Ahead of every spring exhibition season, a large number of non-roster invitees are announced. While the Chicago Cubs have yet to announce their full group, we can already spot some differences from the 2025 assemblage.
Last year’s Cubs brought 20 players into camp as non-roster invitees. It was a relatively productive group: Brad Keller was an essential bullpen contributor, and Reese McGuire provided key coverage behind the plate in Miguel Amaya‘s absence. But the context of that roster left that group little room to make an impact, particularly with respect to the positional depth.
Generally, the non-roster path is an effective way to build out the back end of a bullpen and (as we’ll discuss today) a bench. However, the 2025 Cubs had Gage Workman in camp as a Rule 5 draft pick; Jon Berti in on a guaranteed contract; and Vidal Bruján and Ben Cowles each also occupying spots on the 40-man roster. That meant the Cubs were, on some level, locked into evaluating those specific players for spots on the bench to start the year. Save McGuire, Nicky Lopez would be the lone non-roster invitee (who wasn’t already an organizational prospect) to spend any amount of time at the major-league level with Chicago in 2025.
It’s hard to argue that the guys who clogged the 40-man in camp last spring helped the Cubs. None of Workman, Bruján, Berti, or Lopez made it through the summer. McGuire hung around given the need for catching depth, but there’s also an inflexibility wrought by a third catcher on the roster. Had Amaya returned for more than one day between injuries, even McGuire probably would have been bumped. As such, it comes as no surprise that the team has adopted a different style of building a bench for 2026.
As things stand, the Cubs have a full 40-man roster. At least five of those names could offer support in a reserve role in a way that we didn’t see last year: Matt Shaw, Tyler Austin, Justin Dean, Kevin Alcántara, and, once again, Cowles. Unlike last year’s set occupying the 40-man, you’re not looking at a handful of players whose value lies purely in versatility (Bruján, Berti) or clinging to hope that some upside may actually still exist, despite all evidence to the contrary (Lopez). There’s actual value for the team to deploy these guys in a reserve capacity this season.
Shaw is the most obvious, given the upside flashed with both the bat and the glove in his rookie season. Barring a trade, the Alex Bregman signing pushes him into a role where he could see action four or five days a week, depending on positional rotation. If he’s able to competently play the outfield, that only enhances his utility. On paper, he’s a massive upgrade to the bench.
While Austin has some much less versatility—he’s on the roster to hit lefties and play a little first base—he’s a younger and higher-upside version of Justin Turner, who filled that role last year. Dean brings speed (27 steals in 90 games in Triple A last year) on a level that the team was unable to find on their bench last season, which could push Alcántara into a full-time gig in Iowa. If not, Alcántara’s theoretical upside is more than any reserve player from 2025. If the depth chart reaches Cowles, you’re looking at a power bump from Bruján and decent speed lying within the versatility he adds.
The team also has three non-roster invitees coming in on the positional side, in Scott Kingery, Christian Bethancourt, and Chas McCormick. While Kingery is no more or less than this year’s Lopez, Bethancourt performed well in a short stint with the Cubs in 2024, and McCormick is two years removed from being a really promising outfielder. There’s still coverage at catcher and the potential for an impactful fourth outfielder, if McCormick can regain any semblance of his old form.
In short, while there is a certain level of rigidity inherent in a full 40-man roster, the Cubs haven’t backed themselves into a corner. There might only be faint hope for real value from McCormick, but you can afford to roll the dice on a player like that when there’s more certainty elsewhere on the bench.
Being able to move Shaw to the bench gives the team better positional depth than it had last year. After the struggle to find any semblance of stability in that unit last season, Jed Hoyer and company have worked their way toward establishing something much more helpful for 2026.