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 
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Cubs vs. Padres: Series Thread (Games 143-146)

This weekend saw the Cubs lose three out of four to the trailing Brewers, fall to 4.5 behind the Cardinals in the division, and shrink their Wild Card lead to 1.5 games with the D-Backs, Phillies, and Brewers all pounding on the door behind them. Meanwhile, fans got news that Javy's jammed thumb is actually a fracture, and Russell was hit in the face with a fastball. If this didn't feel like a turn in the wrong direction, the team's inability to capitalize on the rally after Russell was hit felt like a failure to turn in the right direction. Nico Hoerner is called up to reinforce the middle infield, and maybe the rookie will be able to invigorate the team and the fans after the disappointing series in Milwaukee. He and the rest of the Cubs will take on the Padres for four games on the west coast. Continue below for match-ups.


Game 143, Monday, September 9, 9:10pmCDT
CHC: RHP Kyle Hendricks (9-9, 3.39 ERA)
SDP: RHP Cal Quantrill (6-6, 4.57 ERA)

Hendricks went six solid innings last time out, allowing one earned run on a walk and three hits to Seattle. He lost his other start against the Padres this year but allowed only two runs in seven innings in that start. Hunter Renfroe, Travis Jankowski, and Eric Hosmer have all had some success against him in limited at bats.

Quantrill defeated the Cubs on July 21, shutting them out for 5.2 and allowing only two hits. He pitched in relief of opener Adrian Morejon hat day. Rizzo and Kyle Hendricks have the only his off of him.


Game 144, Tuesday, September 10, 9:10pmCDT
CHC: LHP José Quintana (13-8, 4.00 ERA)
SDP: RHP Ronald Bolaños (0-1, 3.00 ERA)

Quintana earned the lone win in the Brewers series, pitching five innings and allowing four earned runs but benefiting from a booming Cubs offense. He similarly won out against the Padres on July 20, despite allowing five earned runs, including three homers, in five innings. Hosmer has only a .529 OPS against him in 74 at bats.

Bolaños took a loss in his MLB debute, allowing two earned runs in six innings of work against the D-Backs. He leaned heavily on his mid-to-upper-90s fastball in that start, mixing in a smaller portion of sliders, slow curves, and the occasional changeup as well. Having made the jump from AA to the majors, this is his first exposure to the juiced MLB baseball. May he begin to feel its effects.


Game 145, Wednesday, September 11, 9:10pmCDT
CHC: LHP Cole Hamels (7-6, 3.95 ERA)
SDP: RHP Chris Paddack (8-7, 3.54 ERA)

Hamels departed his last start after only 3.1, allowing five earned runs to Milwaukee in his second consecutive start against that offense. He allowed nine hits, two homers, in that 3.1 innings. He was on the I.L. for the last round against the Padres. Machado is 1-14 and Hosmer 0-13 off he veteran lefty.

Paddack was handed a no-decision after 5.1 scoreless innings in his last start. He's relied on strikeouts to a great extent in his debut season, K-ing more than a batter per inning while limiting walks but allowing a fair amount of contact in the air and 1.53 homeruns per nine innings. He missed the Cubs in July.


Game 146, Thursday, September 12, 2:40pmCDT
CHC: RHP Yu Darvish (5-6, 4.12 ERA)
SDP: RHP Dinelson Lamet (2-4, 3.95 ERA)

Darvish allowed one walk and three hits while striking out seven and shutting out the Brewers for five innings in his last start. Perhaps Petco can help him keep the ball in the park, his one consistent shortcoming this season. He hasn't faced the Padres this year. He's held Hosmer to 2-14 in his career.

After missing 2018, Lamet has returned to make eleven starts with the Padres this season. In that time he's thrown his slider 43.9% of the time and his changeup on 1.4% of the time; splits favor left-handed batters. Lamet missed the Cubs in July, but the Cubs faced him way back in May of 2017 in his second MLB start. He won that match, in which Schwarber (1-2) took him deep and Heyward went 2-2.


Much luck to the Rockies, who welcome the Cardinals for three games starting on the 10th.

