8:52pm: It’s a minor league deal with a non-roster invite to big league camp, reports Jesse Rogers of ESPN.
5:25pm: The Cubs and outfielder Travis Jankowski have agreed to a deal, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. The details of the deal for the Excel Sports Management client haven’t been publicly reported yet. If it’s a major league deal, the Cubs would have to open a 40-man roster spot. If it’s a minor league pact, the veteran will presumably receive an invite to spring training.
Jankowski, 34 in June, has a decade of big league experience at this point. He provides value via his speed and strong defensive skills but his bat has been inconsistent. The oscillating offense has led to swings in his contributions over the years. He has spent the past two seasons with the Rangers and his numbers in those two campaigns provide a microcosm of his overall track record.
After a rough 2022 season, he had to settle for a minor league pact with the Rangers going into 2023. He ended up getting an Opening Day roster spot and appeared in 107 games for Texas that year. He drew a walk in 12.2% of his plate appearances and only struck out 14.6% of the time. His .263/.357/.332 batting line translated to a 97 wRC+. That means his offense was 3% below average overall but he stole 19 bases and got strong reviews for his glovework. He then got into seven postseason games as the Rangers won their first World Series.
They brought him back via a one-year deal with a $1.7MM guarantee for 2024, but the pendulum swung the other way. His strikeout rate climbed to 21.3% as his walk rate fell to 5.8%. He produced a dismal line of .200/.266/.242 last year, leading to a 48 wRC+. He did swipe another 11 bags and run the ball down in the field again, but the decline at the plate put a big dent in his value. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 1.2 wins above replacement in 2023 but negative 0.3 fWAR last year.
Dating back to his 2015 debut, Jankowski has appeared in 681 big league games with a combined .236/.319/.305 line and 77 wRC+. He has 102 stolen bases in 127 attempts. He has racked up 30 Defensive Runs Saved and 33 Outs Above Average in his career.
The Cubs project to have an outfield consisting of Pete Crow-Armstrong in center, flanked by Ian Happ and Kyle Tucker in the corners. Seiya Suzuki figures to be the regular designated hitter, but seeing some outfield time on occasion as well. Jon Berti and Vidal Bruján are candidates for bench/utility roles.
Bringing in Jankowski is likely a move to bolster the center field depth. Crow-Armstrong won’t celebrate his 23rd birthday until next month. He’s a great defender but has been a subpar hitter in the majors thus far. Happ and Tucker have some good numbers in the corners but would be stretched up the middle. Happ hasn’t played there since 2022 and logged just 12 innings there that year. Tucker has just 29 career innings in center and none since 2021. Berti and Bruján are primarily infielders who can be pushed into outfield work on occasion.
That leaves the inexperienced Crow-Armstrong without much support up the middle. Kevin Alcántara and Owen Caissie are on the 40-man roster but likely to be getting regular playing time in Triple-A, as opposed to sitting on the big league bench.
Jankowski has 1,629 1/3 career innings in center with +8 DRS and +14 OAA. If he is added to the big league roster, he can serve as a fourth/fifth outfielder for the Cubs. The team knows it’s likely to get competent glovework, as well as the ability to have him pinch run from time to time, with the offense being a wild card.
The bench currently projects to have catcher Carson Kelly, infielder/DH Justin Turner, Berti and Bruján. No one in that group can be optioned. If Jankowski is to be added to the big league roster, whether that’s now or later, a spot would have to be opened up somehow.
A very useful, underrated 26th man.
I would imagine that Travis Jankowski’s signing will be an NRI minor league deal. Otherwise, why wouldn’t the Cubs just sign Kevin Pillar who offers similar defensive and baserunning skills and a much better bat with some pop? As a right-handed hitter, Pillar would also be a better compliment to back up lefty hitting Pete Crow-Armstrong in CF.
Way better than that. He’s like Juan Soto except with elite speed and gold glove center field defense.
More likely a very underrated 27th man.
Team needs a backup to replace Tauchman. Might as well get some speed out of it too
Yeah, I’m not gonna go too crazy over who might be their 5th OFer going into this season.
What I’m encouraged about is that Alcántara has looked pretty good (actually real good), so far this spring.
Hopefully nothing happens, injury wise to PCA, but if PCA was to be out for any extended period, Alcántara would likely be the one who gets first shot at the playing time.
