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

Gone to the Eternal Confines: 2008 Cub Obits

Update: Loyal TCR reader Jacos points out my glaring omission of Bobby Murcer from the obit list. I think I scooted right past his name on the list of 2008 baseball deaths because I will always think of him as a New York Yankee despite his time with the Cubs and Giants, just like I will always think of Billy Williams as a Cub, despite his time with the Athletics. For the record, Murcer was acquired in trade from San Francisco for Bill Madlock in 1977 then traded back to the Yankees in June of 1979. In his two and a half years with the Cubs, Murcer had a couple of okay seasons--including 27 HR and 89 RBI in '77.


 

In the year just past, eight more men with various ties to our beloved Cubs left this world without seeing a World Series championship find its way to the North Side.

R.I.P. to you all, gentlemen...

 

John Buzhardt (Died 6/15/08 at age 71 in Prosperity, South Carolina)

A right-hander signed by the Cubs as an amateur in 1954, Buzhardt pitched for the team in September of 1958 and all of 1959. In his two seasons in Cubbie blue, Buzhardt went 7-5, bouncing between starting and relief roles. The highlight of his Cub career was in June of '59, when Buzhardt threw a complete game, one-hit shutout at the Phillies. In addition to pitching for the Cubs, Buzhardt played for the Phillies, White Sox, Orioles, and Astros, ending his career in 1968 with a record of 71-96.

 

Don Cardwell (Died 1/14/08 at age 72 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina)

Two days after being traded to the Cubs by the Phillies in 1960, Cardwell no-hit the Cardinals at Wrigley Field. If you haven't seen the grainy black & white footage from the WGN broadcast that day, you should.

Cardwell won a career-high 15 games for the Cubs in 1961. Following the '62 season, he was traded to the Cardinals, who, a month later, traded him to the Pirates. By 1967, Cardwell was a Met, and though he was bumped from the post-season rotation during the Mets' run to a World Championship in the God-forsaken '69 season, he was a big contributor during the team's stretch run, going 4-0 from mid-August through mid-September while yielding just five runs in 45 innings.


Don Eaddy (Died 7/9/08 at age 74 in Laconia, New Hampshire)

A multi-sport star in college, Eaddy was signed by the Cubs out of the University of Michigan in 1955, when college men weren't all that common in professional baseball, and college men who happened to be African-Americans were even less common on the Major League scene.

Eaddy's Cub career--and his time as a big leaguer--consisted of one season, 1959, when he appeared in 15 games, almost exclusively as a pinch-runner. In fact, he only had one at-bat and played one inning in the field for the Cubs, in the same game, on 8/21/59 against the Reds. Eaddy struck out in his one at-bat and made an error in the field, thus validating the Cubs' decision to use him almost exclusively as a pinch-runner.

 

Kevin Foster (Died 10/11/08 at age 39 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)

Kevin Foster experienced both the honor of playing Major League baseball and the joy of doing it for the team he had lived and died with as a kid.

The former Evanston High School star was originally drafted in 1987 by the Expos as an infielder. He was converted to a pitcher in '91 and by '93, he was pitching in the Majors for Philadelphia. The Cubs acquired Foster from the Phillies in 1994, in exchange for Shawn Boskie.

In 1995, Foster's first full year in the bigs, he went 12-11. In 1997, he enjoyed the distinction (if that's the word for it) of earning the Cubs' first victory after the team had dropped its first 14 games of the season.

Arm injuries shortened Foster's career and he last pitched professionally for the Rangers, though only briefly, in 2001.

Foster, who died from renal cell carcinoma, seems to have been a first-class guy, as these remembrances by people who knew him attest. (Hard to know if the note from Jim Riggelman really was from Foster's former Cub manager, but I would like to think so.)

 

Geremi (aka Jeremy, Jeremi) Gonzalez (Died 5/25/08 at age 33 in Punta Palma, Zulia, Venezuela)

Even by baseball standards, Gonzalez was a young man when he was killed by a lightning strike while on a beach in his native Venezuela.

Gonzalez won 11 games for the Cubs as a rookie in 1997 and 7 more games in '98, before injuries kept him out of the Majors until 2003, when he reappeared as a starter for Lou Piniella's Tampa Bay Devil Rays. On June 3rd of that year, Gonzalez was pitching in Wrigley Field for the Rays against the Cubs, when Sammy Sosa's bat exploded and all of that unsightly cork was exposed.

