Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus one player is on the 60-DAY IL 

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, one player is on the 15-DAY IL, and one player is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 3-28-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
# 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 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Patrick Wisdom, INF 

15-DAY IL: 1 
Jameson Taillon, P 

60-DAY IL: 1 
Caleb Kilian, P 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Cubs @ Rockies: Series Thread (Games 108-110)

The depleted Chicago Cubs continue their season with a three-game series in Colorado. Can hot-hitting Raphael Ortega give the the B-squad the spark needed to take defeat the Rockies? See below for the mid-week pitching matchups.


Game 108, Tuesday, August 3, 7:40 pm central

CHC: RHP Zach Davies (6-7, 4.39 ERA)

COL: LHP Kyle Freeland (1-6, 4.52 ERA)

What's less exciting than watching your franchise trade a Cy Young runner up for a junkballer with one remaining year of control? Might it be watching your franchise fail to turn him around in useful trade at the deadline? Possibly it is getting ready to watch that junkballer pitch in one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in baseball history.

Kyle Freeland has had a series of disappointing seasons following his breakout 2018, when he pitched over 200 innings and kept his ERA under three despite calling Colorado his home. It is an unfortunately familiar tale for breakout starting pitchers on the Rockies. He's pitched into some hard luck lately, going six and seven innings and allowing one run each while losing both of his last starts.


Game 109, Wednesday, August 4, 7:40 pm central

CHC: RHP Alec Mills (4-4, 4.55 ERA)

COL: RHP Jon Gray (7-6, 3.62 ERA)

Like most of his starts this year, Alec Mill's last start was okay. He went six innings while allowing four runs, three earned, and losing to the Reds. He's never faced the Rockies or pitched in Colorado, so this should be a new and fun experience.

Jon Gray was taken on spot after Kris Bryant in the MLB draft but remains a member of the 4th place Rockies by virtue of having one year of club control remaining. His peripherals don't pop quite as much as they might in other years, but he's still the ace of the staff and is putting up pretty good overall numbers. Most recently he earned a victory in San Diego, going 6.1 and allowing two earned runs.


Game 110, Thursday, August 5, 2:10 pm central

CHC: RHP Jake Arrieta (5-10, 6.20 ERA)

COL: TBD

How long Jake Arrieta remains in the Cubs' rotation probably depends on two things. First, whether he starts hitting his spots with his fastball. Second, how long it takes Keegan Thompson and Justin Steele to get stretched out in the minors. Arrieta gave four innings in his return from his IL break, and he took a loss despite allowing only two earned runs in that time. He and the team have provided no clear narrative explaining his lack of success--or pointing toward a possible solution--and it's becoming difficult to imagine his Cubs' career ending anywhere but a release. That said, a two month hot/warm streak would be a welcome consolation and a decent epilogue to Arrieta's time with the Cubs.

Comments

After the feel-good videos and goodbyes, Jed decided to say the players didn't seem to want to negotiate and place blame at their feet. Rizzo responded today, basically saying "wtf man, shut up, that's a lie."

I haven't really blamed Jed for much of this as I feel mgmt forced his hand but this... definitely a misstep Jed. And it also makes me wonder, the next core, if they don't want to sign below market extensions, are we gonna see a similar tear down?

[ ]

In reply to by Dolorous Jon Lester

jed shouldn't have aired things out so blatently, even if true.

"I don't know why guys didn't want to sign. I don't know why guys didn't want to even counteroffer, oftentimes. Every one of these guys would say they wanted to stay in Chicago, 'we wanted to be a Cub,' but then we would sit down and do negotiations, that wasn't how they acted."

...dude, no.  keep that to yourself.

beyond that, given the types of trades jed has been making...while i'm sure the ricketts family are sub-plot bad guys in this...it's kinda blindingly obvious jed wants to make his own, unique, "this is what i built" mark on the cubs.  that darvish trade had nothing to do with 2021 or 2022...and a good chunk of what was done with the core last week doesn't have a lot to do with 2022.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

Agreed on every point. I think Jed is trying to create "his" team, a fully separate entity than Theo. Probably targeting 2023 or 2024 to return to actual contention.

