New Cuts, New Roster Projections

In Commentary And Analysis by Rice Cube48 Comments

One week until Opening Day, and we have another set of cuts that helps us clarify the roster situation:

Of note, and I don’t remember where I read this now, the emergency catcher situation is clarified as the two non-roster catchers won’t make the team anyway. Various outlets have reported that Jordan Wicks and Javier Assad will make the rotation. I assume some of the relievers will get the “try to get your through waivers and sent to Iowa” treatment later on. But for the most part, the roster that we tried to set some time back is probably what we will see, with some tweaks. I’ll do the update below, with positions and caveats included:

Catchers (2)

Yan Gomes – primary catcher

Miguel Amaya – backup until he grabs most of the starts

Infielders (5)

Michael Busch – 1B/DH

Nico Hoerner – 2B (backup SS)

Dansby Swanson – SS

Christopher Morel – 3B/DH

Miles Mastrobuoni – backup IF/OF

Outfielders (4)

Ian Happ – LF

Cody Bellinger – CF/1B/DH

Seiya Suzuki – RF

Mike Tauchman – backup OF

Starting Pitchers (5)

Justin Steele – Opening Day starter

Shota Imanaga

Kyle Hendricks

Jordan Wicks

Javier Assad – probably here until Jameson Taillon returns from the injured list to start the season, then they can decide which of Assad and Wicks gets to stay

Relievers (5)

Adbert Alzolay

Hector Neris – seems to have some velocity issues and gave up a few bombs in spring, but veteran in spring training etc I guess?

Julian Merryweather

Drew Smyly

Jose Cuas

This takes care of 21 of the 26 spots. With Ian Happ probably on track to be ready by Opening Day after his time off for the hamstring injury, Patrick Wisdom and Nick Madrigal in various states of injury, and without any confirmation on the others, we should expect three more relievers and two bench guys to complete the group that starts in Texas next week.

For the bench, I’m thinking in addition to Miles Mastrobuoni and Mike Tauchman mentioned above, we’re looking at Dom Smith and one of either Garrett Cooper or Alexander Canario. Smith probably gets the nod because he is left-handed, and if they open up a spot, since Canario has options, Cooper would get the other spot.

UPDATE March 22 1:07 PM: It appears we have a significant opt-out:

It wasn’t like I was hard set to get Dom Smith on the team, but that makes things a bit easier as the Cubs don’t have to try to keep even more non-roster guys. My guess is Cooper and Canario get the nod then but we have a few days before they have to lock it in.

UPDATE: That was quick!

For the bullpen, it is possible that former Cubs legend Carl Edwards Jr. could become a returning Cubs legend. Daniel Palencia just got optioned so that’s out, but I feel like a lefty would be useful and Luke Little has looked good, so maybe he’s one? A lot of people think Yency Almonte, who came over in the Busch trade, will probably make the club, and then you have Mark Leiter Jr., who seems to have found his splitter again. I was going to suggest Hayden Wesneski, but I imagine he is super emergency starting depth and they have to help him fix a couple things anyway. If I had a guess, based on options and what not, it would be Edwards, Almonte, and Leiter to round it out. Kinda sucks that Smyly is the only true lefty in the pen, but I think Craig Counsell just prefers they get outs no matter which hand they happen to throw with.

One more week!

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  5. berselius

    Rice Cube,

    Weird conflicting timeline out there, but my best guess is that the debts were his interpreter’s, Shohei said he would help him cover it, but the interpreter lied about how much he was in debt and took more than he suggested.

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  7. berselius

    Rice Cube,

    Oh for sure, he’s in some legal jeopardy with both the feds and the commish. Though he can certainly afford good lawyers (dying laughing). Just trying to guess what was the most likely history in this crazy situation.

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  11. berselius

    I think we might see someone else implicated as well, I have no idea why the still unnamed spokesman/rep for Ohtani would have setup that ESPN interview unless a) Ippei is a fall guy for Ohtani who is guilty af (seems unlikely but who knows) b) this was some kind of spin control for someone else who was also involved and Ippei was duped. Or I guess c) no lawyers were consulted and that person is a moron (dying laughing). Maybe they thought it was something more on the order of $100k, which is still bad but could have been in the window where they could get out in front of it.

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  13. Author
    Rice Cube

    berselius,

    What’s dumb is that someone felt compelled to talk to the press before consulting all the lawyers which is why the backtracking occurred, like why would you even do that if you can actually afford a competent lawyer? Plead the Fifth, man!

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  31. andcounting

    Rice Cube:
    More about Shohei-Gate

    https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39784809/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-mizuhara-theft-line

    Calcaterra does a good job with the legal side of this. What most recaps fail to stress or even mention is that Ohtani paying off illegal gambling debts to an illegal bookie (and when the betting is done in California it’s definitely illegal) is totally illegal. It puts him in big trouble with the league and probably multiple law enforcement agencies. There’s really not much room for Ohtani to get out of this completely without consequences.

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  32. andcounting

    Rice Cube:
    berselius,

    What’s dumb is that someone felt compelled to talk to the press before consulting all the lawyers which is why the backtracking occurred, like why would you even do that if you can actually afford a competent lawyer? Plead the Fifth, man!

    I genuinely think this went on a long, long time without anyone on the betting side of things knowing any laws were being broken (probably more worried about kneecaps). I think their two main concerns were a) Ohtani being involved in any way looked bad, and b) the size of the debt was so huge that paying it off was problematic not only financially but logistically. (Not that we really know for sure who was actually doing the betting, but we can be damn sure the bookie knew that the person betting was at the very least Ohtani’s-money-adjacent. You don’t let some rando make bets that big on credit unless you KNOW they can pay if they lose. unless Mizuhara’s wife is Demi Moore or Sarah Jessica Parker and you’re a huge fan of 90s cinema.)

    It’s just not common knowledge that this was attorney-worthy stuff unless you’re an attorney. It’s like, yeah, we’d be in trouble with the media if this goes public and probably with the league and DEFINTELY with the bookie, but the law was obviously an afterthought.

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