Chicago Cubs: Projecting the Cubs’ Opening Day roster

Only a few weeks away from Opening Day, some Cubs’ position players and pitchers are starting to separate themselves from the pack. Some roster spots are a given at this point, but others are far less clear-cut, so let’s take a look at where we stand with 19 days to go until we start meaningful baseball.

As Chicago Cubs’ fans know from the long winter of an offseason, the Cubs haven’t made a lot of impactful roster moves and their position player group hasn’t seen a lot of change. Frankly, we can be fairly certain that the position player group is pretty much set, barring injury, of course. The pitchers are a bit more of a quandary because, well, bullpens are fickle; and, there’s the looming decision on what to do with Tyler Chatwood.

Based on past precedent, we also know that the Cubs have gone with both 12 and 13 men bullpens on Opening Day rosters under Joe Maddon (2015 and 2017 had 12 because of an extra bench player, but 2016 and 2018 both had 13 in the pen).

So, we know Maddon can go both ways with an extra guy in the pen or an extra guy off the bench, depending on his projections and needs. Let’s get right into where each position stands and how the roster might be constructed for Opening Day against the Rangers on March 28.