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. Pittsburgh: Series Thread (Games 7-9)

With the finale in Cincinnati rained out, the Cubs gather their things and head home to take on the Pirates. The Cubs come into the series atop the division with a 4-2 lead. The Pirates, meanwhile, bring up the rear with the Cincinnati Reds, both at 2-4.


Game 7, Friday, July 31, first pitch 7:15pmCDT
CHC: RHP Yu Darvish (0-1, 6.75 ERA)
PIT: RHP Trevor Williams (0-1, 7.36 ERA)

Both Darvish and Williams left something to be desired in their initial starts. K.B. is hitting .375 with 2 HRs of Williams in 16 ABs, and he has now had an extra day to rest his sore left elbow. Schwarber is at .364 with 3 long balls in 22 ABs. Josh Bell has the lone homerun off of Darvish among current Pirates.


Game 8, Saturday, August 1, first Pitch 7:15pmCDT
CHC: RHP Tyler Chatwood (1-0, 1.50 ERA)
PIT: RHP Mitch Keller (1-0, 1.80 ERA)

Tyler Chatwood got his 2020 season off on the right foot, going  6 innings and striking out 8 while earning his first win. His fastball command was sharp enough, and he mixed a slider-cutter hybrid especially effectively against lefties. Mitch Keller improved to 2-5 for his MLB career by winning his first start of 2020 on five inings pitched and 2 strikeouts. No current Cub has more than 5 ABs against him.


Game 9, Sunday, August 2, first pitch 1:20pmCDT
CHC: LHP Jon Lester (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
PIT: TBD

Jon Lester gets the ball for the matinee finale. Despite being somewhat behind schedule as far as building up for the season, he managed 5 innings pitched, 1 strikeout, and his first win of 2020. He allowed no hits and only one baserunner but had no shot at completing it as he was on a strict pitch count. Adam Frazier is 6-11 off of him.

Comments

So the Cubs are playing a 59 game schedule now? At this pace it projects to a 50-52 game season at best. 

Remember when we could've taken Nate Pearson in the Draft and instead took Brendon Little?

Oops.

Can't keep crying over Earl Cunningham and other "little" mistakes.

Hard to believe but 10% of the season is over. 

STL/MIL postponed friday because "someone" with STL tested positive.

supposedly it's at least 2 STL players...saturday game still on (for now)...hoping to play doubleheader sunday.

Here are some covid tracing informational stats.

The Cardinals just came from Minnesota but had Thursday off.  The cancelled game was scheduled in Milwaukee. The Twins played last night vs. Indians in Minn.  I'm not sure but suspect the Cards had their day off in a Milwaukee hotel. 

The two positive tests are pitchers. Here is the Cardinal pitching roster: Jr Fernandez, Jack Flaherty, Gio Gallegos, John Gant Austin Gomber, Ryan Helsley, Dakota Hudson, KH Kim, Carlos Martinez, Andrew Miller, Daniel Ponce de Leon, Adam Wainwright, Tyler Webb, Kodi Whitley, Jake Woodford (15 pitchers, 3 catchers, 7 IF, 5 OF). Remember they already have lost Miles Mikolas for the season.

Cubs have signed Cody Allen to minor league contract and he'll be reporting to South Bend. His stats from last year while with the Angels are remarkably similar to Kimbrel's with the Cubs ...

cubs great (for 12 innings) fernando rodney signs a minor league deal with HOU and is expected to be up pretty soon.  it will be his 12th team.  not bad for a 43 year old.

bryant / rizzo / baez / schwarber / contreras(DH) / heyward / caratini / kipnis / happ

-hoener +kipnis is the change from yesterday's lineup.

rizzo takes his 10,000,000 HBP of his career.

151, actually...22nd (oops, not 26) all time and he's been the active player leader for a little while.  he's 30.

nothing like hoping the cubs score an extra run in the 8th so we might not see kimbrel in the 9th.  either way, c'mon kimbrel...do good cubs stuff.

manfred: guys, covid...quit doing covid spreading stuff

baez: *spits a swimming pool of mouth germs all over the infield*

Lorenzo Cain opts out of 2020. No reason yet, either medical predisposition, family or others but he's out.

Baseball hanging in by threads that seem to be unraveling. Enjoy each game like it might be the last.

Per Roto: Multiple Cardinals players have tested positive for the coronavirus in the wake of the clubā€™s most recent tests.  The exact number isnā€™t yet known, though SportsGridā€™s Craig Mish (Twitter link) reports ā€œmore than fiveā€ positive results amongst the players, while The Athleticā€™s Ken Rosenthal reports that ā€œbetween four and sixā€ of a ā€œcombination of staff and playersā€ tested positive.  Former big leaguer Trevor Plouffe tweeted earlier this morning that ā€œat least fourā€ St. Louis players are positive.

