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. Phillies: Darvish vs. Arrieta (Game 45)

CHC (27-17): RHP Yu Darvish (2-3, 5.14 ERA)
PHL (27-19): RHP Jake Arrieta (4-4, 4.02 ERA)
First pitch 7:05pmCDT

The Cubs return to Wrigley and bring a bit of the NL East with them. Darvish's last start was middling in some respects. He went 5.1 and allowed 2 earned runs on five hits against Cincinnati. But he showed his best command of 2019 and it's hard to care about anything else at this point. It's the first time he's walked fewer than 3 batters since April 10, when also allowed four earned runs and struck out only 4. His zone percentage was 47.1% compared to 40.8% on the season, and when he threw the ball out of the zone he got swings 35.2% of the time compared to 27.5% on the season. Today he'll try to establish some consistency. The current Phillies are 10-29 against him with no homeruns. Bryce Harper has never faced him.This is the Cubs' first look at the Phillies in 2019. They come into Chicago with a 2.5 game lead on the 2nd place Braves and a record only 1 game worse than the Cubs'. Bryce Harper has been good but not great for them so far, striking out 30% of the time but playing much improved defense compared to his career worst defense in 2018. They've drawn value from a good portion of their roster rather than relying heavily on any one star performer. Andrew McCutchen has shown he's still good for 20 homeruns and a .360 OBP. Rhys Hoskins has settled into being a solid MLB slugger with plenty of patience. And Jake Arrieta fits right into a decent pitching rotation still awaiting a standout.

If you are looking for an easy narrative, then this matchup is a miniature referendum on the 2017-2018 offseason. The Cubs failed to work out an extension with Arrieta after he completed some heroic feats on the north side and launched his career into new territory. Whereas the Cubs signed Darvish to a 6-year deal worth $126 million and Tyler Chatwood for 3/$38M, Arrieta ended up with the Phillies on a 3-year $75M contract. But if you are into that narrative, you probably already think the Cubs should have chosen differently. Arrieta was good enough with the Phillies last year, earning a 3.96 ERA and making 31 starts. This year he has been similarly good enough. It's easier to think of him as a groundball pitcher at this point rather than the over-powering ace he was for a few years in Chicago. After a jump in his slider use last year, he's turning to that pitch at a decreased rate again in the early going. The only current Cubs to face him are Descalso and Heyward. Descalso is 0-10 with five strikeouts; even with Baez perhaps getting a day off to rest his ankle, I wonder if Bote might get a shot at 2nd. Heyward is 6-18 with one double.

May Jake receive a warm greeting from the fans and from the bats.

Comments

Yu looked real sharp — the moment was definitely not too big for him.  So two good starts in row so that’s encouraging.  Arrieta gives up a ton of hard contact, has traffic in seemingly every inning, wiggles out of it and now looks to win this game. 

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

It was very different from Hendrick’s 6th inning from the night before. Darvish still had good command and the tying run came off a good pitch - a soft grounder just to the left of Russell. One nit with Maddon maybe not removing Yu with two outs and Hernandez up (the one guy in the lineup who had squared up Yu in both his prior at bats). But even his triple was weird - it should have driven in just one run but had crazy spin english on it to elude Hayward to cause a single to turn into a triple. Oh well, hope the Cubs respond well tonight. 

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

if that double play was turned darvish may have escaped the inning with 0 runs, but he didn't help himself after it got blown.

the double play attempt that only resulted in a single out hurt the bottom line of the inning, but the 2 walks and 2 hits (single, triple) were solidly hit and all on darvish.

the triple took a bad bounce off the wall and would have been a double on a better day, but the runs would have scored either way.

And a second straight meh relief outing by Monty following a Yu start - but a nice job of getting out of trouble. 

I guess Kyle Ryan and his much ballyhooed “revitalized” delivery is more useful than Xavier Cedeno but that’s not really saying much. 

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...