Veteran outfielder Michael Conforto has been informed he will be on the Cubs’ Opening Day roster, according to Patrick Mooney of the Athletic. In possibly related news, it appears that outfielder Seiya Suzuki will not be ready for Opening Day, according to manager Craig Counsell (link via Mooney).
Conforto, 33, had been in camp on a minor-league deal with a big-league Spring Training invite. On the heels of a rough 2025 season with the Dodgers, both offensively and defensively, he seemed like a long shot to make the big-league roster in Chicago. Center field was never an option. The North Siders have one of the game’s best defensive center fielders in Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Conforto has not played up the middle since 2019. That left the two corner outfield spots, DH, and the bench as potential landing spots, though he seemed blocked by the presence of Suzuki, Ian Happ, Moises Ballesteros, and Tyler Austin.
With the recent injury to Austin and today’s update on Suzuki, Conforto may get some outfield reps in the early going. Austin was brought in on a one-year, $1.25MM deal this offseason to shore up the bench, though he’ll now miss several months following knee surgery at the end of February. That leaves Matt Shaw, who was forced out of a starting spot by the Alex Bregman signing, as the main infield backup on the roster. In the outfield, Conforto and Dylan Carlson are projected as the backups according to RosterResource. With Suzuki potentially starting the year on the injured list, the team may use Conforto and Carlson in a right field platoon. In that scenario, Conforto would draw starts against right-handed pitchers, against whom he has a 121 career wRC+.
More to come.
Well that’s a letdown. He would have been the last one I would have taken I think. Hopefully Alcantara is the choice for RF with Conforto being OF 5 after Shaw. Carlson has tapered off a bunch after a hot start but Conforto has been bad all along.
@uncle: Alcantara is never going to make the team out of ST. For some reason, they want to deny him that. It might be the reason I suspect, it might not be, but for whatever reason, he cannot make the team out of ST.
what is the reason you suspect?
Shoelaces….please don’t bait Alan. We all know what he is saying. His skewed views are well documented.
Suzuki will probably only miss 7 days. They can back date his IL stint 3 days so he’ll only miss 1 week if he can get through it. I still don’t think it’s all that bad. As for why Alcantara wouldn’t go North I have zero idea why he wouldn’t. He’s earned it.
Hey Uncle! Happy season to you.
My hunch on Conforto (and maybe Carlson) coming north ahead Alcantara is options driven. Obviously, Alcantara has this year left.
I’m just thinking that until Seiya is 100% they don’t want to risk just losing that depth of Conforto and Carlson (magnitude to be determined) before the season even starts. Also, I don’t know how those two picked up guys contracts are laid out.
If I were as confident as you that Seiya was coming back in seven days, fully healthy, I would certainly give the starts to Alcantara with him knowing that he will go to Iowa when Seiya gets back so he gets full time at bats.
Also, I’m not 100% buying that Shaw is going to be starting in RF—I don’t think there are any teams in baseball more defensively analytically driven than the Cubs and I don’t think they even hedge towards putting a poor number out there.
But then again, aren’t we only a couple years removed from Mastrobuoni being the opening day right fielder??
Looking forward to our back and forth this summer—and if you ever want to meet me at Wrigley–hit me up.
Yet another reason that teams should contractually bar players from participating in the WBC.
I doubt Rob Manfred would approve.
The WBC is co-owned by MLB, MLBPA, NPB and the KBO.
So that leaves you shopping your idea with everybody who has no stake in it. Have fun.
Alcantara won’t come up until June. They will want him to end the year with less than 1 year of service time.
if seiya’s out, shaw should be in
Was holding out hope Tauchman would make it back.
Tauchman came out of the Mets game today with what appeared to be a hamstring issue.
Everybody wants Tauchman, including the Mets. He’ll make the team as the 4th outfielder, pushing Taylor to the 5th as a late game defensive replacement or short-term injury replacement.
Soto-Robert-Benge
Benge and Taylor will get time in CF to get Robert off his feet a couple days a week, leaving plenty of at bats for Tauchman to rotate in the corners and at DH.
A.J. Ewing has also emerged as a potential outfield option as early as this season (which is why Jett Williams is no longer a Met).
Bing, Bang, Boom!
The idea that Suzuki was not going to start the season on the IL was always something of a wish cast. I think we kind of knew that Suzuki was going to hurt himself in the World Baseball Catastrophe. Suzuki has a kind of hapless, clueless quality about him, has since he first arrived. Can’t wait for him to be gone.
Woof… Good luck with that.
Conforto sucks.
dreadful news for Cubs fans.
I wanted the Braves to get him. Sure, he’s been tanking a little but historically he gets on base a ton
Conforto is a waste of a uniform as well as a roster spot.
Conforto is Italian for “Hitless.”
Conforting news for the Conforto household.