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 vs. Cardinals: Series Thread (Games 62-64)

The third place Cardinals (31-29) roll into Chicago looking to knock the Cubs (34-27) out of first place for the second time in a week. Cubs fans meanwhile will be hoping for another round of turnabout, the Cardinals having answered an earlier sweep in the last faceoff. Since last weekend, the Cards went 1-1 against the Reds and the Cubs went 3-1 against the Angels and Rockies. While three wins is always better than one, the Cardinals should now have the advantage of rest.The Cubs recently added Craig Kimbrel to the 2019 payroll, but they'll have to muddle through for now as they await the cavalry. Meanwhile, a few position players are trending up lately. After looking fairly injured in the last series against the Cardinals, Javy went 7-16 with 2 homeruns. Unlikely leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber as 6-17 with a dinger of his own. David Bote boosted his stats with a 4-4, 7 RBI game in which he was a triple short of the cycle. Otherwise he went an abysmal 1-12 with 4 strikeouts. Rizzo and Bryant slumped a bit over the 4-game stretch.

The Cubs will be facing the same three starting pitchers they took on last weekend. Daily match-ups below:


Game 62
CHC: LHP Cole Hamels (4-2, 3.62 ERA)
STL: RHP Miles Mikolas (4-5, 4.41 ERA)
First pitch 1:20pmCDT

Hamels pitched seven 2-hit innings allowing an unearned run against the Cards. He's been very reliant on groundballs this season, especially during stretches when he's walked a few too many.

Mikolas was good enough in his last start to earn a win against the Cubs. He went seven innings allowing one run on two walks and six hits. He didn't miss many bats, striking out three. It was good enough, but if the Cubs get a few more balls in the air, the same performance might not pass muster.


Game 63
CHC: LHP Jon Lester (4-4, 3.65 ERA)
STL: RHP Jack Flaherty (4-3, 3.76 ERA)
First pitch 6:15pmCDT

Lester earned the win against the Angels on Monday, pitching seven one-run innings and allowing only four hits and one walk. Before that, he had a string of three rough starts against the Nats, Phillies, and Astros in which he was tagged for 25 hits in 14 innings pitched.

Jack Flaherty struck out eight Cubs in five innings last weekend, but he allowed two solo homeruns and ended up with a no decision in five innings of work. Cubs hitters tagged him for three runs and a loss on May third when he walked four and struck out nine. If he can be gotten to, it's through a mix of homeruns and walks.


Game 64
CHC: RHP Kyle Hendricks (6-4, 3.14 ERA)
STL: RHP Adam Wainwright (5-5, 4.34 ERA)
First pitch 6:05pmCDT

Hendricks went seven innings to defeat the Rockies, allowing three earned runs on six hits and a walk but also striking out 10. Since his Maddux on May 3, he's looked very much like good Kyle Hendricks. He's allowed 40 walks and hits in 51.2 innings pitched going back to that game.

Based on Wainwright's eight shutout innings and two hits allowed, you'd probably think his win against the Cubs must have been pretty dominant. At the same time, he set a career high 7 walks and struck out 8. He got enough groundballs and strikeouts that, combined with some BABIP luck, he was able to work around the wildness. It's not a winning formula. He's walked 16 in his last 23 innings pitched.


Non-cable subscribers will enjoy being blacked out for the Saturday FOX broadcast and the Sunday night ESPN broadcast. Subscribers will have to suffer through the ongoing disaster that is the ESPN broadcast team.

Comments

Kimbrel will wear #24.  That's Lou Brock's old number with the Cubs.

Now I feel like they traded Brock for Kimbrel instead of for Broglio.

The broadcast just mentioned All-Star voting and that you can vote up to 5 times a day. I am curious, who actually does this? Do any of you submit all-star votes at all?

I'm assuming voting is very driven by teenage fans, but maybe there's some other demographic willing to vote multiple times.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

A sense of nostalgia mostly. My grandpa took me to a Mariners game when I was young and we got to fill in a paper ballot. I wanted to vote a certain way (my favorite players, all Cubs and Mariners) but my grandpa took it as an opportunity to have a discussion about merit. To this day it ruffles my feathers a little when guys get snubbed for an underperforming veteran, or voting slants a particular way due to some fan bases being more dedicated.

I know that it doesn’t impact me or anything I care about in the slightest. But I still enjoy it enough to vote once or twice a week.

Just saw Bert Alzolay throw 5 workmanlike innings. Only clean inning was his last, but his line featured a fine 8/1 ratio of Ks/BBs. FB sat 93; touched 95 once that I noticed. He works quickly! Haven’t checked the box, but seemed to me like most of the Ks were looking. He’s on the come.