Comments

Another series where the cubs mlb.com beat writer won’t be at the games. I feel like that dude is seriously never covering the team.

zobrist / schwarb / cast / rizzo / caratini / HOERNER / heyward / bote(3rd) / hendricks

The Cubs optioned RHP Adbert Alzolay to South Bend and recalled RHRP James Norwood from Iowa.

It was a paper move only because Alzolay is not going to actually physically join the South Bend Cubs, but even so Alzolay could - ONLY - be optioned to South Bend because a player cannot be optioned to a club's minor league affiliate whose season has ended, and South Bend is the only Cubs minor league affiliate still playing.  

p.alonzo (NYM) with 2HR tonight through 5 innings...47 on the year.  it's his 8th multi-HR game.

it's crazy there's 5 guys who could legit hit 50+ this season (alonzo, trout, yelich, bellinger, e.suarez)...all currently have 44+ HR.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

hit it off the thin part of the bat guessing location wrong.  his swing plane was on target, but the barrell wasn't.  he missed the pitch before quite badly, pulled swinging on a ball off the outer corner.  being able to make contact counts for something as long as you're not pounding it into the infield grass, though.

he's getting a lot of chances with the glove so far tonight through 3ip.  looks comfortable, but not as smooth as baez/russell.

he let a few go toward rizzo a few feet off target, though rizzo's snagged them.

[ ]

In reply to by erich081

if bote is playing SS something is seriously wrong anyway.  technically he can play SS, but he's best used at 2nd/3rd (though he's had a weird stint playing bad 3rd this season).

i'm just happy to not see as much tony kemp...who's dangerously close to having a mindblowing sub-.400 OPS (57 PA .405 OPS)

nico gets his 1st RBI on a TRIPLE down the LF line (little clumbsy D helped)

first hit, extra base hit, first run scored, first RBI...and only 3 PA.  he could have done it with 1PA if he hit a homer.  totally uneconomical batting, not a legit prospect.

heyword HR #20

heyward, rizzo, contreras, baez, bryant, and schwarber with 20+ HR.

c.yelich fractured right kneecap...done for the season...fouled a ball off his knee.

wow.

Oof. Zobrist's defense. This is not the veteran presence he needs to bring to the team right now.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

who would have thought lester would be the worst SP on the team?

...then you got a guy like steve cishek who's throwing quite good baseball overall in 2019, but has had a unique talent of blowing games at the same time.  pedro strop (arguably the best relief pitcher in cubs history) has been joining cishek in blowing games, but his numbers are looking like someone who's blowing games.

there's been annoying injuries, but the team has had adequate backups who can hit and the injuries haven't left the team hobbled.  there's ob% and power on this team in the lineup and on the bench.

so yeah, that seems like an inibility to control their bowels.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

The biggest issues I see on the team are the inability to hold leads including starters and dreadful situational hitting.

Like, yeah these guys don’t strike out all the time, but with so many of them there’s been so many times where all we needed wasn’t to avoid a K that ends up as the result.

CHARLIE: Of the five contending years since the Cubs got good in 2015, the 2019 version is the most disappointing. The games are actually hard to watch.

The 2019 Cubs remind me of an NFL team that gets out to a double-digit lead over a clearly inferior opponent through three quarters and then plays a "prevent victory" defense and can't protect the lead and then after blowing the lead the kicker misses a chip-shot FG that would have won the game, or an NBA team that doesn't exert the energy to make defensive stops in the 4th quarter and then after allowing the opponent back in the game misses free throws at the end that would have won the game anyway, or an NHL team that can't convert power plays throughout the game and then blows a two-goal lead in the last five minutes and then falls flat in overtime, or a golfer who squanders a four-shot lead going into the back nine and then can't make easy putts over the last two holes that would have sealed the victory.   

Although the contending window for the current Cubs team is through 2021, I suspect there will be some major changes made after this season. There is something wrong with the mix. Problem is, the Cubs aren't exactly loaded with trade chips that would have value to other clubs. One possibility would be to re-sign Nicholas Castellanos and then trade Kris Bryant for a younger less-established MLB player with upside or a couple of quality MLB-ready or near-MLB ready prospects (somebody like Luis Robert would be perfect), since Bryant is a Boras client and so therefore absolutely will not sign a contract extension before hitting free-agency post-2021.

