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 

 



 

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Rule 5 Draft 
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Cubs @ Reds: Series Thread (Games 111-113)

The Cubs and Reds play three this weekend, starting with the 2022 Field of Disappointment Dreams. Following a Friday off, they continue the series with two in Cincinnati. See below for maychups.


Game 111, Thursday, August 11, 6:15 pm central

CHC: LHP Drew Smyly (4-6, 3.97 ERA)

CIN: LHP Nick Lodolo (3-3, 4.40 ERA)


Game 112, Saturday, August 13, 7:40 pm central

CHC: RHP Adrian Sampson (0-3, 3.83 ERA)

CIN: RHP Graham Ashcraft (5-2, 3.94 ERA)


Game 113, Sunday, August 14, 12:40 pm central

CHC: RHP Keegan Thompson (9-5, 3.36 ERA)

CIN: RHP Justin Dunn (0-1, 5.79 ERA)

Comments

lineups out...

madricorn (2nd) - contrercorn (C) - wisdocorn (3rd) - suzukorn (RF) - coerner (SS) - happcorn (LF) - velázmaíz (DH) - higgcorn (1st) - cornel (CF)

contreras is...still in the game?

okay.  wow.  never seen someone go down like that and then go slap on the gear and return to catching a game.

tatis jr popped for PEDs...80 games.

straight up steroids (clostebol), no grey area.  dee gordon got popped with the same thing a few years ago.

2018/19 cubs minor league roster filler wynton bernard made his MLB debut tonight at age 31 for COL.  he turns 32 next month.  he went from 35th round pick, to minor league and indie ball journeyman, to the bigs.

got his first hit (single), followed by a stolen base, and eventually scoring.  ever see parents totally lose it with pride and happiness over something a 31 year old kid is doing?  good stuff.

Color me mildly surprised that no one has yet commented on the Weekend at Bernie's quality Harry Carey hologram leading the 7th inning stretch. I've never seen the old Star Wars Christmas Special but I hope they never show that hologram again, either. 

f.reyes with his 1st homer.

he's hitting well so far.  they still haven't let him play anywhere but DH (4th game).

[ ]

In reply to by JoePepitone

let's go all-in.  have him play SS for 5 innings, then finish out behind the plate.  bat him leadoff.  let's goooooo.

seriously, though...i am ready to see him in the corner OF...especially with the ivy/brick of wrigley.  even with a warning track, that OF wall makes some people timid.

if happ goes in the offseason, i dunno if counting solely on velazquez is a solid idea.  reyes/velazquez seems a bit more comfortable if reyes is able.  reyes at least has a quality arm, though the rest of the D is below average.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

I was just thinking he's had the kind of year that makes a guy wonder if he's turning into an Addison Russell as he hits 27. Letting him build on some success might be good for his mental approach before taking on more challenges. That being said, I know nothing about the guy, so it's just my WAG (wild-ass guess) about the situation!

[ ]

In reply to by JoePepitone

he has bat/power potential, realized potential.  37 homers in 2019 (548 PA) and 30 in 2021 (466 PA)

that said, he's kinda patrick wisdom-ish with the bat...and that leaves the cubs with 2 patrick wisdom-ish bats...excessive amounts of Ks with above average pop.

the D is just bad.  iffy routes, bad speed...good arm, though.  seen worse in the OF get regular work.

the talk of his quality as a clubhouse presence goes from SD to CLE as above average and should pair well with the energy and enthusiasm of morel.  that's not everything, but it's something.

he could just flame out and be an after-thought before the season is over.  he's a 1.5m experiment to see if it's worth paying him 5m+ next year.  right now the club knows the D is below average and that's mostly set in stone even if tweaked.  he got let go by CLE because the bat was below expectation.  if the bat improves over what he was showing in CLE (the power/hits specifically) then where he plays becomes an issue.  but yeah, prove himself with the bat first and then worry about where he fits on the field vs DH.

