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. Phillies: Series Thread (Games 85-88)

The Cubs finished their 10-game road trip by losing nine in a row, including sweeps to two teams that now lead them in the division, the Reds and the Brewers. Despite having the wind thoroughly taken out of their sails, they somehow return to home territory for seven games before the All Star break. They begin with a four-game series against the Phillies, the first time these two teams have matched up in 2021. See below for pitching matchups.

Game 85, Monday, July 5, 7:05 pm central

CHC: RHP Zach Davies (5-5, 4.32 ERA)

PHL: RHP Matt Moore (0-1, 5.79 ERA)

Davies has the honor of being the first of three Zach/ks to start in this series. Davies most recently took a loss to Milwaukee, getting pulled after only four innings pitched and having allowed two earned runs while collecting six strikeouts. In June, Davies held a respectable 3.82 ERA and struck out hitters at a rate closer to his career average, 7.09 per nine innings for the month. As has been true throughout his time with the Cubs, his walk rate remained elevated to a dangerous level.

Matt Moore made only two starts in 2019 before suffering a knee injury and spent 2020 pitching in Japan--where he pitched 85 innings, more than would have been possible in MLB last year. 2021 has not yet proven the bounce back that both Moore and the Phillies must be hoping for. He last pitched five scoreless innings in a no-decision against the Mets. That was on June 25, his return to the MLB rotation after time in the bullpen and on the IL with back spasms.


Game 86, Tuesday, July 6, 7:05 pm central

CHC: RHP Jake Arrieta (5-8, 5.57 ERA)

PHL: RHP Aaron Nola (5-5, 4.44 ERA)

Arrieta had a truly terrible June. He posted an ERA of 8.31 and averaged fewer than four innings across six starts. He suffered especially from walks (5.82 per nine innings) and homeruns (2.91 per nine innings). He'll need to put it all behind him quickly; Trevor Williams appears to be on his way back from the IL and Alec Mills has outpitched both Arrieta and Williams, albeit in a very limited number of innings. Perhaps Arrieta will bring a little bit of chip on his shoulder facing his former team.

Aaron Nola is having a bit of a down 2021 relative to his own past performance. There's little to point to for his heightened ERA except for a diminished groundball rate. In the past he has posted rates near 50% but this year he's down to 40%. Meanwhile, he still strikes out well over a batter per innings and walks about two per game. In his last start, he gave up a season-high seven runs will striking out eleven Marlins


Game 87, Wednesday, July 7, 7:05 pm central

CHC: RHP Alec Mills (3-2, 4.85 ERA)

PHL: RHP Zack Wheeler (6-5, 2.05 ERA)

Mills took an undeserved loss in Cincinnati, allowing two earned runs in 5.2 innings while setting a season high nine strikeouts. If he can keep it up, he might be able to turn this fill-in assignment into something longer.

The Phils have to be happy with aquiring Zack Wheeler. Last year he produced 2.0 fWar in the shortened season and this year he is trailing on Jacob deGrom. He's on pace to set a career high in strikeouts and has maintained a walk rate below two per nine innings. At 31, he's still sitting in the high 90s and he's mixing in his slider more than ever, roughly a quarter of the time.


Game 88, Thursday, July 8, 7:05 pm central

CHC: RHP Adbert Alzolay (4-8, 4.48 ERA)

PHL: RHP Zach Eflin (3-6, 4.13 ERA)

Alzolay put a terrible start behind him but still suffered at the hands of the homerun at Great American Ballpark. He pitched seven innings and took a loss, allowing three earned runs on a pair of homers, one on a pitch out of the zone. There was probably little to learn from it except that things work out better when you're own team scores some runs too.

Zach Eflin has been a model of consistency going back to 2018. He's right on track in 2021 with an ERA in the low fours, a decent strikeout rate and roughly the same mix of his pitches as always. One difference this year is that he's lowered his already low walk rate; Cubs hitters should probably be ready to swing the bats as he's averaged just over one walk per nine innings.

Comments

e.sogard down and a.alcantara back up...sogard screwed up his left thumb somehow and gets a 10d IL trip

k.stewart to the DL, too (elbow)

t.williams back up a little early.

