Travis Jankowski

Mets Select Travis Jankowski, Option Luisangel Acuña

By Darragh McDonald | June 23, 2025 at 2:15pm CDT

The Mets announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported signing of left-hander Richard Lovelady. The Mets announced his name as “Dicky Lovelady” and Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports that the southpaw has indeed requested that name change. The Mets also selected the contract of outfielder Travis Jankowski. To make room for those two, the club optioned right-hander Tyler Zuber and infielder Luisangel Acuña to Triple-A Syracuse. The Mets had one 40-man vacancy but opened another by transferring outfielder Jose Siri to the 60-day injured list.

It’s the second time in as many days that the Mets have shaken up their roster by optioning a young player who has previously been getting regular playing time. Catcher Francisco Alvarez was sent to Syracuse yesterday and now Acuña is following him upstate. Acuña held his own earlier this year with a .288/.342/.356 line and 102 wRC+ through the end of April. However, his production has tailed off badly since then, with a .194/.244/.208 line and 31 wRC+ since the calendar flipped to May.

Those struggles have cut into his playing time, with Acuña getting just five starts in the past month. Rather than languishing on the bench, the Mets have decided to send him to the farm, presumably hoping that regular starts down there are better than sitting on the bench in the majors. For parts of this season, Acuña has been the only viable backup to shortstop Francisco Lindor but Ronny Mauricio is now healthy and capable of filling in there, making it more plausible for Acuña to depart the major league roster.

His roster spot will go to Jankowski. The 34-year-old veteran signed a minor league deal with the Mets a couple of weeks ago. He has spent over a decade in the majors as a speed and defense specialist. His playing time has been sporadic over the years thanks to his inconsistent offense, but he’s capable of strong glovework and double-digit steals if he in the lineup regularly.

On the whole, he has a .236/.318/.305 batting line and 76 wRC+. That has occasionally spiked to around league average but has also been well below at times. Between the White Sox and Rays, he has hit .244/.286/.289 for a 64 wRC+ this year. Since signing that minor league deal with the Mets, he has hit .200/.263/.286 in Triple-A. He will likely be serving as a pinch runner and defensive replacement off the club’s bench.

As for Siri, he’s already been on the IL for more than 60 days due to a left tibia fracture. He was originally given a timeline of eight to ten weeks but hasn’t healed as quickly as hoped. His 60-day count is retroactive to his initial IL placement so he’s eligible for reinstatement at any time.

Photo courtesy of Scott Taetsch, Imagn Images

Mets Sign Travis Jankowski To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | June 10, 2025 at 2:34pm CDT

The Mets signed veteran outfielder — and former Met — Travis Jankowski to a minor league deal, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. The Excel Sports client will head to Triple-A Syracuse for the time being.

Jankowski was placed on waivers by the Rays earlier this month. He went unclaimed and elected free agency, as is his right as a player with more than more than three years of service (more than eight, in Jankowski’s case). His time with Tampa Bay, during which he batted .244/.286/.289 in 49 plate appearances, gives him at least some level of big league action in 11 consecutive seasons.

Though he crossed eight years of MLB service during that Rays stint, Jankowski has never been a regular in the majors. He played a career-high 131 games with the 2016 Padres but did so in a limited, part-time role (383 plate appearances). He’s never topped the 387 plate appearances he logged with the 2018 Padres and has a total of 805 plate appearances over the past seven MLB seasons.

Jankowski is a career .236/.318/.305 hitter. He has negligible power and a league-average strikeout rate but draws plenty of walks, runs well and can play solid defense at all three outfield positions. He’s a nice fourth or fifth outfielder who’ll head to Triple-A and see if an opportunity opens up with the Mets’ big league squad, where Brandon Nimmo, Tyrone Taylor and Juan Soto are currently the main outfield options.

Both Jared Young and Starling Marte can technically play in the outfield, but they have four combined appearances on the grass this season. Outfielders Jose Siri and Jesse Winker are currently on the injured list (although the latter has primarily been a designated hitter). Jeff McNeil is effectively the Mets’ fourth outfielder at the moment. He’s logged 96 innings in the outfield, including 49 in center.

