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

2023 Arizona Fall League Begins Play Tomorrow

Submitted by Arizona Phil on

10/2 UPDATE: 

OF Christian Franklin has replaced OF Alexander Canario on the Mesa Solar Sox roster, and catcher (ex-INF) Carter Trice has been added to the Solar Sox Taxi Squad. 

Trice was the 12th round draft pick of the Cubs this past July out of NC State, and has been in the Catcher Conversion Program at AZ Instructs for the past six weeks. 
 


The 2023 Arizona Fall League (AFL) season begins tomorrow (Monday 10/2).  

ARIZONA FALL LEAGUE (AFL): 

The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is an MLB developmental league (approximately equivalent to "AA") that operates in the Phoenix metropolitan area for six weeks after the MLB-affiliated minor leagues have concluded their seasons. It was founded in 1992, the  "brain-child" of long-time MLB executive Roland Hemond. The AFL operated continuously for 27 seasons, until the 2020 season was canceled due to the CoViD-19 pandemic. Games are played in MLB Spring Training stadiums.  

2023 AFL Opening Day will be on Monday, October 2nd, and the AFL regular season will conclude on Thursday, November 9th.

The 2023 AFL schedule will continue to feature a 30-game "regular season." Each AFL team will play a total of six games (three home / three road) against the other five AFL teams.

The 2023 AFL Championship Game will be played on Saturday, November 11th.

The six AFL teams wil play as one league (no divisions), with the second and third place teams playing a semi-final "play-in" game on Friday, November 10th, at Camelback Ranch, and then the winner of the "play in" game will face the first place team in the AFL Championship Game at Scottsdale Stadium the next day.   

An All-Star Game known as the "Fall Stars Game" will be played on Saturday, November 5th, at Sloan Park in Mesa.     

The Cubs (as well as the other 29 MLB clubs) usually assign some of their better prospects to the Arizona Fall League, and  sometimes minor leaguers who are eligible for selection in the MLB Rule 5 Draft might be sent to the AFL to give them a chance to play their way onto the MLB 40-man roster. Others might be assigned because of missing significant time during the minor league regular season due to injury.     

Here are the current (2023) AFL eligibility rules & restrictions. 

1. There are six AFL teams, and each AFL team is affiliated with five MLB clubs. SEA & SD (Peoria Javelinas), KC & TEX (Surprise Saguaros), LAD & CHW (Glendale Desert Dogs), AZ & COL (Salt River Rafters), CUBS (Mesa Solar Sox), and SF (Scottsdale Scorpions) are the "host organizations" for the six AFL teams, but the affiliations of the other twenty MLB clubs can vary from year-to-year. (BAL, HOU, MIA, NYY, and OAK are the other four MLB organizations affiliated with the Mesa Solar Sox in 2023).
NOTE: MIA, OAK, TB, and NYY were the other four MLB organizations affiliated with the Solar Sox in 2022, BAL, MIA, OAK, and TOR were the other four MLB organizations affiliated with the Solar Sox in 2021. the AFL season was canceled due to CoViD in 2020, CLE, DET, LAA, and OAK were the other four MLB organizations affiliated with the Solar Sox in 2019, BOS, DET, LAA, and OAK were the other four MLB organizations affiliated with the Mesa Solar Sox in 2018, DET, HOU, OAK, and WAS were the other four MLB organizations affiliated with the Solar Sox in 2017, and BAL, CLE, MIA, and OAK were the other four MLB organizations affiliated with the Solar Sox in 2016.

