{"id":571542,"date":"2026-02-14T04:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T04:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/571542\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T04:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T04:32:14","slug":"three-chicago-cubs-who-could-make-opening-day-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/571542\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Chicago Cubs who could make Opening Day roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year, the Cubs have an intriguing group of non-roster invitees, the full list can be found here,<\/a>\u00a0 but three players in particular stand out as legitimate candidates to earn a spot on the roster.<\/p>\n

Three veteran Chicago Cubs non-roster invitees who could find their way onto the Opening Day roster
\n\"\"Feb 12, 2026; Mesa, AZ, USA; Chicago Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga (18) talks to a coach during spring training camp at Sloan Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

1) RHP Trent Thorton<\/p>\n

An achillies injury sustained on July 31 while covering first base prematurely ended Trent Thorton\u2019s 2025 season with the Seattle Mariners. This off-season, the 32 year old inked a deal with the Cubs<\/a>. When healthy, he has an assortment of pitches to choose from, eight according to Baseball Savant, with his heater sitting in the mid-90s. Should he impress this spring, and an opportunity on the 40-man open up, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see him on the Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n

2) OF Chas McCormick<\/p>\n

Chas McCormick, formerly a long time member of the Houston Astros, is with Chicago this spring on a minor league deal<\/a>. The outfielders offensive production has dropped off in recent years, but in 2023 he posted a 22 home run, 70 RBI, and 19 stolen base season. He still grades out as a plus defender, and with a lack of depth behind the Cubs big three, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Ian Happ, and Seiya Suzuki, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see him break camp as the teams fourth outfielder.<\/p>\n

3) OF Dylan Carlson\u00a0<\/p>\n

Similar to McCormick, Dylan Carlson is hoping to get his career back on track<\/a> after being a long time member of the St. Louis Cardinals. He had tenures with the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles afterwards, but with little success. Despite poor offensive numbers, Carlson is a patient hitter and is one of the best at laying off pitches outside of the zone. Between him and McCormick, there easily could be a spot on the 40-man roster for one of them, with Carlson\u2019s patience at the plate and ability to put up pesky at bats being his strengths.<\/p>\n

As camp unfolds, performances will ultimately dictate who stands out and who falls short. Spring training has a way of elevating unexpected contributors, and each year a non-roster invitee forces the organization to make a difficult decision. Perhaps this year it will be one of Thorton, McCormick, or Carlson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year, the Cubs have an intriguing group of non-roster invitees, the full list can be found here,\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,9280,138,24,4245,161,590,4,73900],"class_list":{"0":"post-571542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chas-mccormick","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-cubs","12":"tag-chicagocubs","13":"tag-cubs","14":"tag-dylan-carlson","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-trent-thorton"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116067116226447961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}