We are officially less than one week out from the start of organized Major League Baseball with pitchers and catchers reporting to Mesa next Wednesday.

Every year around this time the Cubs release the names of the non-roster invites to Major League Spring Training. This year’s version of the list of names includes 27 players that are not on the 40-man roster but are currently members of the organization on Minor League deals in one form or another.

There’s plenty to unpack from the names this year, but the quick and dirty has the list at 14 pitchers, 5 infielders, 5 outfielders, and 3 catchers.

Instead of going into great depth on each guy and what they mean to the organization, I’ll give you a quick hit about the invitees separated by “new guys” vs “familiar faces.”

New Guys

Christian Bergman and Colin Rea are both starters that spent the majority of 2018 in Triple-A putting up pretty ugly numbers. Bergman has never thrown more than 68.1 innings in a Major League season and Rea missed all of 2017 with Tommy John surgery.

Matt Carasiti is technically a new guy because he spent 2018 in Japan, but he was with the Cubs in 2017 after the team acquired him in a midseason trade. He should be one of the better offseason relief pitcher signings this year.

The Niles West and Northwestern alum George Kontos makes his way back home and kind of surprisingly got a Minor League deal. He has been pretty consistent over the years but spent time with three different organizations at both MLB and Triple-A.

Carlos Ramirez and Rob Scahill have both been incredibly average as relievers at the Triple-A level. Scahill has been up and down from the Majors, while Ramirez is the younger player at 27 but has only spent 16.2 total innings in Toronto with the Blue Jays.

Junichi Tazawa falls into a similar category as Kontos as he has had a few seasons (2012-2015) where he was really good. Unfortunately he has been really, really bad since then.

Ian Clarkin was waived and claimed by the Cubs and White Sox what seems like at least 75 times this offseason. Eventually the Northsiders were able to sneak him off the 40-man to Triple-A and here we are.

Mike Zagurski wins the award for the strangest free agent signing of the offseason. The lefty is 36 years old and has spent time in 9 organizations, most recently with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2018.

Cristhian Adames, Phillip Evans, and Evan Marzilli all spent the majority of their respective seasons last year at the Triple-A level and each of them put up good enough stats to stick around this season in Iowa. Evans is the one to watch for in this group, as he hit his way to a .820 OPS and 14 homers in the Mets system.

Jim Adduci, Johnny Field, and Francisco Arcia all split time between the Major League level and Triple-A in 2018. Adduci spent six seasons in the Cubs system, making it as high as Iowa. Many people say Field has the best chance of any of the MiLB signings to stick around. Arcia is a very important piece for catching depth in Iowa and potentially Chicago this season.

Familiar Faces

Craig Brooks is a member of the 2015 draft class and has slowly and steadily moved his way through the system. He will begin the year in Iowa as a full-time reliever.

Dakota Mekkes is a favorite at Out of the Vines, even appearing all the way up at number 6 in the top arms prospects going into this year. He has dominated at every single level he has been at and is already ready for the Chicago bullpen.

Duncan Robinson is someone to watch to make spot starts throughout the year in Chicago. He’s built from the Kyle Hendricks mold and even attended the same Ivy League school as The Professor.

Allen Webster was new to the system last year. The former top Red Sox prospect has an arm that plays better in the bullpen when healthy.

Alberto Baldonado is a massive human being and a useful lefty bullpen arm. He spent the year in Tennessee in 2018.

Ryan Court was the fun story going into 2018 as he signed with his hometown Cubbies and killed it as a non-roster invitee in last year’s Spring Training playing all over the infield.

You’ve heard plenty of Trent Giambrone‘s name this offseason. He’s a poor man’s Zack Short, and they both get the invitation this year. They will both spend a majority of their time in Iowa this year but be integral depth for infield spots in Chicago for the next several years.

Charcer Burks is still relatively young, still very toolsy, still in the Cubs system, and everyone is still waiting for him to truly break out at the plate in addition to his stellar outfield defense. Maybe he starts to in Mesa this year.

The former BYU football player Jacob Hannemann gets the call to Spring Training again this year. At this point in his career he is a speed/defense fifth outfielder type.

You always need extra catchers in Major League Spring Training and PJ Higgins and Ian Rice will fill that role. Rice is a higher rated prospect (#9 on the current OOTV Bats list) but each guy does different things on the field. Rice is a bat-first prospect and Higgins will be a guy to watch as he shows off his arm behind he dish.

That’s it and that’s all for the invitees of the non-roster variety this season and you can check out each and every one of them throughout all of March in the latter innings of games.