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

Connecting Dots

Before recently throwing in with Super Agent Scott Boras, Super Free Agent Carlos Correa was represented by the mega-agency that’s been buying up MiLB teams, including the Iowa Cubs. The former sub-rivalry with the Memphis Redbirds will now be a sib-rivalry since the teams share the same owner. Strange bedfellows. But that’s beside my primary point of interest. The I-Cubs’ ownership had been local for decades, most recently under the community-spirited auspices of a man whose resume includes a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. He’s in his 80s and plans to remain a fan who’ll be seen at the ballpark. Still, he’ll be missed. Not only did he keep the team’s staff on the payroll throughout the 2020 season that wasn’t, but he divvied the proceeds of the team’s sale amongst all of the full-timers @ $2K per year of service. One long-term, mid-level vet reaped a $70K bonus when the soon-to-be ex-boss gathered everyone for a holiday surprise party. All of which I mention while wondering if/when the latest round of CBA jousting at the MLB level will resolve. UFC is another monogram that comes to mind to describe the “negotiations” about how to carve the billionberry pie. UFC? The new I-Cub owner also owns that brand. Not quite the same cache for some of us as a Pulitzer Prize.

Comments

Thank you for sharing Mike.  Sounds like the former owner was a high character human being and should be celebrated.  Haven't had a chance to attend a game there since I moved away from Des Moines in 2007 but recall it being a great ballpark experience.  Has there been any word of the new owners making any major changes?

cubs sign 31 year old eric yardley to a minor league deal.

he's a 31 year old righty that throws sub-90mph junk.

sammy sosa off the HOF ballot after 10 years.  he finishes up with a 18.5% vote, highest in any year.

gene clines has died.

he was with the organization on/off for a notable amount of time as both a player and coach.

cubs linked to being a finalist for seiya suzuki (japan).

strong-armed, power hitting corner OF'r (suited for RF)...27 years old.

cubs removing the santo + williams statues from the corner of sheffield/addison.

it's a temporary move so they can build their 2 story betting sportsbook.

Baseball America ranks the Cubs minor league system 15th in baseball - an improvement from last year's 22nd.

MLB will not make a counter-proposal to the player's latest offer and has requested a federal mediator.

yeesh.

they are extremely far apart on the economic stuff.

spring training delayed until march 5th at the earliest.

multiple meetings between owners/players next week.

meh.

players/owners met for the 3rd straight day.  they're supposedly still far apart on numerous economic issues.  they're meeting again tomorrow.

if there's no agreement by Feb 28, regular season games will start to be cancelled.  players will not be paid for missed games.

spring games through march 7th cancelled.

"some progress" made friday.

if there's not an agreement by monday more spring games will be cancelled.

March 7th leaves 3 weeks and 3 days until the scheduled opener (3/31). Hmmmm. If the season opens on time, which is doubtful with any further delays, I see a lot of bullpen expanded rosters.

"Jeff Passan of ESPN reports that the Major League Baseball Players Association "backed significantly off" Super 2 and their revenue sharing asks in their latest proposal to Major League Baseball on Saturday.

The players also tweaked their offer regarding the Competitive Balance Tax (CBT). The good news, is that the two sides are now back at the table for a second session on Saturday after the owners met separately to discuss the proposal."

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

well, so much for that momentum...

"According to Evan Drellich of The Athletic, the second meeting between the Major League Baseball Players Association and Major League Baseball did not go well on Saturday.

The players presented a "comprehensive offer" after the first meeting of the day, which the owners contingent caucused on for two hours before sitting back down at the table with the players. MLB reacted badly to the proposal though, which in turn outraged the MLBPA."

----------

"Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post reports that the Major League Baseball Players Association is so furious with how Saturday's negotiations with Major League Baseball went that they're considering walking away from the table."

players/owners will meet tomorrow afternoon (sunday) for the 7th day in a row.

sunday meetings over.  they will meet again tomorrow.

if they can't get an agreement tomorrow, regular season games will be cancelled.

deadline to avoid game cancellation moved to 5pm tuesday.

they put in over 15 hours on monday.  there is positive movement and even some things agreed to...

playoffs to be 12 teams and some luxury tax issues agreed upon.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

yeesh...

so, MLB announced their "best offer" would be made before 5pm today...MLBPA has already unanimously said "naw."

the MLBPA hasn't come out and said it, but the earlier "good news" seems to be a leak from owners to the press and the 2 sides are not anywhere near close as it was assumed to be.  MLBPA has pointed to how far apart (very) they are on both pre-arb bonus pools and CBT thresholds.

looks like we're in for a shortened season.

everyone is going home.  all that's left for today is press conferences/statements from both sides telling us how the other side sucks.

MLB announces the "first 2 series" of the regular season are *poof* gone.

they're going to try again on thursday.

This translates to a cancellation of the opening road series and the home series vs Cardinals. Opening game moves to a 4-7 opening Thursday night vs Brewers at Wrigley.

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

Losing a few cold-weather games out of a long season isn't too big a deal. But it is a bummer to push the opening of the season. I guess I'll have to find some other way to note the passage of time. I hope the union manages to spite a few billionaires, if nothing else.

reminder, minor league games will continue as normal.

if you live in an area with minor league baseball, it's generally cheap fun and if you haven't been in a while a lot of newer minor league stadiums are rather comfortable (tall crew reporting in).

Is everyone keeping in shape at their own alternate training sites? I've been slacking, myself. Maybe I will add a bratwurst and beer to my shopping list this weekend.

mlbpa and mlb met for 90m today.

this was an expected "pre-game" to set up a timeline for future negotiations.  looks like we're in for extended time off from baseball.

