Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus one player is 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 3-28-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
# 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 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Patrick Wisdom, INF 

15-DAY IL: 1 
Jameson Taillon, P 

60-DAY IL: 1 
Caleb Kilian, P 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Cubs vs. Brewers: Series Thread (Games 36-38)

The Brewers (23-16) come into town hot off a pair of series sweeps and looking to knock the Cubs(22-13) off the NL Central hill. Meanwhile, the Cubs will aim to handle business as well as they did last weekend against the Cards. See below for the matchups in each game.


Game 36
CHC: LHP José Quintana (4-1, 3.40 ERA)
MIL: LHP Gio Gonzalez (0-0, 2.69 ERA)
First pitch 1:20pmCDT

José Quintana has cooled just the slightest in his last couple starts. He's continued to control overall offense but stopped striking out the world like he had in many of his earlier outings. As long as he keeps the ball in the park, that lower strikeout rate might not be so bad. The bullpen has been weakened further by the loss of Strop, and the newly returned Montgomery pitched 5 (awesome) innings in relief of Darvish yesterday. So, the Cubs could use some efficiency from today's starter. The current Brewers have seen a ton of Quintana (295 ABs), with many ABs coming from former AL Central-ers Moustakas and Cain. The good news is, the total ABs are the only thing special about their numbers against him. Christian Yelich's Bondsian transformation (minus the bulk) has continued into May. He's been so good that the key to handling him might just be to handle the rest of the Brewers' lineup.

Gio Gonzalez returned to the Brewers on April 26 after opting out of his contract with the Yankees, for whom he'd been making AAA starts. His two starts so far have both been solid, and he struck out 7 Mets in 5.1 innings last time out. Jason Heyward is 8-37 against him, and Anthony Rizzo is 2-22.


Game 37
CHC: LHP Cole Hamels (3-0, 3.38 ERA)
MIL: RHP Zach Davies (4-0, 1.56 ERA)
First pitch 1:20pmCDT

Hamels got a no-decision on the 6th against the Marlins, when he pitched 6 and allowed 3 earned runs. He hasn't earned a win since April 17, but he also has yet to be tagged with a loss in 2019. His command has come and gone at times over his last three starts, but the strikeouts have been there to bail him out most of the time. Lorenzo Cain is 5-16 against him and utility man Hernan Perez is 7-14.

Zach Davies has yet to allow more than 2 runs in a start this year. He went 7.2 and allowed 2 earned runs against the Mets last time out. I can't see anything in his numbers to explain that 1.56 ERA (not even BABIP), and I also don't see any reason why the Cubs shouldn't be the first team to break his 2019 luck. Kris Bryant is 14-38 with 2 HRs against him, and the newly reinstated Addison Russell is 8-22. Javy has yet to collect an extra base hit against the soft throwing Davies, but he's got a .379 OBP against him.


Game 38
CHC: LHP Jon Lester (2-1, 1.43 ERA)
MIL: RHP Jhoulys Chacin (3-3, 5.03 ERA)
First pitch 6:05pmCDT

Jon Lester hasn't missed a beat since returning from the IL. He's allowed 3 runs, 1 earned, over those 3 starts (18 innings pitched). During that time he's also walked exactly 1 while striking out 19. The ever aggravating Ryan Braun is 8-20 against him and Cain is 8-22.

Jhoulys Chacin has not been good in 2019. His strikeouts and ground ball percentage are both down, while his walks are up. Anthony Rizzo is 7-22 with 3 HRs against him. Heyward is 3-19.



The rainy weather looks to have cleared for this series even if the cold has remained. Enjoy the trio of day games! Edit: I just remembered we get the Sunday night game on ESPN again. Sorry, all.

Comments

The ever aggravating Ryan Braun career numbers against the Cubs in 743 PAs (174 games): 317/393/563, 120 runs, 132 rbi, 37 HRs. Can’t retire soon enough 

5/10

almora/bryant(LF)/rizzo/baez/contreras/bote(3rd)/heyward/domesticabuser/Q

73 pitches through 6 innings with 6Ks for Q...unfortunately, he's also losing 1-0.

sharp outing reguardless.  hopefully he can go 8+ innings.

The switch from La Stella to Descalso has not been so hot. Descalso now 0-10 as a pinch hitter

So far in 2019 ...

Descalso 86 AB, .244 BA, 2 HR, 0.0 WAR

La Stella 90 AB, .256 BA, 9 HR, 0.9 WAR

RHRP Allen Webster to 10-day IL (nerve inflammation in right arm) and LHRP Xavier Cedeno has been reinstated from 10-day IL. 

the cubs are probably not going to be "high end" active in the trade market given the tepid off-season moves they made (still a top spending team, however)...and they're probably not looking another lefty starter...nonetheless...

"Bumgarner’s contract allows him to block trades to eight teams, and sources told Rosenthal that his list includes the Braves, Red Sox, Cubs, Astros, Brewers, Yankees, Phillies and Cardinals."

so basically, he's already got enough world series rings and doesn't want another one.  seriously, that's an odd "no trade" list starring some of the best teams around.  it's like he doesn't want to be traded...or he wants to hold any interested team on the list hostage for conditions of a trade (like an extension).

e.jackson traded to the bjays from the As.

if he gets called up, that will be his 14th team (mlb record).

one major positive about the "replay era" is we no longer have the "ball beat you, you're out, period" proximity plays.

it's ushered in the era of the creative slide plays and that's kinda fun.

