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

Cubs @ Rays: Lester vs Snell (Game 151)

CHC (84-66): LHP Jon Lester (11-7, 4.30) 
TB (73-78): LHP Blake Snell (3-6, 4.25)       
First pitch: 6:10pmCST

Lester won his third start in a row on Thursday against the Mets (6 IP, 2 ER, 5 K, 4 BB). He’s 5-4 with a 4.04 on the road this season. Overall, these Rays are  35-136 (.257) against him. Bourjos is 7-17 with a HR.

The struggling Snell spent some time in the minors this season. He’s 3-1 with a 3.75 in 11 post-All-star Game starts. The Cubs are 4-16 against him. Almora, Baez, and Contreras are 1-2, and Bryant is 1-3.

Arrieta (14-9) returns to face Davies (17-9) in Milwaukee tomorrow at 7:10pmCST. This four-game set should put an end this inane September Brewers scoreboard watching.

Go Cubs! 
 

Comments

Should the Cubs play well enough to qualify for the postseason, not really pumped at the thought of Lester leading off a series. Hell, even Lackey has been pitching better than him for awhile now. Righties are mashing him - he just looks fatigued.

[ ]

In reply to by blockhead25

I'm not really sure how you're defining that. Hendricks has a better xFIP than Arietta with RISP and in high leverage situations and from a visual stand point when something starts going wrong with Arietta it seems to keep going wrong longer than with Hendricks. Also Arietta has a .234 BABIP in the 2nd Half despite having a lower soft contact % and a lot more fly balls given up. There will probably be some correction there. Overall for the season Hendricks has both a better ERA and xFIP.

"Padres signed LHP Clayton Richard to a two-year contract extension." 33 years old... 4.82 era... 1.51 whip... leading the league in losses with 14... good job SD. good job.

This has been a complete turd of a game from Lester. About time for him to start shouting at Bosio.

4.1ip 8h 3bb 0k, 7 r/er gawd. he looked "normal" aside from a bit of wildness not hitting his spots. his velocity looked fine.

Pirates doing what the Pirates do. Walked 4 people in the 7th, including the go ahead run.

maples was sporting a really sharp "side breaking" slider tonight. good amount of horizontal movement. where's that been?

[ ]

In reply to by tim815

yeah, but this side breaking slider thing was filthy and he's mostly been throwing regular fastballs and cutters. my view of maples has been limited as it is, but i've not seen this one showcased...or if he's attempted it, it's not been much. it didn't act like a traditional slider...had a hard horizontal break without much vertical drop. lot of movement.

So cubs go 7-1 since the Milwaukee sweep...and likely only game 1/2 a game on the Brewers. Going to be one hell of an intense series.

Swarzak pitched two yesterday. On for the eighth today. Interesting pen usage by Counsell. Not good or bad, necessarily. Just fascinating.

Better to lose big than lose a close one tonight. CJ, Strop, Duensing and Davis get the night off, and the regulars get a little rest. And, the winning streak was probably going to end soon anyway -- hopefully, Cubs start another one tomorrow. Not feeling good about Lester, though -- he hasn't been sharp since coming back from the "tight lat".

It's probably a result of the recent series, but I'm not particularly worried about Saint Lou.

Pirates tied it 4-4 on throwing error by Knebel, ending his consecutive save streak at 21.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

And with that start (his 11th MLB start of the season), Brett Anderson has qualified for his first Performance Bonus ($250K for 11 GS). There probably isn't enough time left in the season for him to qualify for his second Performanmce Bonus ($750K for 14 GS), so he'll have to make-do with the $250K. (Since his first five starts were with the Cubs, the Cubs are responsible for 45% of the Performance Bonus, which is about $112K). The Cubs are also on the hook for Brett Anderson's $3.5M base salary offset by the Blue Jays paying the MLB pro-rated minimum salary for the 34 days Anderson will be on the Jays 40-man roster (which is about $100K).    

Also, because a player cannot be optioned to the minors after the conclusion of the minor league season, Pierce Johnson must be carried on the Giants MLB Active Roster for the final 12 days of the MLB regular season, meaning he will accrue MLB Service Time and get paid at the MLB rate (about $3,000 per day or about $36,000 over the final 12 days) instead of the minor league split rate (about $500 per day or about $6,000 over the final 12 days). Couple that with being Designated for Assignment for seven day prior to being claimed off waivers (when a player on Optional Assignment is Designated for Assignment, the player is "Recalled - Not to Report" from his Minor League Optional Assignment and he accrues MLB Service Time and is paid at the Major League Rate for the days he is DFA), and so that's another seven days of MLB Service Time and $20,000 (instead of $3,500) for a total pay day of about $55,000 (instead of $10,000) and 19 days of MLB Service Time (instead of zero MLB Service Time accrued) over what he would have received in $$$ and MLB Service Time if he had remained with the Cubs on Optional Assignment until after the conclusion of the MLB regular season. 

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • 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.