The Chicago Cubs have officially set their 26-man roster for the National League Wild Card Round. 

The Cubs will carry 12 pitchers and 14 position players for this week’s series against the San Diego Padres. They opted to carry an extra position player rather than having 13 pitchers. Chicago also carried 12 pitchers and 14 position players in last year’s Wild Card Round. 

There weren’t any major surprises on the Cubs roster for the Wild Card Round. It is important to note that Kevin Gausman is officially on the roster despite dealing with some shoulder soreness after his last start. Gausman threw a bullpen prior to the team’s final regular season game on Sunday, and the veteran seems to have come out of that bullpen session just fine. 

The two biggest names left off the Wild Card roster are Caleb Thielbar and Edward Cabrera. Both pitchers have struggled mightily this season and won’t be pitching in this series against the Padres. 

Thielbar had a 4.86 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP across 50 innings pitched in the regular season. He had a 6.35 ERA over his last 20 appearances dating back to August 1, and both his barrel rate (10.6%) and expected batting average against (.247) ranked in the bottom half of the league.

As for Cabrera, he didn’t look comfortable since moving to the bullpen in mid-September. He allowed two runs across 2 ⅓ innings in a bullpen appearance on September 15 and then gave up three runs across ⅔ of an inning in another relief appearance on September 22. The Cubs opted to leave him off the roster in favor of Javier Assad, Colin Rea, and Aaron Civale. 

Gabriel Arias winds up winning the last position player spot. Many believed that the final spot was between Arias and outfielder Justin Dean. However, the Cubs decided to go with Arias over the speedy Dean. Arias provides more infielder depth. 

The one notable name that Cubs fans won’t be seeing on the Wild Card roster is Justin Steele. Steele was trying to make a comeback, but after not pitching in any regular season games, he faced an uphill battle to make the postseason roster. 

The full 26-man roster is below: