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

Ballesteros and Morfa Launch Cub Comeback at Riverview

Moises Ballesteros drilled an RBI single in the bottom of the first, singled and scored in the fourth, and belted a game-tying HR over the RF fence in the seventh, Carlos Morfa slugged a solo HR over the LF fence in the seventh and roped a double and scored in the eighth, Reivaj Garcia singled twice, walked, scored two runs, and drove-in three, and the bullpen retired nine of the last ten batters faced, as the Cubs raliied to score eight runs in the final two innings while holding the opposition scoreless, en route to a hard-fought 13-10 victory over the Diamondbacks Red squad in Cactus League Extended Spring Training game action Friday morning on Field #1 at the Riverview Baseball Complex in Mesa, AZ.

This was the third HR hit by Ballesteros in the last eight days, as he is now second on the EXST Cubs in HR with three (Cristian Hernandez has four, plus two more in intrasquad games). Over his last nine Cactus League EXST games (29 PA), Ballesteros is hitting a robust 480/552/960, with three HR, three doubles, four walks, and seven RBI.  

As outstanding as the bullpen was at the end of the game, two Cubs pitchers -- LHP Marino Santy and RHP Gleiber Morales -- combined to issue twelve walks, hit a batter, uncork five wild pitches, and commit two balks, as the D'backs took an early 9-5 lead. 

The Diamondbacks Red squad manager was thrown out of the game after arguing that an RBI double that drove-in a runner from 1st base was actually a ground-rule double that bounced off the warning track and then off the netting beyond the RF fence (and he was right, by the way). He then sat in the bleachers outside the first base side fence, until he was spotted by the base umpire and told to go sit in the bus. It was 105 degrees, so having to sit in an air-conditioned bus wasn't necessarily the worst punishment imaginable!   

The game was called after eight innings of play. 

In EXST Cubs news, catcher Dilan Granadillo is no longer switch-hitting, He is now batting LH-only.   

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

CUBS LINEUP:
1a. Christian Olivo, CF: 2-2 (1B, 1B, R, SB)
1b. Cristian More, CF: 2-3 (6-3, 1B, 2B, SB, R)
2. Pedro Ramirez, 2B-DH: 1-4 (BB, 4-3, 3-U, 5-3, 1B, R, RBI, SB) 
3a. Cristian Hernandez, SS: 0-2 (4-3, L-4 DP) 
3b. Josue Huma, SS: 1-3 (1B, 6-3, F-8, SB) 
4. Moises Ballesteros, DH #1: 3-4 (1B, 1B, K, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI) 
5. Frank Hernandez, LF: 1-4 (K, 1B, 4-3, 6-3) 
6. Rafael Morel, 3B: 1-4 (1B, K, K, 5-3) 
7a. Casey Opitz, C: 0-2 (F-7, HBP, 3-U, R)
7b. Dilan Granadillo, C: 0-0 (HBP, R) 
8a. Raino Coran, RF: 0-2 (3-U, 5-U FC, R, RBI) 
8b. Carlos Morfa, RF: 2-2 (HR, 2B, 2 R, RBI) 
9. Reivaj Garcia, DH-2B: 2-3 (5-3, 1B, BB, 1B, 2 R, 3 RBI) 
10. Alejandro Rivero, 1B: 1-4 (5-3, 5-3, 2B, F-7, R, RBI, SB) 

CUBS PITCHERS
1. Marino Santy: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 4 R (4 ER), 6 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP, 3 WP, 1 BALK, 1 PO, 0/1 GO/AO, 40 pitches (12 strikes) 
2. Yovanny Cabrera: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 ER), 0 BB, 2 K, 1/0 GO/AO, 17 pitches (12 strikes) 
3. Gleiber Morales: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 4 R (4 ER), 6 BB, 2 K, 2 WP, 1 BALK, 1/1 GO/AO, 48 pitches (17 strikes) 
4. Dominic Hambley: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 3/1 GO/AO, 26 pitches (16 strikes) 
5. Angel Hernandez: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, 22 pitches (13 strikes)
6. Gregori Montano: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 14 pitches (9 strikes) 

