch on Mon, 03/16/2015 - 03:11 pm

"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.

Submitted by Old and Blue on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:27 am

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.

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:46 pm

@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.

[ ]

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:05 pm

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.

[ ]

Submitted by WISCGRAD on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:16 pm

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.

[ ]

Submitted by crunch on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:23 pm

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.

[ ]

Submitted by Stevens on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:31 pm

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.

[ ]

Submitted by crunch on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:40 pm

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.

[ ]

Submitted by Stevens on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:47 pm

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.

[ ]

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:51 pm

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.

 

[ ]

Submitted by crunch on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:59 pm

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.

Submitted by Cubster on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:09 pm

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?

[ ]

Submitted by Old and Blue on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:51 pm

"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.

[ ]

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:26 pm

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.

[ ]

Submitted by Old and Blue on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:40 pm

"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.

[ ]

Submitted by Cubster on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:01 pm

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?

[ ]

Submitted by Old and Blue on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:22 pm

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.

[ ]

Submitted by VirginiaPhil on Wed, 03/18/2015 - 03:54 am

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!

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:14 pm

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.''

[ ]

Submitted by George Altman on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:02 pm

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

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    This is Cubs adjacent but…


    Jordan Walker just was optioned by the deadbirds. For all the talk of the Cardinals development machine, they’ve really missed on a lot of can’t miss superstars lately. Walker has struggled. Gorman has been okay. They’re already trying to push Carlson out the door. Their pitching system has been so bad they had to go out and sign basically a full rotation over the last two offseasons.

    They’ve still developed a few of those pesky solid players, like Donovan, Edman, and Nootbaar. Their two best prospect to MLB players have been Adolis and Arozarena, neither of which is a cardinal.

    I hope they never figure it out again. Cardinal failure brings me such joy.
     

  • Raisin101 (view)

    Thank you so much! I really appreciate not only all your posts but how eager you are to respond to our questions.

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Is it just me or does it seem that official scorers are becoming less likely to call a misplay an error? 

     

    Guess I've hit my cranky old-man phase in life.  "I remember back in the day when an error was an error.  Official scorers have gone soft.  Now where did I put my readers?!!??"

     

    Sidenote, maybe Bellinger should be a little more careful against the Astros.  That was the series last year that a play at wall put him on the IL.   

  • crunch (view)

    i hated the almonte pickup, but he's 9-10 out of 12 for good outings, following a great spring.  hope he can keep it up.

    i already miss cooper, but yeah...the thin OF roster backup the team seems to want to carry probably got wisdom preference over cooper.  i could live without seeing wisdom at 3rd unless it's a blowout, though.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Things I've been wrong about:

    -Tauchman is fine as a 4th OF. I knew that. I just want a better LH DH option and he was really the DH for us until Seiya got hurt. I'm glad Mervis is getting a chance at it. Caissie is coming for that job for sure. But Tauchman continues to be highly useful as a 4th OF with Seiya being hurt

    -I wanted Yency to go to get guys at Iowa a chance. Guys like Palencia and Sanders or RileyT. Maybe even Hodge! But Yency has been better the last two plus weeks. He did hit 96 the other day. He was 93 in Texas to open the season.

    -Leiter has his split working enough. It just needs to stay there

    -I was surprised Jed picked Wisdom over Cooper. I wonder if this happens if Seiya wasn't hurt. Wisdom has more power. Cooper is the better hitter. Jed picked Wisdom and Wisdom had an option left as well.

    -Palencia just doesn't miss enough bats. Similar to ManRod, just two yrs younger. ManRod is killing AAA for TB right now!

    Things I got right so far:

    -Hendricks. Sorry Kyle. You got paid though!

    Jed, you missed there.

    -Smyly. If Jed could've traded him before or during ST, then he should have and saved some cash.

    -Mastro.  Not a LH DH. Pinch runner. Defensive utility. Maybe he's better than Madrigal but didn't get a legit chance to prove it.

    -Luke Little is good. He's had one bad outing. That's it. Needs to get better entering with guys on base. But he needs to stay in MLB.

    -Oh yeah....Morel is doing fine at 3B! He'll get better as well!!

  • crunch (view)

    bellinger "right rib contusion"

  • Childersb3 (view)

    South Bend just lost the lead in the bottom of the 9th on the weirdest scenario, ever.

    It's absolutely pouring rain....men on 1st and 2nd, 1out....JPatterson asks for a new ball, but no time out was called....he throws the old ball toward the dugout (not sure if it rolled out of play).....the ump declares the runners get two bases each so one run scores. Then a single up the middle ties the game.

    The rain was coming down in buckets at this point.

    Just weird

  • crunch (view)

    ...and bellinger is gone in the 7th because of that 2nd blown chance and the wall he bounced off of...

    hopefully his rib cage/shoulder feels better tomorrow, we just got happ back.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Phil,

    Any thoughts on Y. Rojas' stuff and Y. Melendez's game (I believe I've asked about him before, sorry)?

  • crunch (view)

    wow, things are moving fast.  hopefully it continues.

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