He absolutely shouldn't have aired that out. He ends up looking like the bad guy. This is a good way to burn those bridges. 

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

"It came down to dollars and cents. His agent and Greg felt he wasn't getting enough money from the Cubs. And I felt we had already reached the maximum dollar. . . . That's where it lay. . . . He turned it down." That's Larry Himes talking about Greg Maddux.

[ ]

In reply to by Dolorous Jon Lester

A GM or owner saying a player "didn't want to sign" or "didn't want to negotiate" should always be read as "we didn't want to pay them."

That said, a GM or owner can always show more finesse by saying, "I hope we can have productive talks this offseason" or something along those lines. Seems like Jed is trying to burn those bridges.

/With all the player movement in the last week, I wonder if the Cubs are now 85% compliant for vaccinated players.  We know Sogard and Rizzo were not vaccinated and I can assume the players taking their place of the 40 man roster are vaccinated.  It will be an interesting story going forward when all trade noise settles down.

[ ]

In reply to by videographer

while not known as a clubhouse cancer, there's more than a few stories about his "leadership qualities" lacking or otherwise being a bit of a jerk at points in time.  they're mostly rumor, and none of the rumors are awful...

reminded a bit of this justin wilson/rizzo exchange back in 2018...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqCelMPe_74

i would still like to know what the rizzo/contreras thing was about and why rizzo was all up on contreras to the point d.ross had to take him into the clubhouse.  contreras threw his gear down in frustration, ross comes over to deal with contreras, and all of a sudden rizzo is up in the situation for some reason.

delay of game...home plate ump seems to have tweaked his back or something...neet.

a pointless delay of a pointless game.

[ ]

In reply to by Jackstraw

I wonder how much longer David Ross is going to want to manage a team that is three or four years away from contending (and that's if everything breaks just right with trades, #1 draft picks, and top IFA signings, like it did in 2012-14). 

I would think somebody like current Cubs bench coach Andy Green (who managed SD during its rebuild) or Ricky Renteria (ex-Cubs manager who managed the White Sox during their rebuild) would be a more-appropriate choice to shepherd the flock through the coming dark years.  

Recent comments

  • Charlie (view)

    I worry that Morel will lose starts at 3B as long as this roster lacks a compelling DH.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    I think if you had ranked players by how much the team could ill afford to have them miss significant time, Steele would be right at the top of the list.

  • crunch (view)

    steele MRI on friday.  counsell expects an IL stint.

    no current plans for his rotation replacement.

  • hellfrozeover (view)

    I would say also in the bright side column is Busch looked pretty good overall at the plate. Alzolay…man, that hurts but most of the time he’s not giving up a homer to that guy. To me the worst was almonte hanging that pitch to Garcia. He hung another one to the next hitter too and got away with it on an 0-1. 

  • crunch (view)

    amaya blocked like 6-8 of smyly's pitches in the dirt very cleanly...not even an exaggeration, smyly threw a ton of pitches bouncing in tonight.

    neris looking like his old self was a relief (no pun), too.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    In looking for bright spots the defense was outstanding tonight. The “stars” are going to need to shine quite a bit brighter than they did tonight offensively though for this to be a successful season.

  • Eric S (view)

    Good baseball game. Hopefully Steele is pitching again in April (but I’m not counting on it). 

  • crunch (view)

    boo.

  • crunch (view)

    smyly to face the 2/3/4 hitters with a man on 2nd in extras.

    this doesn't seem like a 8 million dollar managerial decision.

  • crunch (view)

    i 100% agree with you, but i dunno how jed wants to run things.  the default is delay.  i would choose brown.

    like hellfrozeover says, could be smyly since he's technically fresh and stretched.

    anyway, on a pure talent basis....brown is the best option.