It's very possible that after Drew Smyly's outing at the Field of Dreams on Thursday night the Cubs might have received a call from one or more contenders asking the Cubs to place Smyly on Outright Assignment Waivers, with a promise that he would get claimed. 

If that happened and the Cubs agreed to the request, the earliest Smyly could have have been placed on Outright Assignment Waivers would have been 2 PM (Eastern) on Friday 8/12, and if so he would clear waivers at 1 PM (Eastern) on Sunday 8/14 (the waiver ride lasts 47 hours). 

Since waiver claim priority is based upon the standings at 9 AM (Eastern) on the day the player's waiver ride ends, a club could not be sure of being awarded the claim, but as long as at least one club promises to claim the player, the Cubs would get their waiver claiming fee and salary offset no matter who wins the claim. 

The thing is, the Cubs won't place Smyly on waivers until they are sure at least one club will claim him, since he can only be placed on Outright Assignment Waivers one time in August if he is not claimed. Note that if waivers are secured and the player is not claimed, the player does - NOT - have to be outrighted to the minors. In this case, it's just a procedural thing. 

Since they didn't trade him by the MLB Trade Deadline, Smyly getting claimed off waivers is the only way the Cubs can get anything for him (the $50,000 waiver claim fee plus the claiming club assumes 100% of what's left of his salary).

Also, an MLB club or clubs cannot make some kind of side deal with another club to try and manipulate a waiver claim or to add a player or more money to the claim. The waiver claim has to be strictly a waiver claim with no strings attached (just the waiver claim fee plus the claiming club assumes 100% of what remains of the player's salary, plus any future buy-out). 

If Smyly does get claimed off waivers, I would expect Wade Miley to be immediately reinstated from the IL (he threw 66 pitches in a rehab start for AAA Iowa this past Wednesday) and replace Smyly in the Cubs starting rotation, Then if Miley throws a couple of good games in a row like Smyly has, the Cubs could do the waiver wire trick with Miley, too (and Miley is making twice as much as Smyly)...

[ ]

In reply to by Arizona Phil

including the buyout, this would pretty much fund the f.reyes experiment with a bit under a million saved.

im reading conflicting info on whether there was a buyout at contract end (2022)...5.25 total or 4.25 with a 1m buyout on the 2023 payroll.  either way, it would pay for f.reyes the rest of the season with loot left over.

uh oh...rain.

k.thompson is terrible in the rain...small sample size and all, but it's a terrible small sample.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

31 pitch first.  8 pitches to the first 2 guys, for outs, including a K...then the rain started...walk, then 12 pitches to votto for a pop out.

rain seems to be tapering off.  thompson will go have 2-3 red bulls between innings and get back out there, hopefully without rain.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

rain stopped, but he walked the first 2 guys in the 2nd on 15 pitches...then a 3 run homer on a 3-2 count, 7 pitches, all the strikes swinging and outside the zone.

batter after that gets a 3-2 count (6th 3-2 count batter in a row), but thompson gets a called strike 3 that wasn't in the zone.

doesn't look like we're getting 5 innings today.

we get 1.2ip...he leaves after 70 pitches with a guy on 2nd (double)

drew rasmussen (TB) is perfect through 8ip vs BAL with only 79 pitches thrown.  wow.

walking y.gomes and c.morel is back-to-back ABs should get a pitcher DFA'd.

31 walks in 489 combined PA for the 2 of them coming into those ABs.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    yeah, for me this isn't about who's better at 3rd.  it's madrigal, period.  for me it's about who's not hitting in the lineup because madrigal is in the lineup.

    occasional play at 3rd for madrigal, okay.  going with the steele/ground-ball matchup...meh, but okay, whatever.

    seeing madrigal get significant starting time...no thanks.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Yeah I am very disappointed Madrigal is starting. He has no business as a starter. He is AAA insurance, a back up at best. Sure his defense looks fine because he plays far enough in that his noodle arm isn’t totally exposed. It comes at the cost of 3B range.

    He’s garbage, and a team serious about winning would NOT have him starting opening day.

  • 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.