StL-Mil Saturday game in Milwaukee is cancelled. 
Also Reds-Tigers canceled By Rain. 
The Current hurricane threat to Florida but might lead to weather cancellations up the east coast next week.

The Cubs are scheduled to be in StL next weekend. If the Cardinals go full "Marlins", that might be iffy.

bryant / rizzo / baez / schwarber / contreras / heyward / hoerner / happ / caratini(DH)

i really don't want to do another year of "so...bote exists" but here we are.  i know the dude isn't due for hitting .350 with 40 homers or anything like that, but he sure sits a lot for a guy that performs when given a chance.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

I am starting to wonder if: a.) he is a jerk? or b.) he has a hole in his swing that coaches see but pitchers haven't eploited yet. Alternatively, middle child syndrome (with Hoerner as the favored baby and Kipnis the respected elder).

At least Descalso isn't blocking him?

...and bote is in for bryant (last minute change)

happ / rizzo / baez / schwarber / contreras / heyward / hoerner / caratini(DH) / bote

hefty spending big 2020 money at wrigley.

trash bags representing hard with a mound ad, a bleacher ad tarp, and both back home plate ad spaces to start the cubs 1st.

also, the radio side has the "hefty hefty hefty homerun" call by pat.  not kidding...

if the cubs want to make more money they could have the pen wear hefty trash bags as a uniform if they keep representing garbage so closely.

Back to back nights for Ryan maybe not the best play - he was throwing 88 yesterday but 85 tonight 

phew...drama 9th win.

6-2 to start the season.  bullpens are overrated.

[ ]

In reply to by Eric S

ha.  speaking of, it's been wild to see trevor rosenthal looking like a closer again with KC after spending 2019 with WAS/DET/NYY looking like a washup.  he was dominate in spring and it's carrying over into the season.

WAS paid him $6.9m for 6.1 innings of 22.74 ERA ball.

The Cardinals continue to provoke more questions than answers. Are they one rainout away from the Eve of Destruction (Barry McGuire nod intended)?

on MLBTR: The Cardinals and Brewers scheduled doubleheader for Sunday has been postponed, MLB announced in a statement. The Cardinals had 3 players and 1 staff member test positive for coronavirus this weekend with four pending tests still unresolved, tweetsESPNā€™s Jesse Rogers. The positive tests will affect the schedule for the next week as well. The Tigers and Cardinals were originally supposed to play a home-and-home pair of series this week in St. Louis and Detroit. Following the cases of coronavirus in St. Louis, however, all four games will be played in Detroit, including a doubleheader on Wednesday. 

it looks like MLB has quarantined the entire city of St. Louis for this week.

contreras breaks up the no-hitter with a double in the 5th.

lester needs to throw a complete game today.

Telecast with Len/JD saying that several more Cardinals tested positive this am. Can't find it on twitter or net yet.

Another Pirate pitcher removed with injury. 

KB in Covid protocol even though he had a negative rapid test today.

This is stressful. 

more on Cardinals...

Jeff Passan says: The latest round of coronavirus tests from the St. Louis Cardinals are, in the words of someone with the team, "not good." There are expected to be multiple new positives, sources tell ESPN. Cardinals took more tests this morning, and results of those should arrive by tonight.

Robt Murray: The St. Louis Cardinals have multiple new positive tests, according to sources with direct knowledge.

2:31 PM Ā· Aug 2, 2020

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

we're 10-ish games in and the future is looking dim for finishing the season, much less forming a 16-team post-season.

at this point it seems making it to playoffs with enough people to fill a roster is a wiser move than actually winning games.

For all the heat Lester took to this point, he's really "pitched" excellent in both starts. In fact, the entire starting staff has been really good. Bullpen not so much although I've liked Jeffress.

Any other readers in southern Il.--are you blacked out of Cubs games? My dad is always blacked out as of this year even though MLB tv lists his zip as blacked out for Cards only.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

If he is accessing via Internet, the location would be determined by the location associated with the IP address, not his physical address, that might be the issue.  A VPN service is always a good way to disguise your physical location and get around MLB blackouts. 

schwarber/contreras...woo!

been a while since i've seen a solid home plate collision...couldn't be avoided.

cubs in 11!

7-2 record to start the year.

the "socially distanced high-5s" in the middle of the infield is good stuff.

high fives followed by Rizzo passing out hand sanitizer

elbow bumps

how do you socially distance the dogpile?

Recent comments

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Yeah I am very disappointed Madrigal is starting. He has no business as a starter. He is AAA insurance, a back up at best. Sure his defense looks fine because he plays far enough in that his noodle arm isnā€™t totally exposed. It comes at the cost of 3B range.

    Heā€™s garbage, and a team serious about winning would NOT have him starting opening day.

  • 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 ā€¦ clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink šŸ˜³

  • 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.