Now that we are past the day on which all team and player options have been exercised (or not), qualifying offers have been made and all players on the 60-day injured list have been returned to 40-man rosters, I thought it would be useful to have a look at where the Cubs\u2019 40-man roster stands.<\/p>\n
This is especially timely right now, I think, because of the upcoming expiration of the MLB\/MLBPA labor agreement on Dec. 1. While nothing major has happened so far, conventional wisdom says that there could be quite a few trades and\/or free agent signings before that expiration date, while teams and players still know the rules under which the sport is currently governed.<\/p>\n
That means a lot of things could happen in the next four weeks.<\/p>\n
Julian Aguiar
Javier Assad
Ben Brown
Edward Cabrera
Tyler Ferguson
Braxton Garrett
Porter Hodge
Gavin Hollowell
Cade Horton
Riley Martin
Phil Maton
Shelby Miller
Jayden Murray
Eric Orze
Daniel Palencia
Ethan Roberts
Ryan Rolison
Justin Steele
Jacob Webb
Jordan Wicks
Ryan Zeferjahn<\/p>\n
A couple of those names are likely unfamiliar to you. Aguiar was acquired on waivers from the Reds Sept. 26, and Orze was claimed on waivers from the Twins \u2026 yesterday.<\/p>\n
It would not surprise me if either or both of those pitchers were exposed to waivers again before Nov. 1. The non-tender deadline (Nov. 20) is also a date to watch. I would not be surprised if the Cubs decided to non-tender Roberts, who is arb-eligible for the first time, and perhaps re-sign him to a minor-league deal.<\/p>\n
Obviously, the Cubs will need more than one catcher. Perhaps they can re-sign Carson Kelly, or someone like Ryan Jeffers. Owen Ayers, who might make his MLB debut in 2027, won\u2019t be added to the 40-man roster until the labor issues are settled.<\/p>\n
Gabriel Arias
Alex Bregman
Michael Busch
Nico Hoerner
BJ Murray Jr.
Pedro Ramirez
Dansby Swanson
James Triantos<\/p>\n
Arias is a non-tender candidate. Murray could be exposed to waivers. I think Murray\u2019s promotion to the MLB team in September was a reward for his long service in the organization and I wouldn\u2019t expect to see him back.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, you don\u2019t see Tyler Austin on this list. That\u2019s because the Cubs outrighted him to Triple-A Iowa on Monday. He\u2019ll have the option to accept that or free agency. The Cubs could sign him back to a minor-league deal at that point, but I suspect he\u2019ll just move on.<\/p>\n
Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara
Pete Crow-Armstrong
Justin Dean
Matt Shaw<\/p>\n
The Cubs list Alc\u00e1ntara as a DH, which I find interesting. 2027 will be a make-or-break year for him, I believe. Either he\u2019ll be given a real shot as a starting outfielder, or perhaps the Cubs will move on.<\/p>\n
Dean is a useful spare part for defense and baserunning, but he does turn 30 next month. He has options remaining, which helps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now that we are past the day on which all team and player options have been exercised (or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[311211,363,99],"class_list":["post-905723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-chicago-cubs-roster","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}