On Wednesday outfielder Travis Janikowski opted out of his minor league deal with the Cubs to sign a similar minor league deal with the White Sox. The ten-year veteran has found a new home in Chicago, less than a month after signing an agreement with the other Chicago team.
Jankowski signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in February for $1.25 million. He was given a non-roster invite and participated in seven spring training games for the Cubs. In those games, he slashed .231/.375/.231 with a .606 OPS. With the Cubs departing yesterday for Tokyo to play the Dodgers, Jankowski departed about ten miles south of Wrigley for the White Sox.
A Chance for more playing time
The move from Jankowski’s perspective makes sense. He was not going to make the Cub’s big league roster coming out of spring training and he would be very unlikely to crack the lineup at all this season. The Cubs feature one of, if not the, best outfields in the Major Leagues. Their starting lineup features Ian Happ, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Kyle Tucker, all of whom have received lots of endorsement from the front office.
Add to this group backup right fielder and current DH Seiya Suzuki, top-100 prospects Owen Cassie and Kevin Alcántara, and veteran addition Vidal Burjan, and its hard to envision a path to any playing time for Jankowski.
In his ten-year big league career, Jankowski has slashed .236/.319/.305 for a .624 OPS while accumulating 4.2 bWAR. He has spent time on six different teams with the highlight being his 2023 season with the Rangers where he won the World Series primarily as the team’s fourth outfielder.
His skillset as a player features good defending, decent baserunning, and poor hitting. Honestly, his defense may be the only thing keeping him on the fringe of a major league roster. He had a .508 OPS last season which is abysmal. And his advanced age of 33 doesn’t leave much optimism for continued growth. He has never had so much as a league-average OPS+ and his career 54.1% ground ball rate hampers any power potential.
A move down south
By signing with the White Sox, Jankowski gives himself a much better shot to see consistent playing time in the bigs. Unlike the Cubs, the White Sox outfield is less than ideal. The lone bright spot is Luis Robert Jr if he can stay healthy. Outside of Robert Jr. the Sox outfield features Miguel Vargas, Andrew Benintendi, Dominic Fletcher, and former Cub Mike Tauchman.
The White Sox had an unfortunate 2024 season. That is about as nice as anyone could put it. They went a comical 41-121 last season, breaking the MLB record for most losses in a single season. As they attempt to rebuild and pick up the pieces they could use all the help they could get from a guy like Jankowski.
Ultimately the Cubs won’t lose much sleep with his departure. They don’t necessarily need a low-ceiling aging veteran corner outfielder when they are so rich at that position both in the majors and minors. This move will likely not move the needle for the White Sox either, but depth is never a bad thing to have in any organization.
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