Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus two players are on the 60-DAY IL 

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

Last updated 4-18-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

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

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 
* Justin Steele, P   

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




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.

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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

  • crunch (view)

    masterboney is a luxury on a team that has multiple, capable options for 2nd, SS, and 3rd without him around.  i don't hate the guy, but if madrigal is sticking around then masterboney is expendable.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    I THINK I agree with that decision. They committed to Wicks as a starter and, while he hasn’t been stellar I don’t think he’s been bad enough to undo that commitment.

    That said, Wesneski’s performance last night dictates he be the next righty up.

    Quite the dilemma. They have many good options, particularly in relief, but not many great ones. And complicating the situation is that the pitchers being paid the most are by and large performing the worst - or in Taillon’s case, at least to this point, not at all.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Wesneski and Mastrobuoni to Iowa

    Taillon and Wisdom up

    Wesneski can't pitch for a couple of days after the 4 IP from last night. But Jed picked Wicks over Wesneski.

  • crunch (view)

    booooooooooo

    also, wisdom and taillon are both in chicago.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Tonight’s game postponed. Split games on Saturday.

  • crunch (view)

    cubs getting crazy good at not having player moves leak.

    taillon we 100% know is pitching tonight.  who he's replacing and any additional moves are unknown as far as i can tell.

    p.wisdom was not in today's lineup in iowa (rained out) and he was removed from the game last night mid-game, but not for injury.  good bet he's with the team in the bigs, too.

  • Bill (view)

    A good rule of thumb is that if you trade a near-ready high ceiling prospect, you should get at least two far-away high ceiling prospects in return.  Like all rules-of-thumb, it depends upon the specific circumstances, but certainly, we weren't going to get Busch for either prospect alone.

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Right on schedule, just read an article in Baseball America entitled "10 MLB Prospects Outside The Top 100 Who Have Our Attention".  Zyhir Hope was one of the prospects featured. It stated that he's "one of the biggest arrow-up sleeper prospects in the lower levels right now."

     

    Not sharing to be negative about the trade, getting a top 100 prospect who is MLB ready should carry a heavy prospect cost.  But man, Dodger sure are good at identifying and developing young talent. Andrew Friedman seems to have successfully merged Ray's development with Yankees financial might to create a juggernaut of an organization.  

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    I suspect Brown will spend some time in the bullpen due to inning restrictions.  Pitched only 93 innings last year and career high is 104 innings in 2022.  I would expect them to be cautious with a young player with his injury history.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    I wanted Almonte gone last week, but that was before Merryweather went down and Little got demoted. Almonte in his last 5 appearances has gone 4.1 IP with no ER or Runs. NO hits, 3 BBs and 8 SO. He did hit 96 with his 2S FB in AZ on Tues.
    I don't see Jed waiving him when we have injuries all over and guys with options that can be sent down.
    I probably won't like the move Jed makes, but he can't play the "let's hope no one wants his 1.7mil remaining deal and we can hide him in Iowa" card.
    That's why I think the current Bullpen stays as is and Wicks goes to Iowa.
    I don't like that, but that's the fix I see.
    We'll find out soon enough!!!

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