2. Each MLB organization must assign a minimum of eight players (seven prior to 2023) under its control to its AFL affiliate, including five pitchers (formerly four) with preferably at least one pitcher capable of starting, and a minimum of three position players (specific positions needed to be filled by each organization TBD by a conference call "position draft" between the Player Development Directors of the five MLB organizations affiliated with that particular AFL team). 
NOTE: LHP Bailey Horn, RHP Zac Leigh, LHP Riley Martin, RHP Sheldon Reed, 1B Matt Mervis, INF B. J. Murray, OF Owen Caissie and OF Brennen Davis were the Cubs players assigned to the Mesa Solar Sox in 2022, RHP Danis Correa, RHP Ryan Jensen, RHP Caleb Kilian, LHP Brendon Little, INF Luis Vazquez, OF Nelson Velazquez and INF Andy Weber were the Cubs players assigned to the Mesa Solar Sox in 2021, the AFL was canceled due to CoViD in 2020, C Miguel Amaya, RHRP Scott Effross, LHRP Jordan Minch, INF Zack Short, RHSP Keegan Thompson, RHSP Erich Uelmen, and 1B-OF Jared Young were assigned to the Mesa Solar Sox in 2019, RHRP Bailey Clark, INF-OF Trent Giambrone, C-INF P. J. Higgins, SS Nico Hoerner, C Jhonny Pereda, LHSP Justin Steele, RHSP Erick Leal, LHRP Manuel Rondon, and OF D. J. Wilson were assigned to the Mesa Solar Sox in 2018, RHSP Adbert Alzolay, RHRP Pedro Araujo, INF David Bote, OF Charcer Burks, RHSP Alec Mills, C-1B Ian Rice, RHRP Jake Stinnett, and 3B-1B Jason Vosler were assigned to the Solar Sox in 2017 (RHSP Oscar de la Cruz was removed from the Solar Sox roster on 9/18 due to injury and was replaced by Alzolay), and C-1B Victor Caratini, RHRP James Farris, 2B-OF Ian Happ, LF Eloy Jimenez, RHRP Ryan McNeil, RHRP Steve Perakslis, and RHSP Duane Underwood Jr were assigned to the Solar Sox in 2016.

3. An MLB organization can assign additional position-players to its AFL team's "Taxi Squad." Players assigned to an AFL team's "Taxi Squad" can play in no more than two games per week (it used to be Wednesday and Saturday games only, but now it's just no more than two games per week regardless of the day), but a player can be transferred from the Taxi Squad to the 35-man Active Roster to replace an injured or inactive player. 
NOTE: INF B. J. Murray was assigned to the Mesa Solar Sox Taxi Squad in 2022, INF-OF Trent Giambrone and C Jhonny Pereda were assigned to the Mesa Solar Sox Taxi Squad in 2018, C-1B Ian Rice was assigned to the Mesa Solar Sox Taxi Squad in 2017 and he replaced David Bote on the MSS Active Roster with about two weeks left in the AFL season after Bote left the team to attend to a personal matter, and while the Cubs initially did not assign any players to the Solar Sox Taxi Squad in 2016, OF-DH Kyle Schwarber was briefly assigned to the MSS Taxi Squad 10/22-10/25 while preparing to play in the World Series. 

4. A player can be selected to play in the AFL more than once. 

5. All MLB and minor league players under the control of an MLB organization are now eligible to play in the AFL. 
NOTE: Prior to 2019, an MLB player (including players selected in a preceding Rule 5 Draft) with less than one year (1+000) MLB Service Time accrued (not including time spent on an Injured List) as of September 1st and players who were on the Active List, Injured List, or Temporarily Inactive List of an MLB minor league affiliate (regardless of classification) on August 15th were eligible, international players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, and/or Australia were eligible only if the player was not on the reserve list of a Winter League club from the player's home country, and a player who was on a minor league or MLB Injured List at the close of the regular season was eligible to play in the AFL as long as the player had been reinstated, but there could be no special limits or restrictions placed on the player's playing time (other than the automatic restrictions imposed on a player assigned to an AFL team's "Taxi Squad"). 

6. A player must be invited by his MLB organization to participate in the AFL and then the player must accept the invitation before he can be assigned an AFL team. 

7. A player on an MLB or minor league injured list of an MLB or minor league club that is still in the process of playing regular season or post-season games must be reinstated before he can be assigned to the AFL.
NOTE: OF-DH Kyle Schwarber was added to the 2016 Mesa Solar Sox Taxi Squad on 10/22 only after being reinstated from the Cubs MLB 60-day DL (so therefore it was NOT considered a "rehab assignment"), and he played in two AFL games before re-joining the Cubs for the World Series on 10/25.  

8. A player on the Restricted List, Military List, Disqualified List, Ineligible List, or Voluntary Retired List is not eligible to participate in the AFL.

