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

Max the Bain of the Inland Empire's Existence at Sloan Park

SP Max Bain fired three innings of one hit shutout ball with six strikeouts and combined with five relievers on a four-hit shutout with 14 punch-outs, and Ed Howard IV singled twice, drove-in a run, and scored another, as the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Cubs Lo-A affiliate) blanked the Inland Empire 66ers (Angels Lo-A affiliate) 4-0 in Cactus League Minor League Camp game action Monday afternoon at Sloan Park in Mesa, AZ.    

The Defensive Gem of the Day was a spectacular back-handed diving catch in left-centerfield by Pelicans LF Jacob Wetzel, proving the old adage, "You can take the boy out of centerfield, but you can't take the centerfielder out of the boy." 

Meanwhile, 23-year old 6'5 240 Max Bain has emerged as one of the Cubs top pitching prospects, and today he showed why.

Doing his best Trevor Bauer impression, Bain absolutely smoked the 66ers with overpowering gas, throwing mostly his electric 97-99 FB (which sat at 98-99 throughout his three innings of work) and mixing it with a high-velo 86-88 MPH SL/CT and an 84 MPH CH combo. I think it's likely that Bain will be the Opening Day SP for Myrtle Beach, but he probably won't remain there for long.   

Bain had an unusual path to affiliated ball (to say the least), signing with the Cubs as a non-drafted free-agent just before Spring Training 2020. He pitched for four years in obscurity (and mostly ineffectively) at NCAA D-2 Northwoods University in Michigan 2016-19, and then spent the summer following his senior year pitching for the Utica Unicorns in the independent United Shore Professional Baseball League in suburban Detroit. The Cubs signed him only after he lost a considerable amount of weight, which is why the timing of his signing (January) was so peculiar. 

Since signing with the Cubs, Bain has embraced the 21st century technology available at the Cubs Pitching Lab in Mesa and he has become an expert in the lab's various tools. He has also worked extensively with ex-Cub Luke Hagerty at Hagerty's 's X-2 Athletic Performance training center in Scottsdale.  

Here is the abridged box score from the game (Cubs players only): 

MYRTLE BEACH LINEUP:
1a. Darius Hill, CF: 0-2 (K, BB, P-6, R)
1b. Jacob Olson, LF: 0-1 (F-8)
2a. Ethan Hearn, C: 0-2 (K, F-8, BB, R)
2b. Jake Washer, C: 0-1 (K)
3a. Ed Howard IV, SS: 2-3 (K, 1B, 1B, R, RBI)
3b. Scott McKeon, 2B: 0-1 (4-3)
4. Jacob Wetzel, LF-CF: 0-3 (K, K, F-9)
5. Yohendrick Pinango, RF: 0-3 (3-1, E-3, 1-3, R, SB)
6. Jake Slaughter, 3B: 1-2 (1-3, 1B, HBP, RBI)
7. Ryan Reynolds, 1B: 1-3 (4-3, K, 1B)
8. Grayson Byrd, DH: 0-3 (K, 4-3, K)
9. Yeison Santana, 2B-SS: 0-2 (K, F-9, BB)

MYRTLE BEACH PITCHERS
1. Max Bain: 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 WP, 1 GIDP, 1/1 GO/AO, 47 pitches (30 strikes) 
2. Tanner Jesson-Dalton: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, 2/1 GO/AO, 27 pitches (15 strikes)
3. Richard Gallardo: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 0/1 GO/AO, 18 pitches (11 strikes) 
4. Graham Lawson: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 1/1 GO/AO, 10 pitches (8 strikes)
5. Eury Ramos: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 0/1 GO/AO, 9 pitches (7 strikes)
6. Ben Leeper: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 1/0 GO/AO, 13 pitches (11 strikes) 

MYRTLE BEACH OUTFIELD ASSIST
CF Darius Hill - batter thrown out 8-6-5 attempting to stretch double into triple, this play also featured an outstanding middleman laser relay throw from Ed Howard IV irom short CF to 3rd base...  

ATTENDANCE: N/A 

WEATHER: Sunny with temperatures in the 80's 

Arizona 
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"Just because it isn't official doesn't mean it didn't happen" 

Comments

The Cubs have released LHP Ryan Kellogg, RHP Alex Moore, 3B Fidel Mejia, OF Jose Gutierrez, OF Eddy Julio Martinez, and OF Zac Taylor from Minor League Camp. 

DJL: How about Eddy Julio Martinez as a spectacular miss? A $3M signing bonus out of Cuba and he never made it out of AA. 

[ ]

In reply to by Arizona Phil

Phil, serious question: How good is the Cubs Player Development Department? Scale of 1 to 30 with 1 being best.  I mean, I can think of 5 teams right now who don't have near the Cubs resources but do better year after.

I mean there are organizations across sports who seem to coach the crap out of their draft picks and signees. They just got 4 teenagers for Darvish, but do they have the coaches to get any of them to the show? 

My pessimistic grade would be about 24.

[ ]

In reply to by George Altman

20s sounds about right. Considering they have gotten pretty much nothing out of pitching development in the last decade and only number one picks and Bote on the hitter side in the same time frame, that's pretty telling. I guess Contreras falls into that too but he had been around quite a while before Theo and Jed

[ ]

In reply to by Dolorous Jon Lester

Trading away some good prospects during the win-now phase is a confounding factor, since some of those guys *could* have gone on inside the organization to bolster the reputation. But one can hardly blame those trades for the lack of pitching development.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

i know some are willing to fight me on this one, but i still can't believe the cubs gave up gleyber torres for a slew of innings of a.chapman.  yes, he was -the- best available, but it's not like the other guys (like mark melancon) were crap or the cubs were in some close chase to win the division.

[ ]

In reply to by Arizona Phil

I've actually come around on the Quintana trade just a bit... still don't love it, but rather than just feeling furious comparing the players on paper & wishing for EJ's bat in the lineup, I try to remind myself of the context.  2016 WS; middle of very competitive 2017 season; Q seemed like a great fit in providing innings for '17 & the next couple years. Lackey & Arrieta were leaving; Lester was starting the "maybe eek out 1 more good year" phase of his career (with respect); maybe they already had eyes on Darvish... so locking up a cost-effective LHSP 3/4 seems smart on paper. Puts you at '18 & '19 with 1) Darvish, 2) Hendricks, 3/4) Lester &  Quintana, 5) ____ .  

Now the fact that Q travelled 10 miles up the Red Line and became 20% worse sucks & raises questions when combined with head scratchers Edwin Jackson & Tyler Chatwood. But at least Q had a solid track record the previous 4 years & wasn't just an advanced metrics crush. 

[ ]

In reply to by Mike Wellman

about time they realized iowa really isn't that far away and hiring talent to produce a 3+ hour sports product there isn't a huge investment.

that said, hope people watch it.  i don't get Marquee (just mlb.tv feeds of cubs games), but i hear they need help with original content very badly.

MILB.TV finally updated their website and announced that all four Cubs full-season teams will be televised this year with a subscription: https://www.milb.com/live-stream-games/subscribe

2021 Subscription Includes:

  • More than 5,000 games
  • 95% of games streamed in HD
  • Games involving all 30 Triple-A teams
  • Games involving all 30 Double-A teams
  • Select games from other classifications

Subscriptions are NOT YET available, but they're coming soon!

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!