Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full) 

42 players are at MLB Spring Training 

31 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE at MLB Spring Training, and nine players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 
11 players are MLB Spring Training NON-ROSTER INVITEES (NRI) 

Last updated 3-17-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 17
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
Daniel Palencia
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

NRI PITCHERS: 5 
Colten Brewer 
Carl Edwards Jr 
* Edwin Escobar 
* Richard Lovelady 
* Thomas Pannone 

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

NRI CATCHERS: 2  
Jorge Alfaro 
Joe Hudson 

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

NRI INFIELDERS: 3 
David Bote 
Garrett Cooper
* Dominic Smith

OUTFIELDERS: 5
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

NRI OUTFIELDERS: 1 
* David Peralta

OPTIONED:
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, RHP 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, RHP 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

 



Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Cubs vs. Marlins (Wild Card Round, Game 2)

The Cubs dropped the first game, scoring their lone run on an Ian Happ homer and letting six shutout innings from Hendricks turn into a 5-1 loss when things fell apart in the 7th. Now, they face elimination in this best of 3 Wild Card Round. They'll send their best starting pitcher and NL Cy Young contender Yu Darvish to keep the Cubs' season alive.CHC (0-1): RHP Yu Darvish (8-3, 2.01 ERA in the regular season)
MIA (1-0): RHP Sixto Sánchez (3-2, 3.46 ERA in the regular season)
RESCHEDULED: Friday, Oct. 2, time TBD

Darvish was spectacular in the shortened 2020 season, setting a new high fWAR as a Cub despite pitching in only 12 games. In addition to cutting his already low 2019 walk rate nearly in half, he also cut his HR per 9 by about two thirds. Today he makes his most important start yet for the 2020 season. Corey Dickerson (5-13 with 2 doubles and a homerun) and Starling Marte (4-11 with a homer) have enjoyed some success against him while most other Marlins have hardly seen him before.

The 22-year-old Sixto Sánchez reached AA in 2019 and made his MLB debut roughly 6 weeks ago. His overall numbers are fairly solid so far, but his last two starts were his weakest of the season. He went a cumulative 7 innings and allowed 9 runs on 12 hits and 6 walks in those starts. The rookie brings serious heat and a plus changeup that he turns to 27.4% of the time. That changeup feeds into his reverse splits. Righties enjoy a .267/.345/.400 slash line against him (19 innings pitched) compared to lefties at only .232/.270/.261 (20 innings pitched).

Comments

Weather looks a *little* spotty for this afternoon. Here's hoping for no interruptions while Darvish is still in the game.

happ / rizzo / contreras(DH) / schwarber / bryant / heyward / baez / bote(2nd) / caratini

s.marte(FLA) has a broken hand from the d.winkler HBP yesterday...he was recently returned after a HBP cut up his ear on a fastball to the skull.   he's not had a fun time lately.

postponed...rain

"Game 2 has been rescheduled for Friday afternoon at 2:08 p.m. (ET)/1:08 p.m. (CT) on ABC, unless there is only one game remaining. If Cubs-Marlins is the only game remaining, then first pitch will be at 7:08 p.m. (ET)/6:08 p.m. (CT) on ABC. Should a Game 3 be necessary, then it will be played on Saturday, with timing to be determined."

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

ESPN1, ESPN2, and ABC are loaded with college football games all day long, morning, noon, and night on Saturday, so if the Cubs win tomorrow and there is a WC game 3 on Saturday, it would probably have to be on TBS, which is running Seinfeld reruns and forgettable movies all day long. 

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

It's very frustrating. They are better than what they've done. They are the inverse of "the whole is better than the sum of its parts"

Theyve gone through hitting coaches, managers, etc. Maybe they just don't gel as well as a group anymore? Whatever that even means?

So frustrating that Cub pitchers have to pitch with absolutely no margin for error with how shit-tastic the offense is. 

At least the Marlins had the courtesy to jump on the Cubs with two outs in the 7th and not with one out in the 8th. 

This is all so very 2018.

I really can't be too upset about this.  Didn't really expect much else.  Would have been fun to care about baseball another week, but this wasn't ever much more than a .500 team.

Cubs/Reds should have a consolation series Europa League style. 

