A look at who the Cubs might be taking to the Tokyo Series

The Cubs will play one more Cactus League game, Tuesday afternoon against the Brewers, before they jet off across the Pacific Ocean to Tokyo.

There, they will play two exhibition games against NPB teams, the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants, and then the Tokyo Series, two games against the Dodgers. All games will be at the Tokyo Dome.

I’m heading to Tokyo Thursday, which means I arrive late Friday. So I won’t be going to the first exhibition game against Hanshin, which is at 12 noon local time Saturday (10 p.m. CT on Friday). But I will attend the exhibition game against Yomiuri and the two games against the Dodgers, as well as see as much of the other sights as I can.

Let’s have a look at the players the Cubs could be taking on the trip overseas. The official roster announcement likely comes late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

The roster will consist of 31 players. That’ll be 26 players, as usual, for the two Cubs/Dodgers games, and a five-player “taxi squad.” The taxi squad players will be eligible to play in the two exhibition games.

Here are my projections for the roster.

Infielders (7)

Michael Busch, Jon Berti, Dansby Swanson, Matt Shaw, Vidal Bruján, Justin Turner, Gage Workman

Outfielders (4)

Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Kyle Tucker, Seiya Suzuki

Catchers (2)

Miguel Amaya, Carson Kelly

Starting pitchers (2)

Shōta Imanaga, Justin Steele

Relief pitchers (11)

Ryan Brasier, Porter Hodge, Brad Keller, Julian Merryweather, Tyson Miller, Eli Morgan, Nate Pearson, Ryan Pressly, Colin Rea, Keegan Thompson, Caleb Thielbar

The last list is where there could be some changes. Ben Brown or Jordan Wicks could be on the 26-man roster instead of Brad Keller, who would have to be added to the 40-man roster to be eligible. Matt Shaw will also have to be added to the 40-man, and so the question would be: Who would be the one or two players removed from the 40-man to make room?

Taxi squad (5)

Jameson Taillon, Matthew Boyd, Reese McGuire, Kevin Alcántara, Nicky Lopez

As I understand the roster rules for this series, all non-roster players who come to Japan with the team would have to be added to the 40-man roster. There are four such players listed above: Shaw, Keller, McGuire and Lopez. I don’t think the Cubs have four guys on the 40-man that they would like to run through waivers at this point. So other choices could be made.

Taillon and Boyd will likely start the games against the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants, though it hasn’t yet been announced which pitcher will start which game.

As always, we await developments, and in this case developments should come very soon!