Some things never change, so of course the Cubs released their official Opening Day 30-man roster a few minutes after the deadline came and went this afternoon. As crazy as this whole season has already been, the roster release was actually pretty tame. There will still be cuts to be made over the coming weeks as the roster gets trimmed from 30 to 28 and eventually 26, but for the time being, let’s look at our guys:
| Starting Pitchers | Relief Pitchers | Catchers | Infielders | Outfielders |
| Yu Darvish | Jeremy Jeffress | Josh Phegley | Nico Hoerner | Albert Almora Jr |
| Kyle Hendricks | Dillon Maples | Victor Caratini | Javier Baez | Ian Happ |
| Alec Mills | Brad Wieck | Willson Contreras | David Bote | Kyle Schwarber |
| Tyler Chatwood | Dan Winkler | Kris Bryant | Steven Souza Jr | |
| Jon Lester | Craig Kimbrel | Jason Kipnis | Jason Heyward | |
| Jose Quintana (IL) | Rex Brothers | Daniel Descalso (IL) | ||
| Rowan Wick | Anthony Rizzo | |||
| Duane Underwood Jr | ||||
| Kyle Ryan | ||||
| James Norwood | ||||
| Casey Sadler |
The position players group is pretty straight-forward. My guess is it came down between Josh Phegley and Ian Miller for the last slot. The way Phegley has been raking to go along with his plus defensive skills, it was hard to pass up on the option of carrying three catchers. While the flexibility of using a special talent in Miller’s speed is valuable to this roster, having a third catcher – and therefore utilizing Vic Caratini more often – won out in the end.
As for the arms, particularly the bullpen, the noticeable addition/omission was Dillon Maples over Ryan Tepera. Offseason signing Tepera looked mighty fine this week and used his renewed slider very effectively, generating five swings-and-missed with it in his lone inning of work. But having sparingly used said offering last year, this might be a situation where he could use a bit more seasoning in South Bend to perfect that out-pitch.
The story with Maples is the same old, same old. His pure stuff is arguably the best in all of baseball – I mean, look at this slider – but you just have to deal with some ugliness along the way. With that being said, I love David Ross standing up for this kid and sticking him on the roster.
I have said it plenty of times, this organization has not given their homegrown relief options enough chances out of the MLB bullpen. There is just no way a guy like Maples can perform well in two week stints. He needs to be given a long look, especially the deeper he gets into his career.
With the addition of both Phegley and lefty reliever Rex Brothers to the 40-man roster, and subsequently the 30-man roster, that meant two guys had to go. The team took care of one of those slots by putting Daniel Descalso on the 45-day IL (this year’s version of the 60-day IL). That means he doesn’t take up a roster spot.
The other subtraction came in the form of Robel Garcia being DFA’d. It is unfortunate given the length at which Garcia overcame obstacles to make his MLB debut in 2019. After years of playing in Italy, Robel was one of the best stories in baseball last year, absolutely destroying the ball and cranking out homers in Tennessee and Iowa like it was nothing. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make enough contact (30.9% K-rate) to stick around. He immediately becomes an all-time #CubsLegend.
The final roster move of the day was actually not made by the Cubs, but by the player himself. Mark Zagunis decided to opt out of the season. He is no longer technically a prospect and he is also not on the 40-man roster, but now that opens up another roster spot on the alternate roster in South Bend. Can I interest you in one Zack Short?
Out of the Vines 