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

Try singing "Take me out to the ballgame" when washing hands.

Do something nice for your baseball soul.
Took me about 30 seconds, and it's way better than "Happy Birthday" twice. 
 

Comments

"Jeff Passan of ESPN reports that MLB plans to process upward of 10,000 COVID-19 tests per week, according to a draft of the league's health-and-safety manual.

Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic also reported details of the manual. The plan calls to separate people into tiers, with Tier One including players, on-field personnel and medical personnel and Tier Two consisting of other "essential" employees, like front office staff. These two groups would be tested for the coronavirus multiple times a week, as well as their families. Interestingly, MLB plans to "offer free diagnostic and antibody/serology testing" for healthcare workers and first responders in MLB cities as a public service. "

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

This is going to be full of surprises. Young players who don't feel that bad may be angry that they can't  play.  A team may loose several players at once. They'll need a taxi squad that doesn't practice with the main team. Even the best plan can't prepare teams for every possibility. 

[ ]

In reply to by Craig A.

i would be surprised to see this go start-to-finish without some kind of stupid drama.  it's not that covid is gonna kill a gazillion people while they bleed from their eyes or something...it's that it's so easy to pass it others.  if you find one guy positive, chances are pretty high he's taking down a handful of others with him even if they're all good to go in a couple weeks and feel fine during that downtime.

these guys are going home and mixing with the public, they're not going into some workplace-only shelter for a few months while they entertain us...support staff, too...

[ ]

In reply to by Hagsag

i can't speak for this or all of the US, but my state govt level safety committee reports kinda shape up like this...and this aggregated view stated below is my own...

we're still technically short for how all pieces of the testing scheme interact with each other on whole, but it's catching up and should be rolling smoothly for a task like this (seems to be a dedicated lab for all MLB) by the time the season is proposed to start.

it's no shock that we (united states) got started WAY late into the game, but the last major hurdle (swabs) is moving smoothly(ish) now.  lab delays, reagent delays, packaging delays, logisitics/distribution delays, which test/machines/etc to use...these early notable roadblocks are mostly managable now.

basically, it's not a huge stretch to see this as a realistic goal for 1-1.5 months from now.  we might even have a cheap swab-less spit test like South Korea's been using for a quite a while by then.

the "slow opening" seems to be starting up this weekend and into next week for a variety of clubs...whether it's the ballpark or training facitlies.  most all of the player access seems to be limited to those on the 40-man and nothing mandatory.

nothing for the cubs yet (that i've heard about).  chicago is still a bit "hot" but AZ is open for sports...

"Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Brewers will keep their baseball operations staff intact for all of 2020.

There will be no furloughs and only top executives in the organization will take pay cuts."

2020 has officially crossed the line now...making me like the brewers...

seriously though, it's about time some of these 100s-millionaire to billionaire owners acted like this.

brewers, wsox, cards, and twins have all promised full pay for employees through june+ (and maybe longer when revisited)

i would expect the same from the cubs billionaire ownership, but so far they seem far more interested in political power investment rather than human welfare investment

I wish I felt better about the possibility of baseball this year. All those details - it just seems like something's not going to work. And to me the worst thing that could happen is they get started and 2 weeks later have to shut it down, then try to start it up again. 
Baseball's role this summer is meant to uplift, and that scenario feels soul-crushing.
Maybe they ought to have a backup plan where they do one 7-game series in August or early September. PIck representatives from each team to make up 2 teams, like all-star teams only more players to rotate in. Draw straws to pick one ballpark, draw straws to pick managers. Play 7 and call it a summer.
Feels more controllable. And in a weird way it feels like it's more about baseball for fans, rather than baseball for money (which I'm already sick of reading about).

[ ]

In reply to by CubbyBlue

i still don't understand how any of this retains momentum if a team has an outbreak...

it seems like that would put a pause on things not only effecting the team with the outbreak, but the schedule and future opponents...and past opponents who recently played the team with an outbreak...

if it gets started, hopefully it can roll to end without going off the rails.  it all seems so fragile with a lot of moving pieces.

I love baseball as much as anyone, but I cant see this working. Put the 2020 season on the shelf and plan for 2021. 

[ ]

In reply to by Hagsag

HAGSAG: I've been following this all spring and I fully agree.  Let's not risk the health of these ballplayers.  Let's plan for 2021 an be done with 2020.  I know that whole game will be changed next year but it's already morphing now.  Just start with a clean slate.  I don't want scientists watching baseball when they should be working on a vaccine.

June 1st is a week from tomorrow. Given 5 weeks of spring training before starting (July 4th?), the season is on the brink of going bye-bye. It's bad enough in 2020 to be losing prime career years for Javy Baez and Kris Bryant, let alone Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, Kyle Hendricks, and Willson Contreras. If one of them gets coronavirus, loses lung capacity, and alters their career arc, Cub fans will for a long time have a bitter taste in their mouths. All for, at best,  a bizarre half-season without fans watching in the ballparks.

This isn't 1994 (it's worse), but even that strike-shortened season, which ended on August 11th,  still gives White Sox fans a deep ache about what could have been a possible championship season (they were 21 games over .500, with prime years of Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, and Blackjack McDowell plus strong support of Tim Raines and Ozzie Guillen, Wilson Alvarez and Alex Fernandez).

For those who don't want a dose of politics, stop reading here.

This is a real, once in a century Pandemic, A new (novel) virus that the world's physicians are learning about but have no medications yet that definitely work, so only basic tools of masks and distancing can be helpful. Nearly 100K Americans have died in less than 3 months, but our President doesn't give a shit about those who have gotten infected or will get infected or already died. Every death touches a wider family and an often larger circle of friends and community. One of my good friends, a wonderful, hardworking cardiologist in his early 50's got sick from CV and was in the ICU here in Chicago but thankfully survived. He's still on home oxygen.

