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. Mets: Series Thread (Games 89-92)

The Cubs finish of the pre-All-Star portion of the season with 4-games against the New York Mets. See below for the daily matchups.


Game 89, Thursday, July 14, 7:05 pm central

CHC: RHP Keegan Thompson (7-3, 3.04 ERA)

NYM: RHP Carlos Carrasco (9-4, 4.55 ERA)


Game 90, Friday, July 15, 1:20 pm central

CHC: RHP Marcus Stroman (2-5, 4.91 ERA)

NYM: RHP Taijuan Walker (7-2, 2.63 ERA)


Game 91, Saturday, July 16, 1:20 pm central

CHC: LHP Drew Smyly (2-5, 4.43 ERA)

NYM: RHP Max Scherzer (6-1, 2.15 ERA)


Game 92, Sunday, July 17, 1:20 pm central

CHC: RHP Adrian Sampson (0-1, 3.33 ERA)

NYM: LHP David Peterson (5-2, 3.48 ERA)

Comments

Why is tonight different from all other nights?
 

it's not Passover but Crunch sounds like he's working on the Cubs version of the four questions.

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

i'm from the south, but far north of florida.  i have limited exposure to even passing references to jewish culture aside from TV, so i learned new stuff tonight.

i went searching for enough info for a decent comeback, but ended up learning a bunch of stuff about passover and how traditions around it are passed on.

but hey, i understand the joke now at least.

also, the past 10 minutes reading about this has been better than the game.  i'm ready for 2023.

Cubs are now tied with the Reds at 34 wins. Only 5  losses above the Nats for the worst record in both leagues.

I splurged and got a killer seat Field Box between home and 1st. Hadn't seen Keegan Thompson live yet, and it was just so gorgeous out. Oh but then the game part... So many Met rockets. People were saying maybe Thompson was tipping. When Ross got tossed, the whole place was quiet enough for me to hear a Met fan go, "What's that guy yelling about?" I woulda laughed but...

[ ]

In reply to by Childersb3

it's getting real up in here.  2023 real, hopefully.

stroman - ??? - hendricks - steele - thompson

herz and wicks in AA/AAA ready to feed the pipeline.  killian in the mix already primed to be MLB or MLB/AAA type player.

alzolay technically exists, but he'll be 28 in march 2023 and he's never been able to throw more than 130 innings in a full season on combined levels in his 10 year pro career.  it would be nice to see him work a full season in the pen with his stuff, though.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

D. J. Herz will be Rule 5 Draft-eligible post-2023 so the Cubs could call him up anytime in 2023 if they think he's ready. Jordan Wicks will not be Rule 5 Draft-eligible until post-2024. HOWEVER... If Wicks were to be called up sometime in 2023 he would get a 4th minor league option in 2026 (just like Caleb Kilian getting called up in 2022 means he will be getting a 4th minor league option in 2025), so the Cubs might not think twice about calling up Wicks next season. We might actually see a starting rotation of Steele, K. Thompson, Herz, Wicks, and Kilian by this time next year (presuming the Cubs can trade Hendricks and Stroman in the meantime). 

FWIW, OF Kevin Alcantara is one of the Cubs top 5 prospects and he is Rule 5 Dtaft-eligible post-2022  so he will almost certainly be added to the 40 in November. But if he is added to the 40 in November he will be eligible for a 4th minor league option year in 2026, so there will be no need to rush him. Same goes for RHSP Luis Devers. 

I think that Alzolay's starting days are over, at least for the next couple of years.  I would like to see him coupled with Steele or Thompson, coming in for the last three or four innings of the game.  If and when Herz makes it, I would like to see him begin that way also.  Very similar to the way they handled Thompson in the beginning.

[ ]

In reply to by DavidP

if he can work back to back days he could be (if he's still go the same stuff) the cubs closer of the future.

what's in the arm is great stuff.  i dunno how stable that arm is, though.

at the very least he could be a medium-rest long man if he can't bounce back quickly after doing work.  some guys can't throw 10-25 pitches and come out to do it the next day for some reason.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

The multi-inning reliever (a pitcher capable of going once through the order) is now an important part of an MLB pitching staff, what with the 13-man pitcher limit. At least two are needed (they would have been Justin Steele and Keegan Thompson in 2022 if Hendricks, Stroman, Miley, Smyly, and Mills had been the five-man rotation).

Adbert Alzolay would seem to fit that profile in 2023 (likewise Brailyn Marquez if he ever gets back into game action), although it does not preclude him from eventually becoming a traditional rotation starter or high-leverage one-inning reliever. In fact, the multi-inning reliever role might be the best way to integrate a young pitcher into MLB in the 2020's.

game 1 is an oddly slow moving game for a low offense game.

lot of pitches being thrown without offense outcomes.

8th loss in a row...

contreras is sitting in the dugout by himself with his head in his hands...he seems to be so over all of this.  he doesn't seem pissed, but he seems worn the hell out.

damn.

this team really could use some time off.  we're doing ejections almost every game lately.  players seem moody.  no one's dealing with this losing season well, especially this current losing streak.

PCA went 1 for 2, double, in the futures game.  he was a bench substitution and played CF.

AL won, jassssssssson dominguez hit a homer.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

One thing MLB clubs tend to do is trade a good but not Top 100 prospect they acquired in a trade more-readily than a guy they signed. That's because a club doesn't have the financial (bonus) investment in a player they acquire from another organization.

So don't be too surprised if the Cubs flip two or three of the young outfielders (or first basemen) they acquired in trades over the past year or two in another trade for pitching or for an infielder or a catcher from an  organization that doesn't have much in the way of OF / 1B prospects. 

Most likely Cubs player to be traded is RF Alexander Canario (acquired from SF in the Kris Bryant trade), but they could flip one or two others as well.  

[ ]

In reply to by Arizona Phil

Speaking of our gluttony of OF prospects.....what do you think Morel's "main" position is or will be? Of course he can play all over, but what's his best/main spot? His arm strength seems under utilized at 2B. He hasn't played much SS the last two years. Is it 3B? Just checking. Thanks Phil

[ ]

In reply to by Childersb3

childersb3: Although he is a natural SS and has played a lot of 3B in the minors, I would say CF is probably Christopher Morel's best position. However, no matter where he plays, he is still raw defensivley. His real value ultimately will be as a "bat-first" multi-positional super utility player (along the lines of Ben Zobrist), and to be that type of player, he will need to polish his defense (especially at 3B and SS) so that he can be at least passable at all of the positions he will be expected to play.  

Although CF is probably his best defensive position, if Morel plays mainly one position with the Cubs, for better or for worse, it would probably have to be 3B, simply because there will not be room in the Cubs outfield for him long-term. There will eventually be just too many other players just as good or almost as good as Morel who (unlike Morel) cannot play anywhere other than in the outfield.  

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!!!