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

Fantasy Nightmares

My first exposure to fantasy baseball was through a guy who I was sort of friends with in middle school. There were maybe eight of us in the league, maybe five of whom were regulars, maybe three of whom sort of knew what we were doing, sort of. One guy, for instance, used his first eight draft picks to pick the Detroit Tigers' lineup. The guy who ran the league would “publish” a little newsletter at random intervals, updating the point standings (which he calculated on his own) and with funny little faux baseball articles. That must have been the 1990 or 1991 baseball season, but I still remember some of the players I picked for that team. God, they sucked. Sadly, it wouldn’t be the last team I owned that I then proceeded to populate with Has-beens, Never-would-be’s, The Suspended and The Dead. Here’s a fun romp through some of the low-lights of my fantasy career. (In a topic as bountiful as this, it will be tough to limit myself.) Hensley "Bam-Bam" Meulens, 1991 I’ve always been a sucker for players with cool names or nicknames.... This was, I believe, my first ever fantasy baseball team, and Hensley was a young OF prospect with the Yankees. In 288 Abs that year, he hit .222/.276/.319/.595 for an OPS+ of 65. At the time, I think we would have thought OPS to be a misspelling of OPP, but we all knew that Meulens was bad. He did have a few decent years in Japan in the mid-90s. Steve Olin, 1993 This league I played in during middle school and high school had a very early draft. February, I think. Going in to 1993, if I recall, we began to draft relievers. Steve Olin had just saved 29 games for the Indians with a 2.34 ERA (although of course I did not notice the alarming 47 K in 88 innings). More alarming is the fact that Olin would be dead in a few weeks, from a tragic boating incident during spring training. I then renamed my team the “really shitty boaters,” which I still maintain was a rather funny name, even if it was mostly insensitive. Kevin Reimer, 1993 Reimer was a huge (for the time) left-handed hitter who had some power and not much else. He actually had some decent years in Texas, putting up OPS+s of 113, 124, and 120 from ages 26 to 28. He went to Milwaukee in 1993, I drafted him, and he then hit .249/.303/.394 in 437 AB’s. I’m pretty sure I played him the entire season. I just thought he looked really imposing at the plate. Karim Garcia, 1997 Garcia was the next in a long line of much heralded Dodgers’ prospects headed to stardom. In the league I played in during college (comprised mostly of college professors who were grading me in classes, at the time,) we did a mid-year partial re-draft: keep half your team, re-draft the other half. Somewhere near the end of the draft, I picked Garcia. He was 21, he had 39 AB’s, and hit ./128/.239/.205 Never did amount to much, but he did punch a bullpen crew member of the Red Sox, a few years later. Darryl Kile, 2002 I had become a big fan of Kile’s. I loved that huge curveball of his, and had drafted him in his breakout year in Houston, in 1997, when he won 19 games with a 2.57 ERA in 255.7 IP. He went to Colorado for two years, before returning to the Cardinals and putting up 20 and 16 win seasons. I drafted him in 2002, expecting one of my favorite pitchers (albeit for a rival) to do more of the same. You know the story of what happened to him the night before he was scheduled to pitch in Wrigley. While the unlikely coincidence of having drafted both Olin and Kile was not lost on me, this time I could find nothing even slightly funny in the pitcher's death. Of course, at the start of 2003 I was joking that I was doing all Cubs fans a favor by deliberately avoiding Prior, Wood, Z and Cruz in the draft. Aramis Ramirez, 2002 Third Base had a lot of sexy options for the 2002 draft. Looking back at my crude pre-draft ratings chart, I had Pujols and Larry Jones ranked clearly ahead of the pack, followed by Nevin and Glaus. Aramis led the next grouping, which also included Eric Chavez, Scott Rolen and Cory Koskie. And below that were Adrian Beltre, Hank Blalock, Sean Burroughs and Morgan Ensberg. Next to Ramirez, I just left the note “Gonna be Huge.” Indeed, the previous year, at age 23, he had hit .300/.350/.356 with 34 HR and 112 RBI. The year I picked him, of course, he got suspended ten games for charging Ben Sheets in April, hurt his ankle in the process, which then affected his hitting the rest of the year as he dropped 220 points of OPS, going from an OPS+ of 125 to 69. As I recall, this was one of the (several) years where I somehow managed to lead the league in number of guys suspended and number of games. And I actually do try to draft “character” guys. The other guys I listed whom I could have drafted at 3B that year: Pujols, 155 OPS+; Larry, 155; Nevin, 106; Glaus, 115; Role, 132; Chavez, 122; Koskie, 118; Mark Buehrle, 2006 I never, ever liked Buehrle. I always just sort of winced and shivered at his last name: when pronounced, it suggests a tough guy. But it’s spelled really dumb, not like how a tough guy would spell it. So I always just sort of wound up with the mental image of a pitcher who sounded tougher than he was. Sort of the opposite of “Bam-Bam.” I didn’t want to draft him last year. But with the 60th pick and having already drafted an offensive juggernaut, he looked like the best pitcher left on the board. Yeah, I knew he didn’t strike enough people out. But he looked so delightfully consistent, so regularly successful even with the low K totals. I should have listened to my gut. Francisco Liriano and Scott Kazmir were still on the board, among others. Buehrle’s ERA+ went from143 to 93. Yadier Molina, 2006 Somewhere, I had heard that Yadier would develop to be both the best defensive and offensive of the Molina brothers. I took him with pick # 141, ahead of Ramon Hernandez, and a whopping 319 picks ahead of where I took the far more useful Bengie Molina. Molina finished with .216/.274/.321/.595, OPS+ of 54. Had he qualified, he would have ranked just ahead of Angel Berroa and just below Clint Barmes for worst OPS in MLB last year. Proof that you shouldn’t make draft picks based off of “Somewhere, I had heard.” The nice thing about fantasy baseball, much like real life, is that no matter how bad of a decision you make, there's someone nearby who's doing worse. The all-time worst draft pick that I've witnessed belonged to That Guy. You know the one I'm talking about. That Guy who's a nice enough guy, but just isn't as prepared or knowledgeable as the rest of your league. That Guy who takes five minutes to make his picks in an off-line draft, when everybody else is taking one minute. That Guy, who you can rest assured will not pick the sleeper that you want to pick with your next selection. In the worst draft pick I've ever seen, That Guy noticed, midway through our 2002 draft, that we had all passed on selecting one of the greatest offensive forces of the 1990s. Excitedly, he announced his selection, Albert Belle. The only problem was, Belle's degenerative hip condition had caused him to retire. After the 2000 season.