The President is a science denier (among a litany of horrific traits), leading America in a Pandemic. He is a horrible role model (and always has been). Americans and the politicians that behave based on partisan politics and who discount medical knowledge in a pandemic get what they deserve. Unfortunately, not all of us deserve this or want this to unfold the Trump way.  His encouraging this careless behavior is not reasonable when it affects those who want to protect themselves, their loved ones, or their community. 

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

though the team cheaped out on this offseason (still an overall top-tier payroll), i was at least looking forward to seeing the beginning of the david ross era...and who was going to win the 2nd base job...

nothing about 2020 baseball feels legit anymore.  just hearing the players talk about it, you'd think they were organizing a casual pickup game for charity at an inconvient time and place...doesn't seem like they're really stoked about it.

Cubster: I agree with your comments, save one. That the president is "leading" America. He couldn't lead a pack of rats to a NYC dumpster on an August afternoon. The "man" is a f'ing disgrace. 

A's are furloughing nearly all of their staff through the entire organization...including scouts, which make a shockingly low amount of money.

the A's are owned by a multi-billionaire who inherited his loot from dad (founder of The Gap)...and him + family spent $10m trying to keep Obama from getting a 2nd term, which i assume is their idea of a good investment in their community...whereas paying loyal employees for years/decades for a few months is...well...*shrug*

maybe everyone would be in more of a trickle down mood with more high end earner tax cuts.  we should try that.  has anyone tried that?  oh, we've tried that.  well, let's give them more and see if that works.

yeah, they're not running a charity, but these kinds of moves are ass.  there are no shareholders to answer to, nor heat to be taken from them over a few months of additional revenue loss.

[ ]

In reply to by Jackstraw

contract rights are retained by the team.

in normal times this keeps labor relations between employer and player not too volitile with only a handful of player/owner issues.  in times like this you see a system that was not designed for an event like this.

some owners are being responsible over the players who's contracts they control while other owners make us realize why the guillotine was occsasionally popular during revoltutions/revolts.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

"in normal times..."

It was the burst of times, it was the worst of times.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Evan Drellich @EvanDrellich
The MLBPA is very disappointed with MLB’s economic proposal today, source tells me and @Ken_Rosenthal, calling additional cuts proposed “massive." League offered to share more playoff revenue, but on balance, those dollars are small compared to what players give up, PA believes.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

Manfred is such a dreadful commissioner. It's his job to walk a fine line and maintain peace in labor relations. Instead he lets the owners do whatever they want.

Cannot wait for a long, bitter strike after 2021. And for the owners to ultimately turn plenty of fan sentiment against players.

Setting aside how stupid it is for fans to blame players when owners are all so much more wealthy, how owners see that as good for anything involved in the game (including their almighty profit) is insane. People want to see players. Players ARE baseball. No one really gives a damn about the owners. Making fans dislike players turns fans away from the game.

"Setting aside how stupid it is for fans to blame players when owners are all so much more..."

I blame Pete Ricketts

after dragging their feet, the cubs commit to paying their minor leaguers through june.

i'm a bit dissapointed they're not going to pay the last 2 months.  yeah, they're not the worst owners (in fact, the "through june" thing is common), but they can do better for their baseball household.

cubs release brock stewart (AAA Rule 5 pick) and carlos asuaje (middle IF'r)...both older AAA/MLB-replacement-part types.

per mlbtr, supposedly the Cubs have released 30 minor leaguers although Stewart and Asuaje are the only two names so far.

Chi Tribune today. Boras picks, and focused on the Ricketts. 

Headline writer, fun job: Agent won’t let Cubs get away Scott-free Matt York/AP and Paul Sullivan.

Boras told his players “the game can not be played without you” and asked them to share the concept with teammates and opposing players when “MLB requests further concessions or deferral of salaries” during negotiations.

“Let owners take some of their record revenues and profits from the past several years and pay you the prorated salaries you agreed to accept or let them borrow against the asset values they created from the use of those profits players generated,” 

Boras pointed to debt financing in the purchase of the team in 2009 and the subsequent renovations of Wrigley Field and development near the ballpark.

“Throughout this process, they will be able to claim that they never had any profits because those profits went to pay off their loans,” Boras wrote. “However, the end result is that the Ricketts will own improved assets that significantly increases the value of the Cubs — value that is not shared with the players.”

Either way, Boras suggested teams’ losses are irrelevant. He wrote that owners taking out loans to buy teams or fund renovations “in normal times … is a smart financial decision.”

Of course, these are not normal times. But Boras pointed out it’s not the players’ fault the owners made those investments, so bailing them out shouldn’t be an option.

“Players should stand strong because players are not the ones who advised owners to borrow money to purchase their franchises and players are not the ones who have benefited from the recent record revenues and profits,”

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

that whole "kris bryant thing" is over...but it's never going to be over as long as this ownership group and boras is around.

boras could have focused this on 29 other teams, especially the more vocal ones because the cubs have been mostly silent.  the cubs aren't the only team out there paying off "creatively financed" loans, either.

he chose the cubs.

[ ]

In reply to by Dolorous Jon Lester

i don't blame the ownership/font office for doing what they did with bryant.  it was just kinda bad timing that bryant was the client that boras was finally "i'm sick of this" over.  the cubs were warned that boras was going to make a stand and it dragged on so long there has to be some kind of toll on the boras/cubs relationship.

also, it seems rather transparent that "kris bryant money" is most likely going to be thrown at baez as a team anchor.  bryant is due for the OF (probably soon), and baez should be good middle IF for quite a while even if his hitting gets a bit erratic...and he's really popular (sells a lot of merch).

The billionaires vs the millionaires. The beauty of the game is not the business of the game. 

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • 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...