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

The Solution

Allyssa Milano says have a happy Labor day holiday.  Just a little rant from me after a game where Soriano left his pants on the left field chalk line. After he did the pretzel dance, I thought that chalk outline was from a CSI scene. Someone should press criminal charges for that effort.Tired ol' Lou Piniella just grunts and shrugs his shoulders. "Ah, ah, ah...Whaddya expect me to do about it?" Clearly he's been beaten into submission by overexposure to Cubbery.

After torturing myself by listening to local sports talk outlets, with the only brief reprieve coming from occasional banter about a meaningless preseason Bears game, I think I've had enough pain to land on my own personal DL. Steve Stone with glee in his voice said, "that's what you get for playing a DH in left field." I get the message. Listening how the Cubs are held hostage to their long term contracts with no end in sight (well it's 3-5 years before we see the end to this tunnel), forcing them to play overpaid, under performing players (Soriano in the role of 40/40 guy and Bradley in the role of rbi machine) or under performing players with a brief track record of performance (Geo Soto, Kevin Gregg, The not-Hanks...Aaron Miles and Heilman) or under performing players without a track record of performance (better when in small doses, Fonte-NOT), it dawned on me that there is a simple solution. 

The Disabled List

Use it liberally. Any ache and pain just might get you there unless you're performing. If the medical staff can hide inexpensive David Patton away for months, why not Soriano? After all, we've been reading and hearing whispers about a bum knee for months? They are doing it all wrong. Use the DL (not the bench) as a tool to eradicate the under performers. Really stinky under performance just might earn a slot on the 60 day DL.

If the Mets can put $88M on the DL...using an old "dusty" cliche, "Why not us"?

Sure the Mets had a rotten season. They had as much as $88 million reasons for a dog of a year.

Union grievance be damned. It makes for a play for performance baseball team and I'd love to live with that. In an era where players have no incentive except for the cliche "he's a real pro, a gamer or he's playing with pride" coming at us, I'm tired of reading he'll play hurt even when it hurts the team. Turn that concept around. You hurt the team and we'll find something that's making you hurt...enough to give someone else who's just a bit hungrier a chance to replace you.

Comments

and when they come off the DL...it will be just like making a trade for an all-star

I agree. It's not like Soriano is carrying the team. Sam Fuld/Jake Fox won't do any worse and they'll likely do better. Send Soriano to the DL for the rest of the year.

They've done this before. Here's how it's done: I use as example the Wade Miller 2007 Experience. I think he was brought in to compete with Prior in spring training and made the club although that was a questionable decision. He had a bad start to the season and although it was unclear he had an injury (back spasms), he was put on the dl and never heard from again. --- 4/23/07 Placed RHP Wade Miller on the 15-day disabled list (back spasms) and recalled RHP Rocky Cherry from Triple-A Iowa. 8/6/07 Placed OF Alfonso Soriano on the 15-day disabled list with a right quad strain; selected INF Eric Patterson from Triple-A Iowa; designated INF Brian Dopirak for assignment; placed RHP Wade Miller on waivers to grant his unconditional release. 3/28/07 Optioned RHP Mark Prior, RHP Rocky Cherry and OF Angel Pagan to Triple-A Iowa. ...on a side note, this is when we got this: Mark Prior reacted to his demotion to the minors with disappointment, humor and sarcasm. "I'm just an employee," the former 18-game winner said Thursday. "The goal now is to go down and help that team win and try to make the Triple-A All-Star team. Maybe I can get invited to the Futures Game or something. I'm still 26." --- Wikipedia: On November 9, 2006, Miller signed an incentive-laden, 1.5 million dollar one-year extension to stay with the Chicago Cubs under new manager Lou Piniella. However, after three unsuccessful starts where he compiled a 10+ ERA, Miller was once again placed on the DL in April 2007. He was placed on waivers granting his unconditional release from the Cubs in August 2007.

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Childersb3: It's always difficult to project a player's numbers, but I would say 25 HR and 40 doubles, with a 300/400/500 slash line for Matt Shaw in his peak years, sounds about right. He is without question the Cubs #1 hitting prospect.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    AZ Phil, do you think Shaw can be a consistent .290-.300/25-30HR/90-100RBI hitter?
    Those HR totals are probably unrealistic but I'll keep them there for now.

  • 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.