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

And Now for Something Completely Different...

We had fun, we had laughs, we had Mark Prior's shoulder, Dusty Baker's lineup card, Mike Quade's awful nicknames and now we shall have goodbye's.

With a heavy heart and far more hours of contemplation than I expected, I'll be stepping down from my reign of terror here at The Cub Reporter. I imagine many of you know the history of the site, but here's a quick recap. The very talented Christian Ruzich began this beauty a long time ago in 2001 back when blogs and the Internet were still a dirty word. He did an incredible job of finding talented writers and eventually had a nice group of team specific blogs at all-baseball.com. Somewhere around 2003 I stumbled across the site, I think from some mention in a Baseball Prospectus article. I sort of hung around the edges of the comments for the next year and started doing my own writing at a site called Most Valuable Network (or MVN for short). Around that time (say late 2004-early 2005), many of the all-baseball.com writers broke off into their own group and started Baseball Toaster and at that time the owner of MVN made an offer to Christian. There were only a few Cubs blogs at that time, and in my personal opinion, The Cub Reporter was the very best, the site I would just hope to be able to write for one day. But because of that purchase, I was sort of thrust upon Christian and as he was slowly backing out of his duties, he found some writers amongst the talented commentators to take over the bulk of the writing and myself, Arizona Phil, John Hill and Transmission began writing for the site. And oh, what a fun few years we had.

We had recaps, previews, satirical write-ups, April Fool's jokes, minor league coverage, stupid Internet arguments, parachat and just hours and hours of endless entertainment.

Somewhere in that time period, Christian backed away completely and I seemed to be the only fool willing to pick up the flag and lead the troops. We picked up some talented free agents along the way like Dr. Joseph Hecht aka Cubster, Don Nelson aka Cubnut, Mike Wellman, CubbyBlue's amazing artwork and most recently WISCGRAD. We migrated to our own site here so we could drop f-bombs freely and lived through the surprise of 2007, the miserable ending of 2008, the lean years of 2009-2011, the surprise Theo Epstein hire that offseason and even leaner years from 2012-2014.

And now it's 2015, the team is a legit playoff contender and shall be one for years to come. And it's still fun, but it's also a bit monotonous and obviously my writing output has slowed to a trickle. I was hoping once the winning began that my writing flame would be re-ignited, but it just hasn't happened. And if this team can't get me to write, nothing will. On top of that, my personal life has had many of the ups and downs that the Cubs franchise has endured. My twins were born 5 days before Mark Prior took a comeback off his elbow (they just turned 10 this last weekend and I still can't get them to sit through a half inning of baseball). My Dad suffered an aortic dissection around the time Michael Barrett was traded (don't worry my Dad is somehow still kicking and letting me know on each and every phone call how dumb the Cubs are). The AngelFan Wife and I bought a house, bought a business, lost a business, lost a house and went through some major health scares and very unfortunately are very much still in the midst of the lean, rebuilding years and any hopes of us being a contender again will require my focus on matters more important than goofing on the Cubs and settling Internet arguments.

So I shall miss all of you (most of you) and I will certainly miss this site. Unfortunately none of the other writers have the time either nor the desire to take over the day-to-day duties so I'm afraid that this might be it for The Cub Reporter. If I can find someone else to take over the daily duties, maybe it will survive, but I can't say for sure. If you know of anyone or have some interest yourself, please contact me through the contact form by clicking the envelope icon on the upper right and I'll happily answer any of your questions. My understanding is that the rest of the writers will continue to write as long as there is a place to write. Arizona Phil said he'd like to at the very least keep writing through the amateur draft and the rest of extended spring training through the end of June, so we'll stay open through then at least. Cubnut will continue to run the twitter account as well. I do have my own twitter account that I'll publish in the near future, although it will be far more than my thoughts on the Cubs, so follow at your own risk. I will be taking down the game chat for now as I won't be around to reset it every night.

So thank you for the laughs, for keeping me honest in the comments, for some dear friendships formed over the years, and for being a part of this rather eclectic and unique point in time and space where we all could commiserate and occasionaly celebrate over this one oddly shared interest that is Chicago Cubs baseball.

Comments

Recent comments

Arizona Phil 04/19/2024 - 04:43 pm (view)

Miles Mastrobuoni cannot be recalled until he has spent at least ten days on optional assignment, unless he is recalled to replace a position player who is placed on an MLB inactive list (IL, Paternity, Bereavement / Family Medical).

And for a pitcher it's 15 days on optional assignment before he can be recalled, unless he is replacing a pitcher who is placed on an MLB inactive list (IL, Paternity, or Bereavement / Family Medical).

And a pitcher (or a position player, but almost always it's a pitcher) can be recalled as the 27th man for a doubleheader regardless of how many days he has been on optional assignment, but then he must be sent back down again the next day.

