Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

37 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (three slots are open)

Last updated 11-17-2023
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 20
Adbert Alzolay 
Michael Arias
Javier Assad
Ben Brown
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
Porter Hodge
* Bailey Horn
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Daniel Palencia
Michael Rucker
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 8
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
* Matt Mervis
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Luis Vazquez
Patrick Wisdom

OUTFIELDERS: 7
Kevin Alcantara
Alexander Canario
* Pete Crow-Armstrong
Brennen Davis
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman

 


Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Cubs @ Athletics: Series Thread (Games 15-17)

Submitted by Charlie on

The Cubs and their trio of former Dodgers took two out of three from the Dodgers in L.A. They next travel north to take on the 3-13 Oakland Athletics. Cody Bellinger and Patrick Wisdom have each begun to heat up a bit, and along with Seiya Suzuki reinforce the middle of the Cubs' lineup, which was carried by the table setters in the early going. See below for the daily matchups.

Game 15, Monday, April 17, 8:40 pm central

CHC: RHP Hayden Wesneski (0-0, 7.50 ERA)

OAK: LHP  Kyle Muller (0-0, 5.23 ERA)

Wesneski followed a disappointing first start with a terrible second start. A Wrigley wind roaring out to center field didn't help matters, but his four walks in only 1.1 innings were at the root of the problem. He should be well rested for this one.

The 6'7" Muller made his MLB debut in 2021 but spent most of 2022 in AAA. He carries a career 3-5 record and 5.23 ERA in 14 starts and one relief appearance. Command has been his main challenge. He has a plus slider that he throws over 30% of the time.

Game 16, Tuesday, April 18, 8:40 pm central

CHC: RHP Marcus Stroman (2-1, 1.00 ERA)

OAK: LHP Ken Waldichuk (0-2, 10.20 ERA)

Stroman ended a scoreless streak by giving up two earned runs in his third start and got a bit of an undeserved loss in the process. He continued his 2023 trend of increases in slider usage and strikeout rate.

A former fifth round draft pick, Waldichuk got his first exposure to the majors in 2022. In 2023 he's already given up five homeruns, good for a rate of more then four per nine innings. An elevated walk rate is not helping matters.

Game 17, Wednesday, APril 19, 2:37 pm central

CHC: LHP Justin Steele (2-0, 1.42 ERA)

OAK: RHP James Kaprielian (0-2, 12.15 ERA)

Steele allowed two earned runs in his third start, but he generally looked more in command than his second time around. He struck out eight in seven innings and continued to direct the bulk of the contact into the dirt. After throwing his slider a majority of the time in his first outing, he's actually gone to the fastball at around a 70% rates in his second and third starts.

Kaprielian is in his third season as an Oakland starter. He survived 2022 despite a hard dip in his strikeout rate and a slight increase in his walk rate. 2023 has not been so kind to him, however. His strikeout rate has improved, but he's walking nearly as many batters as he's striking out and he's surrendered five homeruns already.

Tags
2023 Cubs
Oakland Athletics

Comments

Submitted by Cubster on Mon, 04/17/2023 - 04:22 am

Charlie, thanks for the pitching matchup recap, especially since I've never heard of any of the A's pitchers.

Submitted by JoePepitone on Mon, 04/17/2023 - 04:25 pm

It seemed to me that Wesneski was also rattled by the umpire's bad strike zone in addition to the wind blowing out.  It cost him at least one clear strike three that I recall (and it wasn't a marginal "could go either way" pitch, either -- the entire ball was inside the strike zone).  I imagine that struggling with your command with the wind blowing out and not having clear strike threes called on you could be a situation that a young pitcher just has to experience to know how to handle.  No other way to figure it out than going through it.

Parenthetically, I feel like I have seen more missed strikes than usual in the early going this year.  More pitches completely inside the strike zone being called balls.  The umps are really not pushing back against the Robo umps movement very effectively by their performance.

[ ]

Submitted by Charlie on Mon, 04/17/2023 - 04:16 pm

I wasn't able to watch closely enough to catch that. But his Mariners counterpart gave up 8 earned in 2.1.

My wish for Wesneski's next step is to be able to challenge batters in the zone when he's not getting calls. He seemed frustrated with not getting some called strikes in his first outing as well.

Submitted by crunch on Mon, 04/17/2023 - 04:53 pm

the amount of contact (not all for hits) being made off wiz's sinking breaker is a bit high considering the break on it.  kinda odd to watch in the 1st.  he threw 3 straight fastballs to the last batter for 2 strikes watching and then a popout.

Submitted by JoePepitone on Mon, 04/17/2023 - 04:08 pm

Wisdom with two dingers tonight ties him for the ML lead with Pete Alonso with 8. Homers in four straight games (5 altogether in that stretch). 