AZ Phil, what are the chances these promotions happen for SPs:

Tyson Miller to Iowa

Javier Assad to TN

Riley Thompson to MB

Those seem to be the 3 most deserving guys to move up, with Faustino Carrera maybe being next but only 20 yrs old. 

[ ]

In reply to by George Altman

GEORGE A: With Kimbrel, Strop, Cishek, Edwards, Kintzler, Chatwood, and Montgomery virtual locks (barring injury) to remain in the pen for the balance of 2019, I think the Cubs would only target a lefty reliever if they do make a trade before the deadline (the lefty would take Brach's spot in the pen). I suspect Kimbrel will take Kyle Ryan's slot in the pen after he finishes his minor league conditioning assignment and then Ryan will be optioned to Iowa.  

Who that LHRP would be, I do not know. In the meantime Xavier Cedeno might get another opportunity, but he's still in Mesa and he could also just get released. Danny Hultzen has the best stuff among lefty relievers in the Cubs system, but he's still in Mesa, too. Also, Hultzen is out of options, so the Cubs can't really give Hultzen a look until September when active rosters expand, otherwise they risk losing him off waivers if he is added to the 40 & 25 and then the Cubs find out they need his roster slot (like if Brandon Morrow gets into pitching shape and is reinstated prior to 9/1). Junichi Tazawa is at AAA Iowa and his "out" pitch is a splitter that produces "reverse splits," so he might get a shot in the near-future. He also might have an opt-out (like maybe 7/1 or 8/1) so that could be a factor. 

Also, because of the new "hard" trade deadline on 7/31, the Cubs need to have a group of at least eight MLB-ready relievers in-house at AAA Iowa on 7/31 who can be called-up anytime they might be needed over the last two months (plus the post-season if the Cubs get there) in case of an injury to one or more of their MLB relievers. Ideally guys like Tazawa, Barnette, Cedeno, and maybe even Brach (plus K. Ryan, Maples, Norwood, Wick, Collins, Rosario, Mekkes, and Hultzen) would be at AAA as insurance inventory on 7/31 and throughout the month of August, and then they all get called-up on 9/1. Obviously they're not all going to be at Iowa on 9/1 (there isn't room for all of them), but hopefully the eight or even nine best ones will be there. 

joe buck and john smoltz for the fox broadcast...i can live with that.  nothing special, totally capable.

sunday night's game is another dose of arod and friends destroying my will to live.  this brand of sunday night suck has been heavy for the cubs in early 2019.

schwarber / bryant / rizzo / baez / contreras / heyward / bote(2nd) / almora / lester

damn.

Did the Cards wear those powder blue unis in the 70s?  They look pretty solid. 

I forgot this one started early for the FOX broadcast and... I may just skip the rest. Sheesh.

ken rosenthal stating that zobrist not coming back "seems likely"

not sure if he's riffing off the cuff or if he knows something a bit stronger.  supposedly the cubs are leaving it up to zobrist to contact the club about his status at this point.

RIP john gant's ERA.

...oh, 2 of those 4 runs belong to brebbia...nevermind...

the older dude pouring liquor from a flask out to a guy in the front row behind home plate might wanna be a bit more not-obvious about that during a nationally televised game...

tommy edman...first MLB ab...swings at a chatwood offering that bounced in front of the plate by a foot or so.

he Ks on 3 pitches.  welcome to the bigs.

tommy lasorda showed up to adrian beltre's retirement @TEX (lasorda doing anything positive on "enemy" territory is nearly a story in itself).  i really dunno how much longer we get to have him around.  this time last year he was rep'ing the dodgers at the draft and he was really showing his age.  he had to be assisted onto the field and walking tonight.  he'll be 92 in september.

being someone that was born in the mid-70s, tommy's always been an "old guy" to me, but he was a very active old guy ready to tear anyone up who disrespected dodger blue.

sunday

schwarber / bryant / rizzo / baez / cargo(RF) / contreras / heyward(CF) / hendricks(this again) / bote(2nd)

Christopher Kamka‏ @ckamka

Kyle Hendricks last 8 starts: 1.99 ERA, 58.2 IP, 42 Hits, 6 BB, 50 K, 0.818 WHIP

solid win.  MIL also won.  still tied for 1st.

@COL tomorrow night for 3 then @LAD for 4.

and of course next sunday is like, i dunno, the 20th cubs ESPN sunday game of the season.  go arod!

Recent comments

  • 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. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Javier Assad started the Lo-A game (Myrtle Beach versus Stockton) on the Cubs backfields on Wednesday as his final Spring Training tune-up. He was supposed to throw five innings / 75 pitches. However, I was at the minor league road games at Fitch so I didn't see Assad pitch. 

  • crunch (view)

    cards put j.young on waivers.

    they really tried to make it happen this spring, but he put up a crazy bad slash of .081/.244/.108 in 45PA.