CUBS ERRORS: 1 
SS Cristian Hernandez: E-6 (booted ground ball allowing batter to reach base safely)  

CUBS CATCHERS DEFENSE
Casey Opitz: 1-3 CS 

CUBS OUTFIELD ASSISTS:  
1. RF Raino Coran - runner thrown out 9-2 attempting to score from 2nd base on line-drive single to right 
2. LF Frank Hernandez - batter thrown out 7-4 attempting to stretch bloop single down LF line into double 

WEATHER: Sunny with temperatures 100+ 

ATTENDANCE: 16 

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Comments

Carlos Morfa gonna grab a spot in Myrtle Beach when the outfield promotions happen, unless one of the 2021 draft pick outfielders get healthy. Healthy hacks sounding kind of guy.

p.crow-armstrong .360/.451/.573

he's started 36 games.  he's had hits in 30 of them...19 of them multiple hit games.

this is getting silly.  find room for him at an upper level.

i mean, dude isn't acuna or franco, but he's not being challenged where he's at and could probably use another level of competition.

[ ]

In reply to by tim815

caisse is a great enough talent he needs everyday ABs.  that said, he may be over his head in south bend.  he doesn't even turn 20 for another month+.

the others and where they may fit...hey, there's a DH.  find a way to get crowe-armstrong ABs while playing CF.  with canairio in AA they can make that work.

i'm just ready for the dude to be challenged.  he may or may not even be up for it, but he's not been a streaky guy.  he's been consistently dominating and he's easily one of the top-3 bats in the minors for the cubs development focus, top-4 depending on one feels about middle IF'r james triantos.  he's not blocked by the only OF'r more important than him in the system, AAA b.davis.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

That's why every lefty slugger should play 1B and Cr OF in MiLB. Maximize as much of your defensive versatility as possible. Now the Cubs have some 1B doing well, and a couple of them are lefties! But that should take stop Caissie from learning the position a little. Hard to project the 2025 Cubs lineup. 

Some of the Iowa and Tennessee guys who will need 40 man protection this year will be moving up once the trade blender starts. That will open space for promotions.

PCA can easily move to CF in South Bend, with Nwogu moving down to MB or over to DH.  The fact that they have not done so indicates that they feel he should stay where he is to work on things not obvious in the stats.  I believe it is better to have top prospects work on weaknesses while at a level where they can still succeed in the stats, rather than have their overall game suffer.

[ ]

In reply to by DavidP

yeah, all i got is stats, video (limited) and what people are saying.  for all i know 90% of his success is hitting fastballs and he has a 90% whiff-rate on off-speed stuff.  it's just highly unlikely.

pca is 2023-2024 projection at best, and early 2023 would be very advanced prediction.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

Years ago, Craig - on another board, nicknamed one of the more successful prospects, "Bananas" because all his hits came in bunches.  He would go

4 for 5 

0 for 4 

1 for 5

0 for 5

3 for 5

etc. for much of the season, ending up with fairly good stats, but a great number of games where he really stunk.

After he called this to my attention, over the years I came to the conclusion that some prospects turn out very good numbers over the course of the season by, seemingly, fattening their averages against pitchers that did not have the command or talent to exploit the hitter's weaknesses.  With each promotion, the number of good command pitchers increased, and the number of  bad command pitchers decreased, and the "4 for 5" days decreased, and the "1 for 5" days increased, until the career ended.

 

For those of us that have to rely mostly on stats, there is no way to tell how many fat pitches are going for hits, and how many great pitches are killing the batter.  But the on field evaluators have all that information at their disposal, and thus are in a much better position to determine when a prospect is ready to be promoted.  So I rarely grouse about slow promotions.  The organization has little reason to supress promotions for kids below AA, so I generally assume that they are slow for good reasons. 

James Triantos started the season by going 4-36 and he has .376 since then. Went through the same slow start last year in Arizona. The kid is a stud.

[ ]

In reply to by azbobbop

i dunno where it started, but im glad we've decided to call him "PCA"...crow-armstrong is a stupid amount of letters to type and i already type a lot of stupid things without adding more to the mix.

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...