"Buster Olney of ESPN reports that the MLBPA has approached MLB with an offer to re-open talks about a 14-team postseason."

this is f'n trash.

why even play a season?  let's just play a playoff and let everyone in.

this isn't football.  they play enough games to separate those who deserve it from those who don't.

[ ]

In reply to by Craig A.

the absolute brutality of the 1-game wildcard playoff i didn't mind.  it made it a sudden-death playoff "series" and the teams had to choose what pitcher they're going to burn for an all-or-nothing knowing he wouldn't be ready to pitch game 1 of the next round.  that was a playoff expansion i didn't see coming, but was acceptable how it worked out.

this seems to be something different that's going to be hard to be seen as anything other than a money grab.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

Nor is it basketball, where it has always seemed to me that the NBA plays a grueling 81-game schedule just to determine seeding for the "real" season, the playoffs. But in the NBA, the really good teams are far superior to the mediocre ones, and it's rare for a high seed to get knocked out in an early round. (Not a serious NBA follower, but that's my impression.) In baseball, the teams are more evenly matched, and, as Craig said above, it's no shock when a lower seed can win a playoff round against a higher one. Which of course makes spending salary money to get incrementally better is nearly pointless with expanded playoffs. The whole point of the owners' position, as anybody with a lick of sense knows...

Don't the small market teams understand that the solution to competitive imbalance is revenue sharing?  With a really punishing CBT, no teams pay it, and nobody gets any revenue shared.  The status quo that the owners seem to be protecting is  bad for both small market teams and players.

MLB Spring Training games will not begin until at least March 18, per the mlb website. Exhibition play had previously been scrapped through March 11. Clearly the season start is unlikely for the current date of April 7th and another week should get nixed soon.

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

nice about the exit velocity.  that's the scary knock on nick madrigal...really low exit velocity for a guy that relies on his bat to get on base.  part of that low exit velocity average is that he'll swing (and make contact) on pretty much anything you throw him.  also, happy 25th birthday madrigal.

meeting today was short, sweet, and non-productive.

MLB has declared the matter 'deadlocked' after today's proposal from the MLBPA and even said things are going backwards.

no follow-up meetings have been scheduled.

starting to look more and more like a may opening day (at best).

in cubs related news, they've blocked off the sidewalks to start construction on the multi-story betting sportsbook attached to wrigley field.

the extra income it generates should lead to some great cubs-related things, like a few more digital ad scoreboards or maybe a second TV sports network.

"Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic report that MLB presented multiple CBA proposals for the MLBPA to consider on Monday.

Drellich adds that it was relayed from MLB to the MLBPA that the league views Tuesday as a deadline for an agreement if there is to be a 162-game season and players receive full pay and full service time"

codi heuer had surgery recently on his right elbow.  he may not pitch in 2022.  neat.

Matt Szczur announced his retirement. Making way for the next generation of scrappy 5th outfielders.

real compromise with both sides leaking to the press parts of discussions and agreements (without anger/backlash) have been flowing the past day and a half.

they could get this done this week, maybe even before the weekend.

we are still in the window to have a 162 game season happen (with a slight extension of playing days in the season), but things have to come together in the next few days.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

the owners are really hung up on the international draft, but that's been a non-starter for the players.  some owners want to die on that hill, but the players seem to be ready to hand them a knife if that's their wish.  you can't bargain for something 1 side doesn't even want to consider...

they're pushing either/or options to the players and some involve the international draft.

it's not happening tonight (wednesday).

games have been cancelled and opening day is April 14th at the earliest.

Therefore, they open on the road in Colorado. These cancellations translate to the Wrigley home opener vs Rays, Monday 6:40pm on 4-18. That 3 game series is followed by 4 with the Pirates at Wrigley through the weekend.

big movement on the international draft stuff...they seem to be pushing that part aside with an agreement to have active discussions until july.

draft pick compensation removal (player ask) in exchange for an international draft (owner ask) seems to be the tradeoff that's in scope of the discussions going through july.

if they can sort it all out a deal could get done soon.  these 2 major sticking points are most of what's holding everything up...the rest of the stuff is believed to be close to settled.

we may have an agreement in principle by the end of today or the weekend.

also, MLB has said yesterday's game "cancelation" statement was misunderstood and they could still get 162 games in if an agreement is made very soon.  i dunno how that math works out, but that's the updated statement.

no rule 5 draft in 2022 because of lockout weirdness.

it should return in 2023 (unchanged rules).

9-inning double headers and no ghost runners on 2nd in extra innings is back on the menu.

nice.

"Travis Sawchik of The Score reports that the new Wild-Card format will feature best-of-three rounds before the League Divisional Series.

In the case of MLB and the MLBPA: They are, in fact, afraid of ghosts. With 12 teams now making the postseason -- up from 10 under the old format -- the Wild-card round will see the top two teams getting a bye, and the four teams that play will see a best-of-three format to advance to the LDS. Because of the new format, there will be no more tie-breaking games. If two teams tie with the same record, the berth will be determined by formulas similar to the NFL or NBA."

owners vote 30-0 to ratify.  IT'S ON.

put the cold ass stove under a blast furnace.

a few minutes from now (7pm EST) we're back to 100% open for business.

I still think the owners gave the players the ol' screwjob in all of this and blame the owners for the lockout, but on the other hand...WHEEEEE baseball is back, let's do this!  I'm just excited to see Cubs baseball again.

Recent comments

  • 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!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...