Cubs Announce Wild-Card Game Roster

For Tuesday night's American League wild-card game, both the Yankees and Astros went with 16 position players and nine pitchers. Few of the reserves got into the game. It will likely be different for tonight's National League wild-card game between the Cubs and Pirates, with pitchers batting and pinch-hitters (and possibly pinch-runners needed). The Cubs decided to have 10 pitchers active Wednesday night:

#Cubs Ps: Hendricks, Richard, Lester, Wood, Strop, Arrieta, Grimm, Cahill, Rondon, Rodney

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) October 7, 2015

And here are the 15 position players they'll have available for the wild-card game:

#Cubs roster: Ross, Berry, Coghlan, Baez, La Stella, Schwarb, Castro, Denorfia, Bryant, Russell, Fowler, Jackson, Riz, Montero, Soler

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) October 7, 2015

No real surprises here. Quintin Berry, as expected, comes along as a pinch-running specialist, something the Royals showed was important in the 2014 A.L. game with Terrance Gore. Also as expected, the Cubs are having Jon Lester active in case something happens to Jake Arrieta (please, no!).

Kyle Hendricks is also active; the choice likely came down to him or Neil Ramirez. I suppose Hendricks is active in case the game goes into extra innings and Joe Maddon wants a pitcher who could go multiple innings.

No lineups yet -- I wouldn't expect those until this afternoon.