Sounds like Alcantara will not be on Opening Day roster. Jankowski and Berti will be good pinch-runners.
Alcantara shouldn’t be on opening day roster. He needs to play every day.
But the honor and respect of being interductex as a 26 member,will go along way with his advanced years in the future .You need that head on right send down after a week for more bats
Rather have Owen Caissie and Kevin Alcantara be the 4th and 5th OFers.
You don’t want those guys rusting on the bench eating up service time. If they play well in Iowa (they gotta decrease those strikeouts), their time will come.
It’s a new age. Teams value power over strikeouts. it’s not 1995, It’s 2025. Game has passed some people by.
They don’t have exceptional game power either or else they’d be hitting 30 home runs. Maybe we will see that in Iowa this season. They both turn 23 in July. Plenty of time this year and next to develop before Suzuki and Happs’ contracts run out.
Where is the “Iowa” franchise actually located ? Is it Iowa City? This always confused me.
Des Moines.
Des Moines
Des Moines Des Moines
@unclemike
Teams value virtually anything from a hitter over strikeouts. Doesn’t matter what year.
Caissie is mildly injured and cannot be a quality defensive backup CF.
Tucker can play CF with Suzuki in right if needed.
Cubs are likely to have just one outfielder, besides Happ-PCA-Tucker-Suzuki–or maybe none at all. Bench could be Kelly-Turner-Berti-Workman. (Brujan surely will not make the team.)
Why are you so confident that Brujan won’t make the team?
I think he won’t make the team because he throws gang signs after making second base on a two base error.
With all the bums Hoyer has to have it seems you’ll need a spirit guide to figure out who gets the 2 spots. You already have 11 locks. Now you have 15 stewbums fighting for 2 spots. Here Craig, here’s a bucket of crap. You have only a few games to figure out a roster and hardly any games to do it. Good luck finding innings for all these bums.
Happ
Tucker
Swanson
Hoerner
Busch
Amaya
Kelly
Turner
Suzuki
PCA
Shaw?
15 Pieces of dung
I misread your comment. Apologies.
Lol “stewbums” never heard that one before
He won’t make the team for the same reason Canario was cut: he has that skin condition (dark) that Hoyer can’t stand.
Hoyer isn’t very smart. But to call him a racist is racist.
Got your panties in a wad?
They are going with vet depth to back up younger players
Shaw, PCA, Amaya and Busch are all in developmental stages. So ya Jed is adding vet players that can back up these spots.
Kelly, Tucker, Berti and now Janakowski.
That is a NRI and a minor league deal but it was with PCA in mind.
Jed is correct with keeping his top 100 prospects on regular playing time. Real injury you want to bring them up regular players vs increase the loads on bench players that are role vs every day
And they’re playing their usual game of prevarication regarding Hoerner’s and Shaw’s injuries, complicating things further.
Well I hope that he doesn’t make the team. Brujan has a career -1.4 WAR and an OPS of 49 over nearly 500 Abs.
A very good glove, base stealer, but a poor hitter lately.
If he can’t hit what good is being a good base stealer?
He can pinch run…
Alcantara can do that. Cheaper too. Now wer’re going to lose another good young player probably. Can’t wait to see who it is now.
They have a journeyman reliever named Hollowell on the 40 man who should’ve been DFA before Canario. Hopefully he gets the boot this time.
Jed Hoyer Cat Scan in room 101. Jed Hoyer please report to ro0m 101 for your Cat Scan please!
Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard…
What a silly waste of resources, Hoyer is a clown. Ahahahahaha!
You don’t know what they spent, if anything at all, but say this is a silly waste of resources? Is that all you have?
What else you want? Ahahahahaha?
For duty and humanity.
Jed gonna Jed.
Canario or Jankowski? Why
It’s likely a minor league deal.
likely a minor league deal. Keep in mind any team that claims Canario is then stuck in the same situation of an OF with no options left.
People dogging Hoyer do not know baseball.
Could you imagine this team with Rizzo Bryant and Baez still on it? The juevos it took to walk away from all three in the same offseason should be saluted and thanked.
Just another savvy move by the Cubs front office.
That man has juevos rancheros!