Jankowski was with the Mets back in 2022 but went just 9-for-44, with all nine of those hits being singles. That came out to a .167/.286/.167 batting line, but he could find himself with the opportunity to make a more lasting impression this time around, should the Mets incur an outfield injury or opt to move McNeil back to second base on a full-time basis.

Travis Jankowski Elects Free Agency

By Darragh McDonald | June 4, 2025 at 1:40pm CDT

Outfielder Travis Jankowski has cleared waivers and elected free agency, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. There wasn’t any indication the Rays removed him from their 40-man roster but it appears they quietly put him on waivers recently. This drops their 40-man roster count from 39 to 38.

Jankowski, 34 later this month, was acquired from the White Sox at the end of April. Tampa had a number of outfielders on the injured list and grabbed Jankowski as a veteran fill-in. Unfortunately, Jankowski himself hit the IL a couple of weeks later, landing there on May 15th due to a left groin strain. He started a rehab assignment a few days ago but it seems the Rays didn’t want to put him back on the roster, so they put him on waivers instead.

That’s likely due to their outfield getting healthier in recent weeks. Josh Lowe and Jake Mangum were both on the IL at the time Jankowski was acquired but each of them is now back on the active roster. Those two have slotted next to Kameron Misner in the club’s regular outfield mix with Christopher Morel also factoring in. The Rays considered that group strong enough that they optioned Chandler Simpson last week and don’t have room for Jankowski either.

Unlike Simpson, Jankowski is a veteran with over eight years of big league service time. That means he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent. It also means he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Those factors have led him to the open market today.

He will now look for his next opportunity, presumably with a club that has a better path to playing time in its outfield. Jankowski has been a strong defender throughout his career. In 3,597 innings on the grass, he has accrued 29 Defensive Runs Saved and 33 Outs Above Average. He can also rack up double-digit steals if given regular playing time in a season.

The offense has been more mercurial. He was around league average with the Rangers in 2023, helping that club surge to a World Series championship. However, he was below average before that and has dropped down again since. On the whole, he has a career batting line of .236/.318/.305. That translates to a wRC+ of 76, indicating he’s been 24% below league average for his career. Since he cleared waivers, he’ll probably have to settle for a minor league deal.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images

AL East Notes: Kim, Rays, Orioles, Red Sox, Dalbec

By Mark Polishuk | May 26, 2025 at 11:26pm CDT

Ha-Seong Kim began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Durham today, marking both his first official on-field appearance with the Rays organization and the first minor league game of his four-plus years in North American baseball, as Kim never saw any time in the minors when he was a member of the Padres from 2021-24. Kim underwent shoulder surgery last October, which chilled his free agent market and allowed Tampa to swoop in for a two-year, $29MM guarantee that allows the infielder to opt out after the 2025 campaign.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes that Kim and four other injured Rays players (Jonny DeLuca, Jake Mangum, Travis Jankowski, Kevin Kelly) are all scheduled to be activated from the IL over the next few weeks, which might make for a bit of a roster crunch as the Rays figure out how to make room for everyone. Some holes will be created when some current players are optioned to the minors, though Topkin figures the Rays will at least check out the trade market to see if any of their surplus players could potentially draw interest from other teams.

Rays Acquire Travis Jankowski From White Sox

By Anthony Franco | April 26, 2025 at 2:19pm CDT

TODAY: The Rays have officially announced the trade. In corresponding moves, Montes was optioned to Triple-A, and left-hander Shane McClanahan was moved from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day IL.

APRIL 25: The White Sox traded Travis Jankowski to the Rays, according to an announcement from Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate. The outfielder was on a minor league deal and will not require a 40-man roster spot for Tampa Bay. He’ll presumably head to their top farm team in Durham.

Jankowski broke camp with the Sox after signing a minor league deal midway through Spring Training. He only stuck on the roster for a week and a half. Chicago outrighted him off the 40-man, then brought him back on a new minor league contract after he elected free agency. He has spent the past three weeks in Charlotte, batting .261 with a homer in five games.