6 pitches, bases loaded, no outs.

that's f'n impressive arrieta.

good job.

dude isn't even worth an infield rake.

[ ]

In reply to by George Altman

t.williams is back up and a.mills still exits.  i dunno how much longer arrieta will be around.  it's getting a bit painful to watch as a cubs fan.  there's a difference between a guy that's not what he once was and a guy getting dominated to the point of it being an ugly spectacle.

On the bright side, the Cubs can be on a double-digit losing streak for a long time, and it's still only a double-digit losing streak.

this game is hot garbage and it's going on forever and everything sucks.

also, with sogard out who's gonna pitch the 9th in this blowout crapfest?

Fangraphs finally posted their list of Cubs prospects, 49 in all. It's not really a go-to for prospect analysis in my opinion, but I thought this was an interesting remark on Brennen Davis: "There’s room for Davis to let it eat a little more often than he does, and if he develops natural feel for that then he’ll be a superstar instead of merely very good."

He comes off like kind of an anti-Javy. He was drafted as a guy likely to have big swing and miss issues but it sounds like he's kept himself so under control that he currently plays in-game like a contact first hitter who hasn't unleashed his power. I kind of prefer that development track for somebody with Davis's long levers.

arrieta to the 10d DL..a'ite then, whatever.  right hamstring tightness...

c.abbott up.

imagine t.williams will cover arrieta's start before the break.

i like pederson's swagger and effort, but after watching LF defensive play get butched by schwarber followed by pederson, i hope whoever is next can actually field a simple running catch without high drama.

r.chirinos has been at/near the top of the dugout steps all night and totally stoked on everything going on.

it's nice he got back to the club that drafted him, but never played him.  he was a legit lower-end prospect.

[ ]

In reply to by Hagsag

I was not surprised to see RC paired with Alzolay... I also won't be surprised if RC catches him for the rest of the year.  I never realized that RC was the personal catcher for some really good pitchers (Hamels, Verlander) and lots of experience with some other really good ones (Darvish, Cole). I am not a pitching or catching expert, but some people who know what they are doing seem to like him back there. 

A few years ago, scouting reports on Chirinos tagged him as a future manager. 

[ ]

In reply to by videographer

This comment prompted me to go looking for some color stories on RC... seems like a genuinely nice & happy dude who knows how to handle his stuff. I liked this bit from a 2017 Dallas Morning News article: 

Before he ever caught Cole Hamels, Chirinos wanted to study his new pitcher. So he called Carlos Ruiz, Hamels' catcher from Philadelphia who caught 206 of the pitcher's 295 starts before Hamels was traded to Texas in 2015.
"I picked his brain for about 30 minutes," Chirinos said. "I wrote everything down. It was good for me to hear that from [Ruiz]. It helped me understand a lot more." Hamels appreciated Chirinos' extra effort. "You want a guy who is going to go a little bit more, and for him to reach out to [Ruiz] shows the type of character he has and the type of player he wants to be," Hamels said. "That's what instills confidence in each other and creates a bond. It took a while for [Ruiz] and me to get it, but when we clicked, we were inseparable. You think alike. That's that confidence I was talking about. That's where we want to get to." 

phillies sitting cutch and hoskins vs alzolay.

this should be considered evidence of trying to throw games.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

On the plus side, at least there is no longer any uncertainty about what the Cubs should do at the deadline.  Maybe we could do a version of the off season free agent prediction contest but with what Cubs are traded and where?

Assuming they sell anything and everyone they can; the final 2 months of this season will be pretty unwatchable. 

rosenthall and pj mooney are both reporting the cubs are officially sellers and listening to pretty much any offer.

cubs got 3 top-100 picks coming up in the draft.  i don't wanna see a bunch of f'n 17-20 year old kids coming to the cubs in trade unless they happen to be badass top-20 overall MLB tallent.  that darvish trade might pay off eventually, but it hurt this season greatly and no one picked up is expected to be here until 2024+.

contreras skull go 98mph worth of thud.  you could cut off dude's arm and he'd tell you it's a paper cut.

he's staying in the game, but well...yeah...geez...

In a few weeks our squad is really going to blow. Gotta get these wins in against StL now before then, do what we can to keep those ass clowns on golf courses in October too

Recent comments

  • 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 … 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.