Best of 7 games.  First to score wins the game no matter the inning.

i think all that's left to figure out after that contreras AB is who on the team is going to start 2021 on the suspended list for whatever goes down later in the game.

leadoff double in the 9th...tease or comeback...lot of teasing this season...and last season...

[ ]

In reply to by Eric S

13-3 was fun.  No Hitter was fun.  Didn't find 75% of the season playing .500 baseball that fun.  Didn't find seeing all of the core Chicago hitters barely hit .200 fun.  Bleh season with a deserved ending....but I do like another notch on the historical belt of this team:

5 playoffs in 6 years, 3 NLCS appearances, 3 Division Championships, 1 NL Pennant, 1 World Series Trophy

Now blow it up and start over.

[ ]

In reply to by blockhead25

i dont wanna live through another blow up.  it's not like they're all sure-things when they pick their 1st round picks, and getting an arrietta + strop with lots of club control for "meh" level talent is one of those once-in-a-few-eras trades (what an epic cubs trade, though).

that said, i dont expect to see bryant in 2021 and i wouldn't be shocked to see someone else go with him.  contreras has both high trade value and the team no longer needs him to control lester's baserunning game.  i dunno what to think about schwarber's future with the team even with the DH around...the DH slot makes it a lot easier to keep him around.

[ ]

In reply to by blockhead25

I'm not ready to grieve for this team, which has been mostly the same since 2015. But I will be surprised if they don't engage in at least a modified rebuild. It's frustrating to see the farm system significantly depleted to support the major league team during a competitive window that has been a disappointment for 4 years running. It will be fascinating to see how they go about rebuilding without a full tear down, especially with significant uncertainty at the league level going into 2021.

watching kintzler celebrate getting the last out at wrigley field to advance the marlins in the playoffs...oof...

he did nothing wrong, but what a difference a year makes...

New rules I kinda liked:

3 batter rule for relief

extra innings - man on 2nd (I'm over the excitement of 15 inning games ending at 1am, ruining the bullpen for a week)

7 inning Double headers - know it impacts stats and stuff but 14 innings seems like enough for 1 day and each game is more exciting.  (can't imagine this will stick though)

DH for NL - I can't believe I'm saying this, but I did not care that pitchers weren't batting.  More offense may not be a bad thing for the NL

Rules I don't like:

60 game season - I'd be perfectly content with 145-152....but no thanks on 60

16 team playoff - Made perfect sense this year and eliminated pretenders like the Cubs, but no thank you on .500 teams making the playoffs

My vote, maybe add 1 more team to playoffs from each league, make WC round 2 of 3 instead of single game, make division series 7 games long...shorten regular season to accomodate

[ ]

In reply to by blockhead25

Regarding the bonus runner on 2nd, I agree that I don't miss extra innings beyond about the 11th. But I'd rather they just call it a draw at some point, since that's a better representation of what actually unfolded on the ball field.

I didn't think the Cubs made particularly good use of the DH this season. It's obviously where Schwarber belongs and instead they used it to get Caratini's extremely meh bat into the lineup more often.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    SF snags b.snell...2/62m

  • Cubster (view)

    AZ Phil: THAT is an awesome report worth multiple thanks. I’m sure it will be worth reposting in an “I told you so” in about 2-3 years.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The actual deadline to select a post-2023 Article XX-B MLB free agent signed to 2024 minor league contract (Cooper, Edwards, and Peralta) to the MLB 40-man roster is not MLB Opening Day, it is 12 PM (Eastern) this coming Sunday (3/24). 

    However, the Cubs could notify the player prior to the deadline that the player is not going to get added to the 40 on Sunday, which would allow the player to opt out early. Otherwise the player can opt out anytime after the Sunday deadline (if he was not added to the 40 by that time). 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Today is an off day for both the Cubs MLB players and the Cubs minor league players.  