Comments

I also had Kile in 2002. My worst pick ever: Teixiera at #4 overall last year. Ouch. Cost me my league. Could've had Thome in the 21st round.

I think I started around 2000 with fantasy baseball in a keeper league (7 per season).. By sometime in 2004, I had managed to acquire Prior, Z and Wood and was all proud of myself (along with Randy Johnson). Been living the pain as a fan and and a fantasy baller ever since. The league disbanded after 2005, so I was spared it last year, but ugh...

My first bad fantasy pick was Dickie Thon in 1985. That .353/.389/.471/.860 line in 1984 fooled me. I was 14 then, I didn't know anything about small sample size. I just figured I could extrapolate those 17 at-bats, nevermind the eye injury. I hadn't realized how long he held on. He was pretty good for the Phillies in 1989 and played regularly until '93. http://www.baseball-reference.com/t/thondi01.shtml

I started Chan Ho Park the day he gave up two grannies to Fernando Tatis. Park overall wasn't bad that year, but you can't trust a guy who pulls something like that.

I DIDN'T start Kile when he threw a no-hitter, in like maybe 1998. I lost the money prize for finishing first overall for the week, by a single point.

2006: Rich Harden, Bobby Crosby and Marcus Giles. That's just bad luck.

BTW, Trans, sorry I haven't gotten around to send you the e-mail. I will do it later today, I'm swamped with schoolwork.

Jay Marrioti just used his "Face Time" at the end of Around the Horn to plead with the International Olympic Committee not to allow bloggers access to the Olympic Village at the next Games. Why did he come out for this? Because according to him, there is enough scandle in sports, particularly the olympics, without bloggers going around uncovering more dirt. It's good to know that Jay Marrioti has drawn a clear line in the sand regarding the controversial issue of Investigative Journalism: he's against it.

I caught the last 30 seconds, accidentally, while waiting for PTI to begin. In other news, a sincere congratulations to Albert Pujols on aceing his citizenship test and becoming a US citizen.

