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

Braves @ Cubs: Blair vs Lester (Game 22)

The Braves are in town to assume the position.
ATL (5-17): RHP Aaron Blair (0-1, 5.06)
CHC (16-5): LHP Jon Lester (2-1, 1.98)
First pitch: 1:20pmCST

Lester beat the Reds at Wrigley on Friday, giving up 1 ER in 7 innings. He walked one and struck out eight. The Braves are 44-218 (.202) against him. Aybar is 7-20, and Pierzynski, Mr. Personality, is 7-21.

Blair made his MLB on Saturday and lost to the Mets (3 ER, 5.1 IP, 1 K, 2 BB). He was among the busload of players the D’Backs sent over for (the former pitcher) Shelby Miller.

In injury news:  Montero’s back sends him to the DL, and Federowicz is called up. Bryant rolled his ankle and is having a precautionary MRI. It doesn’t sound serious, but he’ll probably get a day off.

Teheran (0-3, 4.60) vs Lackey (3-1, 4.97) tomorrow at 1:20pmCST.

Go, Cubs!


Comments

Cubs have a guy you never heard of who gets hits every night for South Bend and is hitting .390 after 64 PAs. Daniel Spingola, left/left, mostly RF, 31st rounder last June.

Ross just threw another runner out today and with his ability to control the opponents running game it got me thinking what the catcher plan is for Lester after this season. Montero is not good at throwing out runners and I'm not sure would be a great long term match if they decide to keep him. Schwarber if he catches definitely wouldn't be a good fit. Contreras has decent throwing #s and seems like someone who when he comes up could make a good primary catcher but do they maybe have him be that, release Montero and sign a primary defensive catcher to catch Lester? Of course Lester learning to throw to first would be the best solution but if he can't Ross leaving is going to create a difficult dilemma there.

The "I got on base" celebration is getting dangerously close to what was jokingly described in parachat a couple weeks ago. When parachat becomes reality, we all lose.

holy shit lester...just that. wow. double play ball turns into a single out play which turns into 0 outs...and lester is left holding the ball while the bases go loaded with 0 outs.

ruh roh, 24-hour Lester YIPS narratives coming at you after that failed attempt to field a bunt. Time to log off.

Tomorrow's Sun-Times Headline after Lester's 1 ER, 10 K effort. "150M Lester Fails to Field Sac Bunt."

[ ]

In reply to by Rob Richardson

not sure either, but in most cases I imagine someone else can field it. And if you bunt it directly at him, he would have enough time to underhand toss it or just run it over?

Today's bunt, he really, really didn't want to field it. Not sure if he lost it in his glove after that or just wasn't going to make the throw. It's not ideal obviously, yet still hasn't had any real impact on the team.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

well, how long do keep pretending that a bunt hit well back to the pitcher that would be a double play for many pitchers isn't a "thing"? it's a story. it's not like it's a physical defect people are picking on. no one gave chuck knoblauch a pass when he lost the ability to throw a ball to 1st. it's a unique curiosity for a guy who throws a ball on a professional level for a living. he has a lot of 4-5 out innings. this is at least the 2nd time he's turned a double play ball into 0 outs just this year that i've noticed and he's got a slew of "4-out" innings under his belt, too.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

unique curiosity is a good description...

he has a lot of 4-5 out innings. this is at least the 2nd time he's turned a double play ball into 0 outs just this year that i've noticed and he's got a slew of "4-out" innings under his belt, too.

and 1.83 ERA

Cubs should trade him, get a worse pitcher that loses games instead but can make a throw to 1b.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

that's an interesting leap. so, we ignore the thing that keeps happening and if one chooses to not ignore it then one obviously wants to replace him with dan harren. it's fair game. the guy, on multiple occasions, puts the team in 4+ out innings because a guy who throws a ball for a living can't throw to a base. it's not like this happened once or twice or three times or four times or... one can focus on the positive while...at the same time...note that he's doing something uniquely strange that puts the team at a disadvantage. there's nothing awesome about 4-out innings, increased pitch counts, or putting guys on base because he can get out of it better than dan harren.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob Richardson

there's nothing anyone can do about anything going on out there. i don't even post every one he fumbles into. i also post about HRs and other crap. it's happening, good or bad things are happening. this is an interesting thing to me. just because it's a negative thing doesn't make it "woah." we had 1000000000 posts about leadoff men and 2nd batters during the dusty years when everyone knew speed leads and contact-with-low-Ks hits 2nd. we all knew what's up. some people talked about it.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

I'm pretty sure there is not a single person ignoring it at this point In all of baseball and it's a thing everyone is talking about. That said he also managed to get out of a bases loaded, zero outs situation with no runs given up and that is something very few pitchers could do and it wasn't just because of a few balls called strikes. So....Let's not just talk about Lester when there are throwing issues because there has been a lot more good than bad just this game let alone this year.

[ ]

In reply to by johann

we might have seen another inning of lester out there if he didn't throw 30 pitches last inning because of a base throwing issue...on a day where he's very tuned in. i've accepted what's happening with lester, but turning a double play into 0 outs is noteworthy even if some people don't want to be reminded of it.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

Of course it's noteworthy. I was going to make a post about it if you hadn't. But per Robs point the headline should be "Lester pitches 7 innings with only 1 ER and and 10ks" with "he got himself into a jam by not throwing on a fielded bunt which he was able to pitch out of." As a paragraph in the article and not the headline. Or as I write this the headline should be Szczur hits a grand slam but Lester kept them in it the whole game which can be a sub headline.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

It's really not any more newsworthy than a pitcher who runs up and misses it with his glove, walks the batter instead, or throws it into right field where some runs score. Holding the ball was brilliant. He knew he didn't have the throw eyed. And then he follows up with a gutsy performance. The guy rocks.

[ ]

In reply to by JoePepitone

I agree that it is frustrating and baffling and I am surprised more teams don't try and take advantage of it. However, in the end, I would rather have a pitcher that has 4-5 outs innings versus 4-5 runs innings.

Boom!

GRAND SLAM SCZURURUWSRAURRUZUZRUZURZ

17-5!

Cubs record for last 3 months of regular season baseball: 59 - 23. (Aug, Sept/Oct and April, with one still to go). That's a .720 winning percentage and projects to 117 wins over 162 games. That's a lot of dance parties.

Looks like Soler has decided to take the "can't play in the cold" thing head-on. No longer wearing the cold-weather under gear.

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    LHP Blake Weiman appears to have been the last cut from the AAA Iowa roster. He is with the Tennessee group at Minor League Camp.

     

  • crunch (view)

    bruce bochy is hobbling rather badly for a guy who's had 2 hip replacements.  his gait is extremely wonky taking the lineup card to the ump.

  • crunch (view)

    yeah, for me this isn't about who's better at 3rd.  it's madrigal, period.  for me it's about who's not hitting in the lineup because madrigal is in the lineup.

    occasional play at 3rd for madrigal, okay.  going with the steele/ground-ball matchup...meh, but okay, whatever.

    seeing madrigal get significant starting time...no thanks.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Yeah I am very disappointed Madrigal is starting. He has no business as a starter. He is AAA insurance, a back up at best. Sure his defense looks fine because he plays far enough in that his noodle arm isn’t totally exposed. It comes at the cost of 3B range.

    He’s garbage, and a team serious about winning would NOT have him starting opening day.

  • crunch (view)

    in other news, it took 3 PA before a.rizzo got his 1st HBP of the season.

  • Eric S (view)

    With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • 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.