That's why the Cubs had to wait as long as they did to send Jose Cuas down and recall Keegan Thompson. Thompson needed to spend the first 15 days of the MLB regular season on optional assignment before he could be recalled (and he spent EXACTLY the first 15 days of the MLB regular season on optional assignment before he was recalled).
Dolorous Jon Lester 04/19/2024 - 04:51 am (view)

Indeed they do TJW!
For the record I’m not in favor of solely building a team through paying big to free agents. But I’m also of the mind that when you develop really good players, get them signed to extensions that buy out a couple years of free agency, including with team options. And supplement the home grown players with free agent splashes or using excess prospects to trade for stars under team control for a few years. Sort of what Atlanta does, basically. Everyone talks about the dodgers but I feel that Atlanta is the peak organization at the current moment.
That said, the constant roster churn is very Rays- ish. What they do is incredible, but it’s extremely hard to do which is why they’re the only ones frequently successful that employ that strategy. I definitely do not want to see a large market team like ours follow that model closely. But I don’t think free agent frenzies is always the answer. It’s really only the Dodgers that play in that realm. I could see an argument for the Mets too. The Yankees don’t really operate like that anymore since the elder Steinbrenner passed. Though I would say the reigning champions built a good deal of that team through free agent spending.
Childersb3 04/19/2024 - 04:45 am (view)

The issue is the Cubs are 11-7 and have been on the road for 12 of those 18. We should be at least 13-5, maybe 14-4. Jed isn't feeling any pressure to play anyone he doesn't see fit.
But Canario on the bench, Morel not at 3B for Madrigal and Wisdom in RF wasn't what I thought would happen in this series.
I was hoping for Morel at 3B, Canario in RF, Wisdom at DH and Madrigal as a pinch hitter or late replacement.
Maybe Madrigal starts 1 game against the three LHSP for Miami.
I'm thinking Canario goes back to Iowa on Sunday night for Mastrobuoni after the Miami LHers are gone.
Canario needs ABs in Iowa and not bench time in MLB.
With Seiya out for a while Wisdom is safe unless his SOs are just overwhelmingly bad.

My real issue with the lineup isn't Madrigal. I'm not a fan, but I've given up on that one.
It's Tauchman getting a large number of ABs as the de factor DH and everyday player.
I didn't realize that was going to be the case.
We need a better LH DH. PCA or ONKC need to force the issue in about a month.
But, even if they do so, Jed doesn't have to change anything if the Cubs stay a few over .500!!!
TarzanJoeWallis 04/19/2024 - 04:21 am (view)

Totally depends on the team and the player involved. If your team’s philosophy is to pay huge dollars to bet on the future performance of past stars in order to win championships then, yes, all of the factors you mentioned are important.
If on the other hand, if the team’s primary focus is to identify and develop future stars in an effort to win a championship, and you’re a young player looking to establish yourself as a star, that’s a fit too. Otherwise your buried within your own organization.
Your comment about bringing up Canario for the purposes of sitting him illustrates perfectly the dangers of rewarding a non-performing, highly paid player over a hungry young prospect, like Canario, who is perpetually without a roster spot except as an insurance call up, but too good to trade. Totally disincentivizing the performance of the prospect and likely diminishing it.

Sticking it to your prospects and providing lousy baseball to your fans, the consumers and source of revenue for your sport, solely so that the next free agent gamble finds your team to be a comfortable landing spot even if he sucks? I suppose that makes sense to some teams but it’s definitely not the way I want to see my team run.
Once again, DJL, our differences in philosophy emerge!
Dolorous Jon Lester 04/19/2024 - 04:57 am (view)

That’s just kinda how it works though, for every team. No team plays their best guys all the time. No team is comprising of their best 26 even removing injuries.
When baseball became a business, like REALLY a business, it became important to keep some of the vets happy, which in turn keeps agents happy and keeps the team with a good reputation among players and agents. No one wants to play for a team that has a bad reputation in the same way no one wants to work for a company that has a bad rep.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate it too. But there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
On that topic, I find it silly the Cubs brought up Canario to sit as much as he has. He’s going to get Velazquez’d, and it’s a shame.
TarzanJoeWallis 04/19/2024 - 04:46 am (view)

Of course, McKinstry runs circles around $25 million man Javier Baez on that Tigers team. Guess who gets more playing time?
But I digress…
Sonicwind75 04/19/2024 - 04:00 am (view)

Seems like Jed was trying to corner the market on mediocre infielders with last names starting with "M" in acquiring Madrigal, Mastroboney and Zach McKinstry.

At least he hasn't given any of them a Bote-esque extension.
Childersb3 04/19/2024 - 04:42 am (view)

AZ Phil:
Rookie ball (ACL) starts on May 4th. Do yo think Ramon and Rosario (maybe Delgado) stay in Mesa for the month of May, then go to MB if all goes "solid"?
crunch 04/18/2024 - 04:08 pm (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 04/18/2024 - 04:51 pm (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.