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Cubs Place Jake Arrieta, Kyuji Fujikawa On 15-Day DL, James McDonald On 60-Day DL

The Cubs' Opening Day 25-man and 40-man rosters are set.

By Al Yellon
Jonathan Daniel

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- One last round of moves before Monday's opener in Pittsburgh:

Jake Arrieta could be back in the rotation before the end of April; Kyuji Fujikawa might be ready to go in May. There's no timetable for the return of James McDonald, who was placed on the 60-day disabled list to make room for Brian Schlitter  on the 40-man roster, which is now full.

The 25-man roster now includes (with uniform numbers, some of which have changed since spring training:

PITCHERS (12)
29 Jeff Samardzija, RHP
33 Carlos Villanueva, RHP
36 Edwin Jackson, RHP
37 Travis Wood, LHP
39 Jason Hammel, RHP
40 James Russell, LHP
41 Jose Veras, RHP
46 Pedro Strop, RHP
52 Justin Grimm, RHP
53 Wesley Wright, LHP
56 Hector Rondon, RHP
63 Brian Schlitter, RHP

CATCHERS (2)
12 John Baker
53 Welington Castillo


INFIELDERS (6)
13 Starlin Castro
15 Darwin Barney
24 Luis Valbuena
30 Mike Olt
44 Anthony Rizzo
64 Emilio Bonifacio

OUTFIELDERS (5)
 6 Ryan Sweeney
19 Nate Schierholtz
20 Justin Ruggiano
21 Junior Lake
51 Ryan Kalish

Players on the 40-man roster who are not on the 25-man:

PITCHERS
Dallas Beeler, Blake Parker, Neil Ramirez, Chris Rusin, Zac Rosscup, Arodys Vizcaino

INFIELDERS
Arismendy Alcantara, Christian Villanueva, Josh Vitters, Logan Watkins

OUTFIELDERS
Brett Jackson, Jorge Soler, Matt Szczur

Many of those listed above will wind up in the major leagues at some point this year.

For comparison: just 11 of the players from last year's Opening Day roster are on this year's (Samardzija, Wood, Jackson, Villanueva, Rondon, Russell, Castillo, Castro, Valbuena, Rizzo, Schierholtz -- Barney was on the DL Opening Day). There are seven players on this year's Opening Day roster who are first-time major-league Cubs this year (Hammel, Veras, Wright, Baker, Olt, Bonifacio, Ruggiano and Kalish).

That's quite a turnover. Here's hoping it's an improvement.

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