It’s Hoyer’s last year of his deal. We can only hope it’s really his last year. If he’s going out he’s going out with a vengeance. He’s already told the press he’s had salary constraints put on him. Thank God Ricketts was smart enough to do that. But Jed will spend until the salary total is 240,999,999.099. As some kind of statement. The statement being, He’s not to bright. At least he’s aggravating the owner and the fan base which is the quickest way out of town. Way to go Jed!
Yes, he’s so awful they are favored to win their division and have ZERO albatross Xander Boegarts type contracts.
And have zero chance of winning a Playoff Series.
Lol. So angry and yet so wrong.
Lets see- Playoff rotations( Everyone healthy of course)
Snell-Ohtani-Yammamoto-Sasaki
Wheeler-Nola-Suarez-Painter
Cease-King- Darvish-Pivetta
Burnes-Gallen-Kelly-Montgomery
Manea-Senga-Holmes
Sale-Lopez-Strider
Imanaga-Steele-Tallion
Who ya gonna beat? Ghostbusters!
Cubs trio looks better than all but the Dodgers in that list!
YOU MUST BE HIGH! I forget who said it but it fits. Might be better than the Mets but that’s about it.
Sanchez will be in the Phillies rotation; he might even be in Game 2.
And don’t forget Glasnow in L.A.
Better than Mets. Equal to Snakes. You left off Christopher Sanchez from Phillies, Schwellenbach for Atlanta and Glasnow from Dodgers. Rotations from top are Dodgers and Phillies (tie), then Atlanta, San Diego. Not sure San Diego is that much than Snakes or Cubs when you control for park. On any event, una only traded one prospect (and at a blocked position) and they might now be the fourth best team in NL for a year. Jed has had a sorry track record over the past few years but the last few months have not been that bad.
“Favored” means nothing. Let’s see if they actually win it.(Spoiler alert: They won’t.)
If they dropped Canario for Turner, it’ll be interesting to see who they drop for Jankowski. This 100% has to be a minor league deal with an invite, in other words.
Wouldn’t they be better off signing 1 or 2 good players instead of fifteen crappie?
That’s how you can still be a Tax team and stay under the Tax and still sign 2 or 3 30 million dollar a year guys and still STAY UNDER THE TAX! Somebody wanna explain that to Hoyer. 241 million is enough to sign Superstars. You don’t want to be in the over 500 million dollar range, But you can certainly be in the 300 million dollar range for 8 or 9 years. Ricketts has said he doesn’t want to play the deferral game. I’m assuming because of all the payments he has to pay on all the upgrades he made to the park and the neighborhood, WITHOUT a dime from the City who spew money to Reinsdorf like Confetti. I don’t blame him at all.
Quit talking or caring about a guy who on his best day is roster #24.
Let’s talk about PCA changing his number to 4.
Now we know why it was Canario yesterday.
Had nothing to do with him being the sixth or seventh outfielder on the depth chart.
He is what he is but I’ll miss him. The guy is a pro and a champion
Let’s not forget that it was Jankowski that homered in the bottom of the 9th on opening day off Adbert last year and sent the bullpen into a season long spiral. (His only homer of the season, by the way)
Also, the Pride of Lancaster, Pennsylvania!
Old guys for an old boring team. Keep it up, as long as the treasonous Ricketts family owns this team, I hope they keep losing. It’s the culture.
Treasonous? Like actually plotting against our own country? Is Ricketts buddy buddy with our President ??
Another average signer of equal mediocre ability who will not put the cubbies over the top. Brujan, Bert, turnern Kelly, now the addition of jankowski give us all a break!!!
Because signing a depth guy to a minor league contract is harmful – not.
He’s had a good run as a 25th piece.
Jed’s philosophy is to sign all these mediocre depth guys which won’t work instead of using their money to sign bigger pieces to complete the puzzle and maike them real not fake contenders,
Don’t worry everybody, we’re paying our manager a LOT! I’m sure he’ll be able to compensate for the player’s shortcomings
Jankow had a solid year as a backup with the Phillies. I’d certainly rather have him as a backup outfielder instead of this plan to play J.T. Realmuto out of position in left field
I know the Cubs have a lot of good fans but all it takes is Travis Jankowski to bring all the Gremlin fans out to complain. The guy is a depth signing who may not even make their ball club. It’s February, some of you all act like it’s September 1 and your 10 games back.
Bum