9. All players assigned to an AFL team receive the same salary and the salaries are paid out of a special fund managed by MLB.

10. Only players who are under control of an MLB organization are eligible to play in the AFL. A free-agent (unsigned player) is not eligible to play in the AFL.

Each MLB organization provides either the manager, a pitching coach, a hitting coach, or a bench coach to its affiliated AFL club (assignments rotate every year). The Cubs are providing the bench coach to their AFL club in 2022.

CUBS ASSIGNED TO MESA SOLAR SOX in 2023 (updated 10-2-2023): 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Christian Franklin - replaced OF Alexander Canario on 10/2 
Nick Hull, RHP 
Chris Kachmar,RHP  
Adam Laskey, LHP 
Jose Romero, RHP 
Tyler Santana, RHP 
James Triantos, INF 
Carter Trice, C (ex-INF) - assigned to Taxi Squad on 10/2 

Dan Puente (Hitting Coach) 

 

 

Tags
Arizona Fall League

Comments

Submitted by KingKongvsGodzilla on Tue, 10/03/2023 - 10:47 pm

Color me impressed by this assignment for Trice right out of the draft as a convert. Seems worth following after the success of Caratini

Recent comments

  • Finwe Noldaran (view)

    Arizona P:

    You hit the nail on the head, there's really no major player that we need to do special wheeling and dealing and signing to accommodate a small window while they're in their prime; we need to look at this year as a year of fleshing things out and transitioning/moving into our window of contention, and focus our effort  on extending that window for years and years, not throwing everything desparately at a short window.......

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    If the Cubs do move Matt Shaw to 1st base and don't sign or acquire in a trade any position players or pitchers in the meantime (or at least nobody for more than one year), this could be the Cubs Opening Day lineup in 2025: 

    1. PCA, CF 
    2. Hoerner, 2B 
    3, Happ, LF 
    4. Suzuki, RF 
    5. Shaw, 1B 
    6. Morel/Caissie, DH 
    7. Swanson, SS  
    8. Amaya/Ballesteros, C 
    9. Murray, 3B 

    BENCH: 
    Canario, OF 
    Mastrobuoni or Vazquez, INF  

    STARTING PITCHERS:
    Steele 
    Taillon
    Horton 
    Wicks 
    Assad, Brown, Wesneski, Kilian, Powell, Birdsell, or ?  

    BULLPEN: 
    Alzolay 
    Palencia 
    L. Little
    Cuas  
    Horn  
    Roberts 
    Martin 
    Hodge 

    Also, Julian Merryweather and Mark Leiter Jr would be under club control (via arb) through 2026 but they are both out of minor league options, and Michael Rucker and Keegan Thompson will be out of minor league options after next season, so their value as shuttle guys would be greatly diminished due to loss of fungibility.  

    James Triantos, Jefferson Rojas, or Pedro Ramirez (2B), Kevin Alcantara (RF), Morel, Caissie, Canario, Brennen Davis, Christian Franklin, or Zyhir Hope (LF), Matt Mervis, Haydn McGeary, or Brian Kalmer (DH), and Assad, Brown, Wesneski, Powell, Birdsell, Jackson Ferris, Drew Gray, Michael Arias, Brody McCullough, Will Sanders, or ? (SP) can replace Hoerner, Happ, Suzuki, and Taillon when their contracts expire after the 2026 season. 

    At least that would be my master plan going forward (very much subject to change, of course), again presuming the Cubs don't sign or acquire any position players or SP or closer who would be signed beyond the 2024 season. 

    The only thing is, if the Cubs did it this way (going in-house rather than signing free agents to lengthy contracts or trading for established players or pitchers), the Cubs would (at least temporarily) probably project as a 70-75 win team in 2024 and would probably be "sellers" at the Trade Deadline, looking to move Kyle Hendricks, Drew Smyly, Yan Gomes, Patrick Wisdom, Nick Madrigal, Mike Tauchman (and probably Merryweather, and Leiter, too), that is unless they can sign free agents or acquire guys who would not be signed beyond 2024 (or at the very least not beyond 2026, when the Happ-Hoerner-Suzuki-Taillon window closes) who might be able to help keep them in playoff contention in 2024. 