A left-handed hitter, Jankowski has appeared in the big leagues in 11 straight seasons. He has worked as a fourth or fifth outfielder for most of that time, only twice reaching 300 plate appearances. Jankowski doesn’t provide any kind of power, but he has shown generally solid plate discipline. He was a contributor to the Rangers during their World Series team in 2023, when he hit .263/.357/.332 with nearly as many walks as strikeouts across 287 trips.

The strikeout and walk rates both went in the wrong direction last year. Jankowski managed only a .200/.266/.242 slash across 207 plate appearances. He was limited to minor league offers as a result. He collected three hits, all singles, and one walk across 14 at-bats in his limited MLB look with the White Sox.

Tampa Bay placed Jake Mangum on the injured list yesterday because of a groin strain. They were already without Josh Lowe, Richie Palacios and Jonny DeLuca. They’re using an outfield of Christopher Morel, Kameron Misner and top prospect Chandler Simpson. Utilityman Coco Montes was recalled to replace Mangum. Third catcher Logan Driscoll is the only healthy position player who is on the 40-man roster and on an optional assignment in the minors. Jankowski joins Eloy Jiménez as non-roster outfield options with the Bulls.

White Sox Re-Sign Travis Jankowski To Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | April 9, 2025 at 5:30pm CDT

The White Sox announced that outfielder Travis Jankowski has been signed to a minor league deal. He had cracked the club’s Opening Day roster but was designated for assignment about a week into the campaign. He cleared waivers and elected free agency before now returning on a new deal. That’s a fairly common sequence of events as veterans might perhaps work out new opt-out dates in a subsequent contract.

Jankowski, 34, is generally a speed-and-defense outfielder. He has over a decade in the big leagues at this point but has only once played more than 117 games in a season. He has 102 stolen bases in 127 attempts. His 3,520 innings of outfield work have resulted in 30 Defensive Runs Saved and 33 Outs Above Average.

The offense has been more mercurial. He was around league average with the 2023 Rangers, helping them win the World Series that year, but his bat fell off steeply the following season. He has a .235/.319/.304 batting line in his career. That amounts to a 76 wRC+, indicating he’s been 24% below league average overall.

The Sox have been rotating various veterans through their outfield mix, alongside Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Benintendi. They signed Mike Tauchman in the offseason but he required an IL stint to begin the year. Austin Slater, Michael A. Taylor and Jankowski have also seen some playing time.

Tauchman’s return from the IL bumped Jankowski off the roster but he could have a good shot at playing time later in the year. Everyone in that outfield mix should be available on the midseason trade market. Slater and Taylor are one-year deals. Robert has some club options but is in the final guaranteed season of his deal. Tauchman can be retained via arbitration next year but was just non-tendered at the end of last season. Benintendi’s deal runs through 2027 but he’s playing well and the Sox would probably love to sell high since he struggled in 2023 and 2024. He landed on the IL today due to an adductor strain, though it may be a fairly minor issue. Greg Jones was recalled to take his place on the active roster.

Whether it’s due to trades or injuries, it’s unlikely that the entire outfield group stays intact for the remainder of the season. If an opening arises, Jankowski could step in and retake his spot on the roster.

Travis Jankowski Elects Free Agency

By Anthony Franco | April 8, 2025 at 11:06pm CDT

Travis Jankowski elected free agency after being outrighted by the White Sox, according to the MLB.com transaction tracker. Chicago designated the veteran outfielder for assignment over the weekend when they activated Mike Tauchman from the injured list.

Jankowski started Spring Training with the Cubs. He was granted his release and signed with the White Sox in mid-March. Jankowski broke camp and appeared in seven games. He had three hits (all singles) and a walk in 14 at-bats. The lefty-hitting outfielder didn’t produce much offensively last season. He hit .200/.266/.242 in 207 plate appearances with the Rangers.

