Chicago Cubs 2025 Opening Day Roster Projection: Version 1.0

With less than three months until Opening Day 2025, it's a good time to start thinking about what Opening Day rosters could look like for each team—and for the Cubs, in particular.

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With big-name free agents like Tanner Scott, Justin Verlander, Jurickson Profar and more still out there, it's a bit difficult to determine who will be on which rosters come Opening Day. We're going to try our best to predict the Chicago Cubs' 26-man Opening Day roster, though. Here's what it could look like.

Pitchers (13)

It's hard to imagine the Cubs won't make a trade that involves Assad or Wicks, but as of today, they have not yet done that, so they are both on the projected roster.

Choosing Little for the final pitcher spot over someone like Jack Neely or Cody Poteet is solely because of the Cubs' need for more than one left-handed reliever. In 37 career appearances, he has a 2.76 ERA, and if he is able to cut down the walk rate, he will be a valuable weapon out of the Chicago bullpen. If this fairly wild configuration actually plays out, we'd probably see Wicks shuttled to relief, so maybe Little isn't essential, but he's one intriguing option.

Catchers (2)

It's easy to nearly forget about Kelly, who was a relatively small signing earlier this winter. He's an important cog in the machine, though; he figures to provide insurance against a failure to further develop on the part of Amaya.

Infielders (6)

The recently acquired Bruján is one of several players who will vie to slot in as the fifth infielder and utility man for Chicago. Top prospect Matt Shaw looks to be in line to make his first Opening Day roster.

Outfielders (5)

More often than not, Tucker will play right field, and Suzuki will serve as the DH. It's likely that Happ and Crow-Armstrong will each play 150+ games, unless they miss time due to an injury. Canario is out of options, so he has to make the roster in order to stay in the organization. He's one fallback in case of an injury; others will include Owen Caissie and Kevin Alcántara. The latter two project to begin the season at Triple-A Iowa, though.

Chicago could go with 12 pitchers instead of 13 and give themselves the flexibility to keep Miles Mastrobuoni, who is familiar with the organization and the way manager Craig Counsell wants things done, on the roster. It seems safe to guess that they'll stick with the customary roster construction, though. Under modern rules, an even split is the norm.

There could be several more moves coming, leading up to Opening Day. As of right now, however, this is what the roster may look like.