4ip 0h 3bb 7k, 0r/er, 68 pitches for chatwood going to the middle of the 15th...crazy

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

Cubs will probably need to call-up a pitcher for Sunday night's game. somebody who can throw multiple innings if needed, so that would probably be Alec Mills (stretched-out as a SP and hasn't pitched since last Tuesday).

So option Mark Zagunis to Iowa and recall Mills would be my guess. 

Then the Cubs can option Mills back to Iowa after Sunday night's game and maybe recall Ian Happ in time for the start of the Cincinnati series on Tuesday (Happ hits like Rogers Horsnsby in Great American Ballpark), unless Ben Zobrist suddenly reappears.  

Carl Edwards with a 1-2-3 8th inning with the game tied.

He does that a couple hundred more times and I might become a believer.

rizzo starts his yearly "back tightness" thing...sitting out tonight...

heyward/bryant(1st)/baez/contreras/schwarber/bote(3rd)/descalso(2nd)/almora/lester

byrant at 1st with lester pitching...that's a bit of extra work for even a seasoned 1st baseman.  if contreras needs to control a runner he'll be throwing to a glove closer to the line than the runner.  he's played some 1st before, at least...won't be foreign territory.

things bote needs to learn:

1- at 2nd, unless the ball is dead, if javy touches it...be ready for a throw no matter how odd/strange/uncalledfor...

2- at 3rd, with lester on the mound, if it's hit to lester...that's your play unless it's quickly hit right to lester.

cubs win!

STL lost today, too...putting them even further back in 3rd place.

A diesel locomotive has 8 throttle positions,  Run 1 thru Run 8....going to Cincinnati 10 over .500.......lots of season left, but they're moving this Express to Run 6.

If Ben Zobrist were to retire (and I'm not saying he will, but if he does), the Cubs would save about $9M in 2019 payroll that could be used to sign Craig Kimbrel (probably a $18M salary pro-rated to about $12M for 2/3 of the season) immediately after the draft (June 3-4-5).

The Red Sox extended a Qualifying Offer to Kimbrel post-2018 so that if he signs with another MLB club prior to the June draft the Red Sox get a 2019 compensation draft pick and the club that signs Kimbrel loses a 2019 draft pick, which is partly why Kimbrel and Keuchel are still unsigned.   

If this were to happen, Kimbrel could report to Mesa as early as June 6th and spend ten days getting ready to pitch in games, and then perhaps spend another ten days or so at Iowa or Tennessee maybe throwing an inning in a game every-other day. (Kimbrel has two minor league options left, so it would just be a matter of him agreeing to a minor league assignment that would essentially be "Spring Training" games for him). 

A 2020 mutual option could be included that would provide Kimbrel a $21M salary in 2020 or a $3M buy-out if the club option part of the mutual option is declined, making the deal (in effect) $15M for 2/3 of a season ($12M pro-rated salary in 2019 plus the $3M buy-out for 2020) with a two-year AAV hit against the Cubs payroll of only $7.5M per season 2019-20, or $33M for 1-2/3 seasons ($16.5M AAV hit in both 2019 and 2020) if the 2020 mutual option were to be exercised from both sides (which would probably be unlikely).

[ ]

In reply to by George Altman

it's still all in the dark.  no reliable leaks/info.  no word on what's going on or when he might come back.

his wife shut down her twitter recently (before ben left the cubs) and there's some that claims that she deleted some ben pics from her instagram, but some of her regular followers claim that didn't happen and her insta never had many ben pics to begin with.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    steele MRI on friday.  counsell expects an IL stint.

    no current plans for his rotation replacement.

  • hellfrozeover (view)

    I would say also in the bright side column is Busch looked pretty good overall at the plate. Alzolay…man, that hurts but most of the time he’s not giving up a homer to that guy. To me the worst was almonte hanging that pitch to Garcia. He hung another one to the next hitter too and got away with it on an 0-1. 

  • crunch (view)

    amaya blocked like 6-8 of smyly's pitches in the dirt very cleanly...not even an exaggeration, smyly threw a ton of pitches bouncing in tonight.

    neris looking like his old self was a relief (no pun), too.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    In looking for bright spots the defense was outstanding tonight. The “stars” are going to need to shine quite a bit brighter than they did tonight offensively though for this to be a successful season.

  • Eric S (view)

    Good baseball game. Hopefully Steele is pitching again in April (but I’m not counting on it). 

  • crunch (view)

    boo.

  • crunch (view)

    smyly to face the 2/3/4 hitters with a man on 2nd in extras.

    this doesn't seem like a 8 million dollar managerial decision.

  • crunch (view)

    i 100% agree with you, but i dunno how jed wants to run things.  the default is delay.  i would choose brown.

    like hellfrozeover says, could be smyly since he's technically fresh and stretched.

    anyway, on a pure talent basis....brown is the best option.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Use pitchers when you believe they're good. Don't plan their clock.

    I'm sorry. I'm simply anti-clock/contract management. Play guys when they show real MLB potential talent.

    If Brown hadn't been hurt with the Lat Strain he would've gotten the call, and not Wick.

    Give him a chance. 

    But Wesneski probably gets it

  • crunch (view)

    alzolay...bro...