Texas got much better production out of Jankowski during their World Series season. He hit .263 with a .357 on-base percentage and stole 19 bases across 287 trips to the plate in 2023. Jankowski doesn’t provide any kind of power but he’s a patient hitter who has walked at a solid 10.1% clip over his career. His speed allows him to cover all three outfield positions.

Jankowski should find interest on another minor league deal. It wouldn’t be especially surprising if he circles back to the White Sox on a non-roster contract. First-year manager Will Venable was also the associate manager in Texas for the last two seasons.

White Sox Designate Travis Jankowski, Reinstate Mike Tauchman From 10-Day IL

By Mark Polishuk | April 6, 2025 at 9:07am CDT

The White Sox announced that outfielder Travis Jankowski was designated for assignment. The move was made to create a roster spot for Mike Tauchman, who has now been activated from the 10-day injured list.

Tauchman suffered a hamstring strain during Spring Training, which opened the door for Jankowski (who signed a minor league deal in March) to make the Opening Day roster as part of Chicago’s outfield mix. Jankowski has appeared in seven of the team’s eight games, playing right and center field while hitting .214/.267/.214 in the small sample size of 15 plate appearances.

This brief stint made it 11 straight seasons of MLB action for Jankowski, who has spent most of his career in a part-time or platoon capacity with seven different teams. Jankowski has been outrighted off a 40-man roster in the past, so if he clears DFA waivers in the next few days, he has the right to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate.

It isn’t out of the question that Jankowski could be claimed off waivers, or that a team in need of outfield help could arrange a trade with the White Sox during the DFA period. Jankowski’s left-handed bat and his ability to play all three outfield positions makes him a useful depth piece, plus he is a well-known veteran presence who has made a lot of connections during his lengthy career.

As for Tauchman, he is now set to make his White Sox debut after signing a one-year, $1.95MM free agent deal with the team during the offseason. Tauchman is coming off a pair of solid seasons with the Cubs, and the Peoria native will now look to continue that steady play on the other side of Chicago. Since the Sox are firmly in rebuild mode, Tauchman is a prime candidate to be traded before the deadline, particularly if he replicates the 110 wRC+ he posted in 2023-24.

White Sox Designate Jake Eder, Dominic Fletcher For Assignment

By Steve Adams | March 27, 2025 at 10:53am CDT

The White Sox announced this morning that they’ve designated left-hander Jake Eder and outfielder Dominic Fletcher for assignment. They’ve also placed righty Drew Thorpe on the 60-day injured list while he recovers from Tommy John surgery. That trio of moves clears the way for righty Mike Clevinger, infielder Nick Maton and outfielder Travis Jankowski to be selected to the big league roster. (Maton and Jankowski were already known to have made the club.) All three had been non-roster invitees in camp this spring.

Eder, 26, was a fourth-round pick by the Marlins out of Vanderbilt back in 2020. He was considered one of the best prospects in Miami’s system when the Sox acquired him in a straight-up swap for slugger Jake Burger back at the 2023 trade deadline. Prior to Eder requiring Tommy John surgery late in the 2021 season, he’d even begun to garner some attention on midseason iterations of top-100 prospect rankings at Baseball America (No. 68) and MLB.com (No. 81).

At the time of the trade, Eder was just making his way back from that UCL repair. He’d pitched 39 1/3 innings in the Marlins’ minor league system and showed well. He was rocked in five starts with the White Sox’ Double-A club following the swap, but for a then-24-year-old just returning from major surgery, it wasn’t necessarily a shock to see him fade down the stretch.

Eder’s 2024 struggles, however, were more concerning. The left-hander split last season between Double-A and Triple-A, working to a combined 6.61 earned run average with glaring command troubles. Eder fanned a quality 24.4% of his opponents but also walked 11.6% of the batters he faced — including a sky-high 16.1% of his opponents in nine Triple-A starts. He also plunked five hitters and was charged with 10 wild pitches. His spring work wasn’t any better; Eder faced 13 hitters in 2 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on a pair of hits and three walks with four strikeouts.

