Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

39 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (one slot is open), plus two players are on the 60-DAY IL and one player has been DESIGNATED FOR ASSIGNMENT (DFA)   

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and eight players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, three players are on the 15-DAY IL, and two players is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-24-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Hector Neris 
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
Christopher Morel
* Matt Mervis
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Pete Crow-Armstrong 
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 8 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

10-DAY IL: 2
* Cody Bellinger, OF  
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 3
Kyle Hendricks, P 
* Drew Smyly, P 
* Justin Steele, P   

60-DAY IL: 2 
Caleb Kilian, P 
Julian Merryweather, P

DFA: 1 
Garrett Cooper, 1B 
 





Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

I-Cubs Schedule Play Dates With New Playmates

So the Iowa Cub schedule released this week and it’s, well, different. Different opponents, different format, different duration. But the difference that matters most is that there will be a season this season.

No more Pacific Coast League for the ultra landlocked I-Cubs. As charter members of the newly conceived Triple A East League/Midwest Division, they’re slated to play 142 games, all of them against intradivisional foes Louisville Bats (Cincy), St. Paul Saints (Twins), Columbus Clippers (MLB team to be renamed later that’s at home in Cleveland), Toledo Mud Hens (Detroit), Indianapolis Indians (Pittsburgh’s partners; team, city and state to be renamed later?) and the same old, same old Omaha Storm Chasers, née Royals, longtime cousins of the big club in Kansas City.

Get this: 42 games with Omaha and 36 versus St. Paul, Iowa's next door neighbors in the comparatively close knit divisional cul de sac, make up more than half of the schedule. All series will be Tuesday through Sunday, six-game arrangements. Everybody gets Mondays off and all travel between cities will be by bus to reduce both possible COVID exposure in airports and on commercial flights and operating expenses. The far flung PCL consortium required lots of flying time. This first year of the reorganized MiLB with the pandemic still a major factor throughout the minors will present an opportunity for new rivalries to spring up quickly as teams get sick of seeing each other six days in a row. Iowa’s first two series, on the road at Louisville and at home facing Toledo, will be like blind dates arranged by the MLB matchmakers who orchestrated the fruit basket upset of the bush leagues that lopped off 40 town teams on the lowest rungs.

Also, a season that’s traditionally ended on Labor Day will extend through September 19 this year, thereby curtailing next winter by a couple of weeks.

I’m curious about the new league’s new ball. In 2019, for the first time, Triple A used the exact same ball as MLB, only with a different monogram. The big leagues announced they’re tweaking their model (again) in ‘21 and I suppose the ones they ship here will be stamped what, Triple A East? No ring to it, but I’m sure there’ll be the proverbial “CRACK!” when a bat hits it. I can almost hear it now. 

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Comments

Living in the Quad Cities area, I look forward to hopefully coming to Des Moines to see the I Cubs a few times this summer.

welcome to the "big time" st paul saints...they built a nice park, the fans showed up, and they go from indies to AAA (with a bit of $ help from the twins for part ownership).

billy murray is a part owner of the group that owns the saints, btw.

alcantara passes through waivers and is assigned to AAA.

marisnick contract final, phllip ervin (OF) DFA'd

As a midwest kid now living in Texas, new scheduling is a bummer.  Only get a chance to drive and see Cubs once every 3 years with interleague.  Really looked forward to those games in Round Rock and the one season in San Antonio.  I understand it makes more sense in the big picture, just selfishly disappointed.

Ervin claimed by Braves. So we lose a potential future (and also current) asset in exchange for one year of a very mediocre Jake Marisnick.

This team has no direction at the moment.

I get you, SW. Here in Des Moines, Cardinal fans flocked to I-Cub games when Memphis Redbirds were in town. That won't happen in '21 and even if it does in '22 & beyond it won't be as frequent as when they were in the same division. Not that I'll miss seeing Cardinal gear @ our ballpark...

AAA leagues really need to play through the month of September, because with September rosters being limited to 28 instead of 40, players will need to be moved back & forth between MLB and AAA throughout the month of September instead of just through the month of August. 

In years past it was not necessary to option a player to the minors in September to make room for another player (like a player being reinstated from the IL or a player being recalled from the minors). In fact, by rule, an MLB club cannot option a player to a minor league affiliate whose season has concluded. (With the 28-man roster limit in effect in September I expect this restriction will have to be eliiminated, which it probably would have been in 2020 if the MLB season had not been interrupted by CoViD-19).

MLB clubs were allowed to option players to their Alternate Training Site up through the last day of the MLB regular season in 2020, although (as has always been the case) all players on Optional Assignment had to be recalled no,later than the day after the conclusion of the MLB regular season. 

So I'm not surprised that the AAA season will extend past Labor Day and end on September 19th, although it would make even more sense for the AAA schedule to run even a week longer than that so that players can be optioned to the minors over the last two weeks of the MLB regular season as well instead of just through September 19th.   

Conversely, it is not really necessary for the AAA regular season to start at the same time as the MLB regular season, because AAA clubs could have their Spring Training in April (in Arizona and Florida) after the MLB clubs have left town and then start their regular season on or about May 1st, and MLB clubs could just option and recall players from Minor League Camp during the month of April. 

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    it's a "for cash considerations" trade.

    cooper is a 1st/DH only type, but that's practically a freebie for BOS.  i was expecting some AAA fodder gamble on the same level rather than cash.  he showed up decent in spring + his limited time with the cubs.

    given BOS's extreme need for a 1st, this is a steal for them.

  • Cubster (view)

    Red Sox get G Cooper, I doubt if the Cubs get anything in terms of personnel.

  • videographer (view)

    An excellent Earl Weaver chain smoking reference.  

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    I think it’s a bit of a chicken or egg scenario. Did they make these trades because they saw what was coming and weren’t impressed and knew to keep up with the demand for constant winning thru had to acquire impact players? Or did those additions cause a failure of resource allocation elsewhere.

    In addition, the whole they traded to acquire a star, that’s precisely what organizations should do if they feel they’re a piece away. Keep developing talent, but sometimes you need to supplement that talent. It’s what the best run organizations do. Atlanta does it. Houston in their prime run did it. Nationals during their prime run did it. Of course dodgers did it. Boston and Philadelphia too. Hell, the Cubs did it when they won. There’s no team that has had sustained success that has solely relied on their own internal development. It just doesn’t happen. I wouldn’t fault St Louis for that. What I suspect happened is in that 2020 season, in an effort to save money, they cut budget from developing and scouting. Or maybe the wrong guys got poached by other orgs. Regardless, blaming the acquisition of two of the best players of their generation for peanuts, seems off base to me.

    I do agree that we’ve more or less come to the same conclusion, but our paths to that conclusion contain almost no crossover. I think we can also agree that seeing the cardinals struggle brings a warmth to our hearts.

  • CubbyBlue (view)

    (LAUGH EMOJI)

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    azbobbop: Yes. 

  • Mike Wellman (view)

    I’ve got Tim’s The Last Out too, along with some other prints of his work.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Very well played game all around tonight.

  • crunch (view)

    best starter and 2 top hitters from the team gone...and they keep on winning.

    little ahead of myself here, but the RSox got 9 outs to find 6+ runs.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Richard Gallardo just left the Smokies game with an arm injury after going to the ground following a pitch. Doesn’t sound good at all.