NEWSLETTER
All right, so a lot of this will change by next week (or tomorrow? Or later tonight?), but given the feverish flurry of moves just in the last couple days, I wanted to lay back out where things stand right now with the Cubs’ roster.
The 40-Man Roster Situation
I’ll get to the position groups in a moment, but first let’s talk about the overall roster. The 40-man roster. And how the heck the Cubs are gonna fit all the guys they’ve signed already! So, at present, the 40-man stands at 40, with new additions Andrelton Simmons, Chris Martin, and David Robertson having been accommodated. The Cubs have already put Codi Heuer and Brad Wieck on the 60-day IL to open up two 40-man spots (which have since been used). It seems pretty likely that the Cubs will also put Adbert Alzolay and David Bote on the 60-day IL to open up two more spots.
But as far as we know, the Cubs still need at least another five 40-man spots to accommodate the incoming big league deals that we know about: Seiya Suzuki, Jonathan Villar, Steven Brault, Daniel Norris, and Mychal Givens. So that means, three more spots have to open up in the coming days (to say nothing of eventual spots that’ll be needed if any non-roster invitees make the team). I expect that the Cubs are already working the phones to move guys out if possible, and, if not, then they would try to sneak certain guys through waivers. That assumes there are no other big 60-day IL situations that we don’t know about yet, which is not a safe assumption, since Brad Wieck’s injury popped up out of nowhere today.
Suffice to say: there’s a whollllle lotta 40-man roster maneuvering to do from here.
OK, now let’s talk about each of the position groups.
The Infield
It’s a little crowded at this point, with Frank Schwindel and Alfonso Rivas as options at first base, Nico Hoerner and Nick Madrigal as options at second base, Andrelton Simmons and Sergio Alcántara as options at shortstop, and Patrick Wisdom and Jonathan Villar as options at third base. (David Bote will open the year on the Injured List.) As you can see, there aren’t a ton of guys in that crowded group that look like obvious, near-everyday starters, however. So you’d think the Cubs will want to keep a lot of these guys around to open the season in platoons and rotations, but I’m thinking the Cubs can carry only about six of them.
The Outfield
This is going to get its own post soon, because it’s even more complicated than the infield situation. Realistically, the Cubs can carry maybe five dedicated outfielders on the 26-man roster. But right now, they’ve got seven guys who you would otherwise think of as “outfielders who probably make the roster”: Seiya Suzuki, Ian Happ, Clint Frazier, Michael Hermosillo, Rafael Ortega, Jason Heyward, and Harold Ramirez. Your super short version here? They won’t all make the Opening Day roster. There will probably be an injury or two. It’s possible Frazier is optioned to Iowa to open the season. It’s possible Heyward is let go. It’s possible Ortega just doesn’t look like the guy he was last year. It’ll sort itself out, but it’ll take some doing.
And that’s assuming the Cubs didn’t do something crazy from here:
For those of you who want Cubs to do more to max out in 2022, hey, this is something we could all get on board with – Conforto offers lefty power to a team bereft of it. (And he only just turned 29, so he could be very useful in 2023+. Well, again, hinges on faith in bounceback.)
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 17, 2022
The Catchers
It’s Willson Contreras and Yan Gomes here, and if they stay healthy (and untraded), this is a particularly uncomplicated area.
The Starting Rotation
Assuming health, you’ve got Kyle Hendricks, Marcus Stroman, and Wade Miley obviously at the front. David Ross has suggested Alec Mills will be the presumptive fourth, and Justin Steele and Keegan Thompson will compete for that fifth spot out of the gate. Whether Steven Brault could win a rotation job remains to be seen, and I don’t think the other guys in as non-roster invites are likely to be competing for rotation jobs as opposed to bullpen jobs.
The Bullpen
Speaking of the bullpen. This is where there’s been so much tumult this past week, with Adbert Alzolay and Brad Wieck being seriously injured (shortly after Codi Heuer’s arm surgery), and with a string of new additions: Jesse Chavez, Chris Martin, David Robertson, Daniel Norris, Robert Gsellman, and Mychal Givens.
Unless there is roster expansion to open the season (I suspect there will be, by the way), the Cubs will have only eight bullpen spots available. The currently-healthy options for those eight spots are those six names there, plus holdovers Cory Abbott, Scott Effross, Tommy Nance, Ethan Roberts, Manny Rodriguez, Michael Rucker, Rowan Wick, and whichever of the starters don’t make the rotation. Oh, and there are ALSO another eight non-roster invitees in camp already trying to win a bullpen job (Stephen Gonsalves, Jonathan Holder, Ben Leeper, Mark Leiter Jr., Cayne Ueckert, Eric Yardley, Conner Menez, and Locke St. John).
In other words, if everyone else in camp is healthy right now, there are credibly 23(!) pitchers competing for eight bullpen spots. So. Uh. Yeah. Let’s just say, I’m bracing for additional injury announcements, for everyone on a minor league deal to hit the minors, everyone with options to hit the minors, and also for some guys to wind up opting out of their minor league deals down the road.