Submitted by crunch on Tue, 04/18/2023 - 04:57 pm

nick ahmed (ARZ) just hit an ichiro/vlad style single off a 1-hopper in the dirt.  STL's woes continue...they've down by 5 in the 4th.

Submitted by crunch on Tue, 04/18/2023 - 04:05 pm

i love how much work sutcliffe puts into announcing and research and getting to know the players (had his own spring training locker, fwiw)...but wow, i could do with 50% less hyped up as hell sutcliffe.  he gets into cringy-weird bud harrelson "loudly complaining" territory sometimes.

Submitted by crunch on Wed, 04/19/2023 - 04:56 pm

i know ross wanted to get work for madrigal, so they stuck madrigal at 3rd...but can we f'n not have wisdom in RF anymore?  he's got the arm, but that's about it.

Submitted by crunch on Thu, 04/20/2023 - 04:52 am

OAK ownership has purchased a large tract of land in Vegas with the intentions of building a ballpark.  it's the beginning of the end for that terrible ballpark in Oakland.

[ ]

Submitted by Sonicwind75 on Thu, 04/20/2023 - 04:21 pm

Read their contract with Coliseum ends after 2024 season. Would they play at minor league stadium for a season or two as the new stadium is built?  Recall the minor league stadium was recently built. 

As someone who lives about as close to Vegas as Chicago; I could definitely see planning a trip there based around seeing a Cubs game. 

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    i know it's still very early, but i'd like to go into the xmas-to-newyears part of the off-season with something more than...*checks list*...patrick wisdom avoids arbitration with a 1-year deal

    also, steven brault retired and was spotted at the winter meetings with a demo reel and making contacts trying to break into broadcasting (not a joke).  unless he's more optimistic than talented (we already know he can sing) he should make it one day because he seems to be very serious about it.

  • Cubster (view)

    I blame Jason Schmidt’s 3/44

  • Craig A. (view)

    Was all that stuff with the Blue Jays just to squeeze an extra $10 million/yr out of the Dodgers?  It's more than enough to cover his California income taxes!

  • crunch (view)

    unless he pitches into his late-30 that is gonna sting.  a 70m DH...ow.

    it's great to take care of 2 roster spots in 1 player, and i'm sure the team will cut into the pay with the amount of merch/etc he can sell just by being attached to the team....but yeah, i'm not mad the cubs didn't go that extreme.

  • WebAdmin (view)

    Shohei Ohtani to join Dodgers according to ESPN. 10 years for $700 m

  • Cubster (view)

    I'm getting the feeling that Todd Walker might be a Shaw comp. A valuable hit first player but limited albeit not awful on defense. Hopefully, he has more upside. Not a bad floor if Steve Garvey is his ceiling.

  • Wrigley Rat (view)

    AZ Phil - If that's the level of return, I would want NO part of that trade to Cleveland for Clase and Bieber. I have some faith that the Cubs have a strong plan for which prospects they will keep (even if they dangle them in trade talks) and which they will move, because they have plenty of solid prospects they can trade but they shouldn't be trading any of the ones they hope will be future core players. Some guys are redundant, so I hope they choose the right players to keep and the right players to move. It's always important for a team to know its own minor league players better than scouts from other teams (obviously), but I don't think that's always been the case for the Cubs and many other clubs. 

    Cubster - I watched an interview with Carter Hawkins a couple days ago where he said that although Morel hasn't gotten into any Dominican games at 1B, the Cubs did send coaches down with Morel to work on first base skills during practice. So he is developing those skills, whether the Cubs end up using him there or not will probably be dependent on a lot of factors including how those coaches think he looks at the position while training. 

  • tim815 (view)

    He could still play SS at Double-A, but Vazquez, Hoerner, and Swanson are much better defensively, arm strength or not. I'd be good leaving Shaw at SS with McGeary and Ballesteros around, but by the first of June (?), 1B might make sense in DM.

  • crunch (view)

    i have no reason to see a problem, it just seems like it's his most obvious reason to give pause on him at 1st.

    the cubs situation dictates 2nd/SS isn't an option.  his arm dictates 3rd isn't an option.  1st or CF seems to be his best path and he's only played CF in summer ball back in highschool/college...and of course PCA is a better + closer to the bigs CF.

    it's a lot safer to say he's made for 1st than it is he's made for 3rd.  even as a SS his arm is weak, and it's not like his glove is so great he needs to stay in the middle-IF.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    CRUNCH: Steve Garvey (one of Shaw's comps as a hitter) was a 5'10 right-handed throwing first-baseman with a rag arm. Jeff Bagwell (another Shaw comp) was a 6'0 right-handed throwing first-baseman with a rag arm. Carlos Santana (who played 1B for Counsell in Milwaukee last season and is an above-average defensive first-baseman) is 5'11. It's not like Shaw is 5'7 or 5'8. I don't really see the problem. 

Click HERE for the last 50 comments