Fletcher, 27, came over from the D-backs last offseason in a one-for-one swap that sent pitching prospect Cristian Mena to Arizona. He got a decent look in the South Siders’ outfield but turned in only a .206/.252/.256 slash in 241 trips to the plate. He’d been coming off a strong 2023 showing that saw him hit .291/.399/.500 in Triple-A and .301/.350/.441 in 102 plate appearances during his MLB debut.

Fletcher not only struggled in the majors, however, but also hit poorly in the minors. He clearly fell out of favor, as the Sox instead signed both Mike Tauchman and Michael A. Taylor to big league deals, pushing Fletcher down the depth chart. Even with Tauchman opening the season on the injured list due to a right hamstring strain, Fletcher didn’t make the cut and now is off the 40-man roster entirely.

The Sox will have the next five days to trade Eder and/or Fletcher. If no deal is reached by then, the pair would be placed on waivers, which is another 48-hour process. Either could be waived before that point, but the maximum length of their DFA window will seven days. Eder still has two minor league option years remaining. Fletcher has one.

As for Clevinger, he’ll return for a third stint with the ChiSox, this time in a bullpen role. The 34-year-old fired six shutout innings as a reliever during camp, fanning eight of 21 opponents (38.1%) against just one walk (4.8%). He’s far and away the most experienced pitcher in Chicago’s bullpen and could find his way to late-inning work early on, given the youth of the Sox’ bullpen. Clevinger, Bryse Wilson and Penn Murfee are the only Sox relievers with even a year of major league service (and much of Murfee’s MLB service has been spent on the 60-day IL).

White Sox To Select Nick Maton, Travis Jankowski

By Darragh McDonald | March 26, 2025 at 2:45pm CDT

The White Sox have some more roster moves to come. Per Scott Merkin of MLB.com, infielder Brooks Baldwin, infielder Nick Maton and outfielder Travis Jankowski all made the team. Maton and Jankowski aren’t yet on the 40-man roster, so a couple of spots will have to be opened for them. Per James Fegan of Sox Machine, Tyler Gilbert will start the season on the injured list.

Maton, 28, signed a minor league deal with the club in December and has had a strong camp. He hit .289/.357/.632 in his 43 Cactus League plate appearances, which will get him a chance to return to the majors.

He’s been given some chances in the big leagues before, thanks to some strong work on the farm, but those auditions have generally been brief and unsuccessful. He has a line of .267/.375/.454 over the past three minor league seasons, production which translates to a wRC+ of 118. He’s also been put into 185 major league games over the past four seasons but with a tepid line of .205/.303/.357 in those.

The Sox have plenty of uncertainty on their roster and Maton can move all around. He has big league experience at the three infield spots to the left of first base, in addition to some outfield work. He’s also played first in the minors and could be an option there as well. The Sox figure to have Miguel Vargas and Andrew Vaughn at the corner infield spots but the middle infield is less certain. Baldwin, Lenyn Sosa and Jacob Amaya are options but each is fairly lacking in experience, so Maton can earn some playing time in there.

Maton is out of options and can’t be sent to the minors if he doesn’t click. But if he is finally able to carry some of his strong offense up to the majors, he can be controlled for another four seasons since his service clock is just a bit over the two-year line.

Jankowski, 34 in June, has a long track record as a glove-first outfielder. He’s been in 681 big league games over his decade-long career with a .236/.319/.305 batting line. But he has 102 steals and strong defensive grades. Mike Tauchman seems likely to start the season on the injured list due to a hamstring strain and Andrew Benintendi might be the regular designated hitter. That leaves the White Sox with an outfield mix of Luis Robert Jr., Michael A. Taylor, Austin Slater and Jankowski.

The moves could lead to more domino effects. The Sox already designated Oscar Colás for assignment earlier today. If they plan to select Mike Clevinger, they’ll need to open three more 40-man spots for him, Maton and Jankowski. Drew Thorpe will be able to open one of those by getting placed on the 60-day injured list, since he’ll miss the season recovering from Tommy John surgery, but the Sox will have to find two more.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

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