{"id":483925,"date":"2026-02-18T22:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483925\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T22:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:26:07","slug":"blue-jays-claim-ben-cowles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/483925\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Claim Ben Cowles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blue Jays announced that they have claimed infielder Ben Cowles<\/a> off waivers from the Cubs. Chicago had designated him for assignment a few days ago when they signed Shelby Miller<\/a>. Toronto has placed Bowden Francis<\/a> on the 60-day injured list to open a spot for this claim.<\/p>\n

Cowles, 26, is still looking to make his major league debut. The Cubs added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2024 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He was kept in the minors on optional assignment until being designated for assignment in early September. He went to the White Sox via waivers but then the Cubs claimed him back in January. Now the Cubs have lost him via the wire a second time.<\/p>\n

He has a decent floor as a speed-and-defense type. He has lots of minor league experience at the three infield spots to the left of first base. He has posted double-digit stolen base totals in each of the past four minor league seasons.<\/p>\n

The bat is more of a question mark. He had a really good year at the plate in 2024, slashing .286\/.372\/.457 at the Double-A level for a 141 wRC+. The Cubs acquired him from the Yankees that summer as part of the Mark Leiter Jr.<\/a> trade and then gave him a roster spot at season\u2019s end. His 2025 was far less impressive, as he slashed .235\/.300\/.371 at the Triple-A level for a 71 wRC+. Though he had drawn walks at a 10.4% rate in 2024, that figure dropped to 7.2% last year. His strikeout rate also jumped from 17.7% to 28.8%.<\/p>\n

That dip at the plate has pushed Cowles to the waiver wire a few times but clubs clearly still like the profile enough to keep picking him up. For the Jays, they had a roster spot to use since Francis is going to miss 2026 due to Tommy John surgery, so they\u2019ve used it to add some infield depth.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible Cowles ends up back on waivers at some point, but for now, he provides the Jays with some optionable depth for an infield that should look different than last year. Bo Bichette<\/a> departed via free agency, signing with the Mets. Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez<\/a> should take over the shortstop job, as he did while Bichette was hurt late in 2025. Ernie Clement<\/a> will likely become the regular at second base. The Jays signed Kazuma Okamoto<\/a> to cover third base, which should push Addison Barger<\/a> into a more regular corner outfield role. Davis Schneider<\/a> should be on the bench in a short-side platoon role, able to play second base or an outfield corner.<\/p>\n

Leo Jim\u00e9nez<\/a> is still on the 40-man roster but is out of options, meaning he\u2019d need to be kept on the big league squad or passed through waivers. Since Cowles still has options, that could give him a leg up over Jim\u00e9nez in hanging onto a roster spot as a depth infielder.<\/p>\n

As for Francis, he\u2019ll spend the entire season on the 60-day IL. No pitcher wants to miss an entire season but the upside is that he\u2019ll collect a full year of big league pay and service time. He\u2019ll cross three years of service this year and will be eligible for arbitration going into 2026, but he\u2019ll be a non-tender candidate after so much missed time. He also missed the second half of 2025 due to a shoulder impingement.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Cody Scanlen, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blue Jays announced that they have claimed infielder Ben Cowles off waivers from the Cubs. Chicago had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[195275,7239,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-483925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ben-cowles","9":"tag-bowden-francis","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}