And then there is the Cincinnati Reds, who seem to be taking a "no rebuild as long as Joey Votto is here" approach and therefore might have interest in acquiring Cincinnati native Kyle Schwarber and/or former U. of Cincinnati All-American Ian Happ. (Nick Senzel would be a good long-term fit at 3B if Bryant is traded, and young MLB relievers like Amir Garrett and/or Robert Stephenson would be attractive bullpen pieces).   

Off-hand I would say a top-of-the-order power/speed/OBP spark like the 2015-16 version of Dexter "You Go We Go" Fowler is one really obvious missing piece (which is why I mentioned Luis Robert), as is the lack of reliable shut-down bullpen arms, and not just the closer, but everybody in the pen (which is why I mentioned Garrett and Stephenson). At least the Cubs (finally) started to look in-house for bullpen candidates, so hopefully they won't be tempted to allocate $20M+ in 2020 payroll to journeymen "thirty something" free-agent relievers.

The bottom line is, the Cubs need to get younger in 2020 without starting another rebuild. 

[ ]

In reply to by Arizona Phil

Schwarber slipping on first base and falling on his face on what should have been a double with 17 games to go in the year - yeesh. Would have been fitting if the throw from right field back-picked him for an out. 

That said, at least KB hit a ball deep enough to drive in Rizzo this go around. 

Kendall Graveman (July 2018 TJS) has relocated his Article XIX-C minor league rehab assignment to South Bend, where he will start for the SB-Cubs in tonight's MWL playoff game. 

kemp (2nd) / schwarb / cast / rizzo / bryant / contreras / heyward / hoe / ham

kemp .164/.200/.218 in 60 PA, fwiw

rizzo going for a triple is as graceful as randy johnson trying to hit.

my god...

leadoff triple, though...woo

rizzo / cast / schwarb / bryant / caratini / heyward / happ (2nd) / hoe / darvish

2nd greatest leadoff hitter of all time back in the 1 slot.

Has Hoerner hit any flyballs since his callup?  The highlights I‘ve seen have all been ground balls - hopefully when his wrist is 100% they’ll be less groundball tendencies. 

Padres smart, even with all the strikeouts, in taking a lot of pitches from Yu - wait it out and hit the soft underbelly that is the Cubs bullpen.

Darvish thru 5 IP: 0 R, 1 H, 2 BB, 11 K

87 pitches though. Cubs bullpen/defense has consistently butchered Yu’s games / offense needs to step up. 

Cubs 2019: The car wreck you can easily divert your eyes from if you want to keep your sanity

What a hell of an outing by Darvish. Mega kudos

Last eight outs by Darvish recorded via strikeout

Time to stick a fork in Kyle Ryan - four pitch walk with a four run lead.

And follows up with two scoreless innings thanks to two huge DPs

With a four run lead and with expanded rosters, not sure why Schwarber (whose had a good game, face plant and all) is still patrolling left field in the ninth

Had they managed to blow that - holy smoke. Too close and my nerves are shot. But damn that was an awesome curve by Wick to finish the game off - similar to Yu’s last pitch, also a called K

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.

  • crunch (view)

    dbacks are signing j.montgomery to a 1/25m with a vesting 20m player option.

    i dunno when the ink officially dries, but i believe if he signs once the season begins he can't be offered a QO...and i'm not sure if that thing with SD/LAD in korea was the season beginning, either.

  • crunch (view)

    sut says imanaga getting the home opener at wrigley (game 4 of the season).

  • crunch (view)

    cubs rolling out the who's who of "who the hell is this guy?" in the last spring game.

  • videographer (view)

    AZ Phil, speaking of Jordan Wicks having better command when he tires a bit, I remember reading about Dennis Lamp 40 years ago and his sinker that was better after 3 or 4 innings when he would tire a bit and get more sink with a little less speed on the pitch.  The key for Lamp was getting to the 4th inning.