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    For those of you keeping track, so far nine players have been called up to Mesa from the Cubs Dominican Academy for Minor League Camp and they will be playing in the ACL in 2024: 

    * bats or throws left 

    Angel Cepeda, INF 
    * Miguel Cruz, P
    Yidel Diaz, C 
    * Albert Gutierrez, 1B
    Fraiman Marte, P  
    Francis Reynoso, P (ex-1B) 
    Derniche Valdez, INF 
    Edward Vargas, OF 
    Jeral Vizcaino, P 

    And once again, despite what you might read at Baseball Reference and at milb.com, Albert Gutierrez is absolutely positively a left-handed hitter (only), NOT a right-handed hitter.

    Probably not too surprisingly, D. Valdez was the Cubs #1 prospect in the DSL last season, Cepeda was the DSL Cubs best all-around SS prospect not named Derniche Valdez, Gutierrez was the DSL Cubs top power hitting prospect not named Derniche Valdez, E. Vargas was the DSL Cubs top outfield prospect (and Cepeda and E. Vargas were also the DSL Cubs top two hitting prospects), Y. Diaz was the DSL Cubs top catching prospect, and M. Cruz was the DSL Cubs top pitching prospect. 

    F. Marte (ex-STL) and J. Vizcaino (ex-MIL) are older pitchers (both are 22) who were signed by the Cubs after being released by other organizations and then had really good years working out of the bullpen for the Cubs in the DSL last season. 

    The elephant in the room is 21-year old Francis Reynoso, a big dude (6'5) who was a position player (1B) at the Cardinals Dominican Academy for a couple of years, then was released by STL in 2022, and then signed by the Cubs and converted to a RHP at the Cubs Dominican Academy (and he projects as a high-velo "high-leverage" RP in the states). He had a monster year for the DSL Cubs last season (his first year as a pitcher). 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    DJL: The only players who definitely have opt outs are Cooper, Edwards, and Peralta (Opening Day, 5/1, and 6/1), and that's because they are post-2023 Article XX-B MLB free agents who signed 2024 minor league contracts and (by rule) they get those opt outs automatically. 

    Otherwise, any player signed to a 2024 minor league contract - MIGHT or - MIGHT NOT - have an opt out in their contract, but it is an individual thing, and if there are contractual opt outs the opt out(s) might not necessarily be Opening Day. It could be 5/1, or 6/1, or 7/1 (TBD).

    Because of their extensive pro experience, the players who most-likely have contractual opt outs are Alfaro, Escobar, and D. Smith, but (again), not necessarily Opening Day. 

    Also, just because a player has the right to opt out doesn't mean he will. 

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    I love the idea that Madrigal heads to Iowa in case Morel can’t handle third.

    The one point that intrigues me here is Cooper over Smith. I feel like the Cubs really like Smith and don’t want to lose him. Could be wrong. He def seems like an opt out if he misses the opening day roster

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Childersb3: Both Madrigal and Wisdom can be optioned without any restriction. Their consent is not required. 

    They both can be outrighted without restriction, too (presuming the player is not claimed off waivers), but if outrighted they can choose to elect free agency (immediately, or deferred until after the end of the MLB season).

    If the player is outrighted and elects free-agency immediately he forfeits what remains of his salary.

    If he accepts the assignment and defers free agency until after the conclusion of the season, he continues to get his salary, and he could be added back to the 40 anytime prior to becoming a free-agent (club option). 

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Phil, 
    Madrigal and Wisdom can or cannot refuse being optioned to the Minors?
    If they can refuse it, wouldn't they elect to leave the Cubs org?

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    In my opinion, the biggest "affirmative" mistake the Cubs made in the off-season (that is, doing something they should not have done), was blowing $9M in 2024 AAV on Hector Neris. What the Cubs actually need is an alternate closer to be in the pen and available to close if Alzolay pitched the day before (David Robertson would have been perfect), because with his forearm issue last September, I would be VERY wary of over-using Alzolay. I'm not even sure I would pitch him two days in a row!  

    And of course what the Cubs REALLY need is a second TOR SP to pair with Justin Steele. That's where the Cubs are going to need to be willing to package prospects (like the Padres did to acquire Dylan Cease, the Orioles did to acquire Corbin Burnes, and the Dodgers did to acquire Tyler Glasnow). Obviously those ships have sailed, but I would say right now the Cubs need to look very hard at trying to acquire LHSP Jesus Luzardo from the Marlins (and maybe LHP A. J. Puk as well).