    The Cubs farm system is absolutely loaded. There are probably at least a half-dozen small market MLB clubs (KC, OAK, MIA, STL, COL, and MIN) plus the White Sox and the Angels that would kill to have the Cubs minor league system as it presently exists. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    If I was the Cubs, I would be working Matt Shaw at 1st base before I'd move Christopher Morel there. A Shaw comp is Steve Garvey (a plus hitter with loud contact and a solid glove but a rag arm). 

    In fact I wish the Cubs had worked Shaw at 1st base at Instructs or assigned him to the AFL to play 1st base, but for some reason he did not attend Instructs and was not assigned to the AFL. 

    If he can learn to play 1st base, Shaw could be in Wrigley by mid-2024, maybe even sooner. 

    Shaw is a first-baseman waiting to happen. 

    And I still believe Christopher Morel will be traded as part of a package to acquire a SP, so that he can play LF (the position scouts say he should play).   

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The Reds signing Jeimer Candelario should allow them to package two or three of their infielders in a deal for Tyler Glasnow. 

  • Finwe Noldaran (view)

    crunch:

    If he's half as good as how much he made me irritated when the camera would pan to him in the dugout during games while he was playing, we'll be alright............

  • Finwe Noldaran (view)

    Arizona P:

    Totally agree. I was really wanting the Cubs to be sellers, and while hindsight is 20/20, that looks as though it may have been the best option; although, part of the reason they decided not to be sellers may have been what some of the returns we're going to be, so my thoughts are merely speculation based on lack of insight into the specifics of conversations leading up to the deadline. I find myself wanting us to allow the prospects to develop and play meaningful roles on the big league team, as I feel that we have quite a few that will become good if not prayerfully great players, but if we trade them away or sign players to fill their positions in a desperate attempt to contend now, I'm left wondering if approaching this year as a transition year, while giving some prospects time in the minors and then bringing them up to see what we have in them, and maybe looking at next year (2025) as more of a contention point may be the way to go, and may even be a catalyst in the long-term development of the consistency in contending that the franchise needs and letting things happen organically, rather than pressing or trying to control things and making a flurry of moves?

    Irrespective, I think Counsel was a great choice for manager, now we just need to add some charging stations at Wrigley, maybe where the garage was?

  • Finwe Noldaran (view)

    Arizona P:

    Just saw crunch saying Candelario went to the Reds, I also was wanting to avoid the retread market or losing a draft pick.......

  • Finwe Noldaran (view)

    Arizona P:

    Totally agree, I was inferring the latter portion of my comment, and agree with your assessment that it's similar to last year; just headscratching............

  • crunch (view)

    it is taking more than a minute for me to get used to craig counsell being the cubs manager.

    he's going to take the field on opening day at wrigley and get massively cheered.

    that is weird.  that's a thing that's happening, though.

    history aside, while i am horrified at the amount of money they're paying him, i welcome his style of management over what d.ross has given the team.  love d.ross and how chill + ready to deliver he kept the team, but he had a serious pitching short-hook problem that exhausted the pen and some very questionable bench/pinch-hitting use.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    FINWE N: If you go by what Counsell did with the Brewers, he is much more likely to go with younger players than Ross was. I think part of it was that Ross was a "veteran players manager," meaning he was well liked and respected by veteran players because he was inclined to play them over younger unproven guys. 

    And that actually might have been OK if the Cubs had been "sellers"at the trade deadline (as they clearly had planned to be before suddenly deciding to go fr it), because Ross would have played the veterans a lot the first four months of the season (which would have maximized their trade value), and then Ross would have had no choice but to play the younger guys the last two months after the veterans were traded. 

    But of course it didn't work out that way. 

    One thing about Craig Counsell that might have attracted Hoyer to him is that Counsel is very "collaborative" as a manager and welcomes and even demands lots of input from the analytics department. In fact I have heard tell that Counsell knows at least as much as the geeks know and that he routinely goes to them for information rather than waiting for it to be offered. So think of Ross as a Chevy pick-up truck, while Counsell is a Tesla. 

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