Opening Day Roster Finalized

The opening day roster has been set by Joe Maddon. Javier Baez will start the season on the injured reserve list and Matt Szczur will make the team’s roster in lieu of Baez. The roster is exactly what we expected to see when we discussed it yesterday, with the only real unknown being whether Javy would start on the IR or not.

The move to put Baez on the IR will be done retroactively, so he could be back on the roster as soon as April 11th. When that happens, the Cubs will have to decide who to send down between Tommy La Stella and Matt Szczur. Matt is out of options so if he gets sent down to the minors he’ll have to clear waivers first, which is unlikely since another team is almost certain to grab him if he becomes available. Tommy can be sent down and still has options remaining.

Here’s a look at the final roster:

Starters

C: Miguel Montero

1B: Anthony Rizzo

2B: Ben Zobrist

SS: Addison Russell

3B: Kris Bryant

LF: Kyle Schwarber

CF: Dexter Fowler

RF: Jason Heyward

Bench

Matt Szczur

Tommy La Stella

David Ross

Jorge Soler

Starting Rotation

Jake Arrieta

Jon Lester

John Lackey

Jason Hammel

Kyle Hendricks

Bullpen

Trevor Cahill

Adam Warren

Neil Ramirez

Clayton Richard

Travis Wood

Justin Grimm

Pedro Strop

Hector Rondon