Said Piniella of Gonzalez, who was known as "Jeremy" while a Cub and then began to adhere to the Spanish spelling of his name later in his career:

"He was a nice young man...a competitive kid, really good natured...I liked him a lot."

 

Jerome Holtzman (Died 7/25/08 at age 82 in Evanston)

You'll find a brief audio recap of Holtzman's more than 50-year career as a Chicago sportswriter and official MLB historian at the NPR Web site right here. Also Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald offered a personal reminiscence at the time of Holtzman's death.

 

Al Montreuil (Died 1/18/08 at age 64 in New Orleans)

Montreuil was signed as an amateur free agent by the Red Sox in 1963, was acquired by the Cubs organization prior to the 1969 season, and finally made his Major League debut late in 1972, when the Cubs needed a warm body to replace injured second baseman Glenn Beckert and the usual backup, veteran Paul Popovich, who was also hurt. (The Cubs were so desperate that before Montreuil got the call-up, Ron Santo was actually pressed into some duty at second base.) In 11 September at-bats for the Cubs, Montreuil produced just one hit, a single off the Padres' Bill Greif in Montreuil's first game on September 1st.

 

Lou Stringer (Died 10/19/08 at age 91 in Lake Forest, California)

Stringer, whose three seasons as a Cub second baseman were interrupted by his service in the Air Force during World War II, owed his place in the Cubs starting lineup to one of the worst trades in team history.

In May, 1941, as the story goes, Dodgers chief exec Larry MacPhail (Andy's granpda) got Cubs GM Jim Gallagher and Cubs manager Jimmie Wilson in a New York hotel room and after five and a half hours of "conferencing" over a variety of alcoholic beverages, the three emerged to announce the trade of eventual Hall of Famer Billy Herman from the Cubs to the Dodgers for two journeymen and $35,000.

The trade opened a job for Stringer, who, over the course of the '41, '42, and '46 seasons, appeared in 346 games for the Cubs, hitting .246, .236, and .244. Herman, meanwhile, had several more productive seasons and two All-Star appearances for Brooklyn before his playing career ended in 1947.

Comments

I know this an obvious question, but, me being old and fucking blue as hell, what about the Cubs themselves? Ah, see? They're never dead in our eyes, are they? Shit. I should write a book about it. I've written books about other stuff (yes, published ones). Why not about Cubs fans and their eternal joy with a team that always sucks?

ROOM FOR ONE MORE: RHP Dave Smith (12-17-08).

Smith is best-remembered for having blown the 9th inning save in the infamous Game from Cubbie Hell at Pittsburgh in 1991, the one where the Cubs somehow found a way to blow a five-run lead in the bottom of the 11th inning, which turned out to be the largest blown extra-inning lead in MLB history.  

felix pie is part of the cubs caravan. gathright and gregg, too.

Vizcaino is owed $3.5m for 2009 and a $4m option in 2010 with a $500k buyout. So, assuming it's a stright-up deal and the Cubs exercise the 2010 buy-out, the Cubs eat nearly $6m of Marquis' deal. He would certainly provide the veteran bullpen presence that they had been seeking. As Harry would say, he's modeled a few uniforms...

http://rays.scout.com/a.z?s=322&p=2&c=824871&RequestedURL=http%3a%2f%2f… Four different Cubs scouts got reads on Patton this past season. Some believed the pitch, which registered anywhere from 79 to 84 mph, was more of a hard curve while others lauded it as a slider. In any case, the scouts were impressed. “The way the breaking ball is today, much like a couple of guys in our system now with their breaking balls, some are calling it a curve, some are calling it a slider,” said Wilken. “That’s a product of amateur ball and guys having an in-between (arm) slot where it’s more of a slurve, but at times resembles a power curveball. and “Everyone had a plus breaking ball on this guy for the future, so does it happen this year? In the Rule Five, it seems it’s always the following year. Clubs identify those guys and it seems to happen one year later. That’s because most organizations don’t think it’s going to happen in that year period.” 91-94 mph fastball, third pitch is a change...

is there a link or was it on ESPN News? Sportscenter?

Recent comments

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    For sure. This lineup isn’t exactly stacked as is, and subbing out a Cooper or even a Tauchman for Madrigal won’t do it any favors.

  • crunch (view)

    the ESPN bottom graphic taking up 1/8th of the screen sucks.

    i only use ESPN during baseball season and i'm forced to watch a baseball broadcast designed to be broadcast in sports bars and betting parlors where the news/scores of other games is as important as what you're actually tuned in to watch.

  • crunch (view)

    morel triple to start the season....yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah

  • 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.