My bonehead move of the year last season was picking up John Rheinecker...and, to make room for him, releasing Chien -Ming Wang. I also drafted Sean Burroughs. I also won Bill Mueller (in his last year with the Red Sox) for $10 units, and proclaimed my winning of Jay Bell as me obtaining "the best second baseman in the league." Pretty sure that was in '00, when he hit a whopping .267. My dumbest long-term move in our keeper league, however, was cutting Bill Hall back in '05...after having paid $1 unit for him. My stay away from at all costs this year include Ted Lilly (yes, I picked him up a couple years ago...when he gets rocked, he *really* gets rocked), Mark Buehrle, Paul Konerko (both due to bad experiences with them in the past), and Jason Giambi (just don't trust those older, post-'roid dudes).

Trans- Wasn't Bob Ojeda on that boat? He got scalped too I think. Yikes. By the way do you have any Anna Nicole Smith Playboys?

Yes, Ojeda and another player was... Steve Crews maybe? Would have to go google it, and who has time for all that effort? No, no ANS memorabilia of any sort, over here.

Give Bob a wide berth - From wikipedia- "e pitched well in 1988 but was involved in what some consider one of the most ridiculous accidents in baseball history when he severed the tip of his left middle finger while trimming his hedges in mid-September."

I drafted and dropped Liriano in the pre-season last year. And I call myself an expert...

I remember picking up John Wasdin in fantasy league with Transmission in 2005 and being hounded mercilessly by him for doing it. I even changed my team name to "John Wasdin's America" for a week as an homage. But I'd say my worst pick was last year, Randy Johnson at the end of the first round in a points-based league that punishes for earned runs. Ugly stuff to go with ugly Randy.

Wow, I'd totally forgotten about that, Tom. I trust I wasn't TOO hard on ya.... But still, Wasdin? ~grin~

In early spring of '99 I set up my pitching staff by getting Wood and Schilling for about $62 combined. I didn't win that year.

Oh yeah, Trans. You should have quit playing fantasy baseball after Kile's death.

We used to have a league called the Sons Of Brickhouse (SOB) League. On the night of the first draft, we met at the apartment of a guy who lived a block from Wrigley Field. He had appropriated a huge ESPN banner from some event he had once attended and it covered most of his living room wall. What a backdrop it made. Frequently, we would hold our bi-weekly owners' meetings at the Slugger's on Clark Street, again just a few steps from Wrigley Field. I thought that was the ultimate fantasy baseball setting. I don't remember many of my players, though I'm pretty sure they all sucked.

One year I shared a team with my brother and I drafted Pete Incaviglia. My brother blasted me immediately and all year long. On the last day of the season Inky hit a hr to break a hr tie with another team and give us first place. Who can forget the great Arlis episode where he is running around the office shouting that he just traded for Bagwell. He was in a NL only league and he arranged to trade one of his clients in real life to the AL to screw his competitor and win the league. This episode should be required viewing for all fantasy participants.

Has anyone considered a fantasy blog site for all of you fantasy league lovers?

U down with OPP? That brought back 6th grade memories and made me laugh out loud. Well played Dr. Transmission

ESPN is reporting on television that Corey "K" Patterson has signed a one year, $4.3 million, deal with the Orioles. In announcing the deal, the voice over commented that Patterson had a "surprising" year in 2006, hitting 16 homers, something like 56 RBIs and 45 stolen bases.

thank you, THANK YOU aaron b for catching that. That was THE SONG in yeah, something like seventh grade.

Jacos, I have every last one ANS was ever in or on (long time collector). Why are you interested? Wanna nail down the 12-15 bucks they are going for right now?

Recent comments

  • 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...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.

  • crunch (view)

    dbacks are signing j.montgomery to a 1/25m with a vesting 20m player option.

    i dunno when the ink officially dries, but i believe if he signs once the season begins he can't be offered a QO...and i'm not sure if that thing with SD/LAD in korea was the season beginning, either.

  • crunch (view)

    sut says imanaga getting the home opener at wrigley (game 4 of the season).

  • crunch (view)

    cubs rolling out the who's who of "who the hell is this guy?" in the last spring game.

  • videographer (view)

    AZ Phil, speaking of Jordan Wicks having better command when he tires a bit, I remember reading about Dennis Lamp 40 years ago and his sinker that was better after 3 or 4 innings when he would tire a bit and get more sink with a little less speed on the pitch.  The key for Lamp was getting to the 4th inning.