With their Cactus League finale on Wednesday, the Chicago Cubs are setting their roster for the start of the 2017 season, and they’ve made some news as they’ve opted to keep both Tommy La Stella and Matt Szczur.
Both players were the subject of a variety of rumors, with trades and waivers both coming up as options as the team finalized the 25 players that will break camp with the team out of Arizona.
Fortunately for both players, they were given a reprieve thanks to health issues for pitcher Brian Duensing, who will begin the season on the disabled list after dealing with back spasms in the latter parts of spring training.
In total, the Cubs will keep 12 pitchers and 13 position players to begin the season, which will start up on Sunday night when the defending World Series champions take on the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
Here is the full roster:
Pitchers: Brett Anderson, Jake Arrieta, Wade Davis, Carl Edwards Jr, Justin Grimm, Kyle Hendricks, John Lackey, Jon Lester, Mike Montgomery, Hector Rondon, Pedro Strop, Koji Uehara
Catchers: Willson Contreras, Miguel Montero
Chicago Baseball
Infielders: Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Tommy La Stella, Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell, Ben Zobrist
Outfielders: Albert Almora Jr, Jason Heyward, Jon Jay, Kyle Schwarber, Matt Szczur
When Duensing comes off the disabled list, the decision on whether to keep La Stella or Szczur will likely come back to the forefront, and the front office will have to make a difficult decision on whether to keep a fifth outfielder or a sixth infielder on an incredibly versatile roster.
