The Cubs are planning to recall infield prospect James Triantos for his major league debut, reports Geoff Pontes of Baseball America. Corresponding transactions are not yet known.
Triantos, 23, is a 2021 second-rounder is a former top-100 prospect. His stock dipped with a tepid .258/.315/.359 performance in his first season of Triple-A work last year, but Triantos has had a nice season with the Cubs’ top affiliate in Des Moines in 2026. Through 378 plate appearances, the righty-swinging Triantos is hitting .306/.344/.440. He’s only walked at a 5.3% clip but has also fanned in only 11.6% of his plate appearances. Triantos has swatted seven homers but piled up 24 doubles and a triple in addition to 18 steals (23 attempts).
Though Triantos has spent the bulk of his professional career (2026 included) at second base and third base, the Cubs have gotten him acclimated to playing all over the diamond. He’s spent 76 innings in center field, 45 in left field and nine in right field this season. The Cubs got him some brief looks at shortstop shortly after his draft selection, but he hasn’t played there at all since a one-off appearance in the 2023 Arizona Fall League. He could still be considered an emergency option at the position, but he’s not going to command any regular playing time there, even in the event of a Dansby Swanson injury.
Baseball America ranked Triantos 13th among Cubs prospects earlier this month, touting has contact skills and baserunning acumen but questioning whether he’ll ever hit for much power. BA’s scouting report highlights Triantos’ sub-par batted ball metrics and generally flat launch angles as reasons for that skepticism. Both have been apparent even in this year’s improved showing.
Triantos has averaged just 87.4 mph off the bat with a 37% hard-hit rate in Des Moines. He’s cut his ground-ball rate from 55.8% last year to 43.6% this season, but he’s traded those grounders primarily for liners. That’s led to an uptick in his batting average, but Triantos’ 26.6% fly-ball rate is still about 13 percentage points shy of the major league average. Between that lack of elevation and hard contact, he profiles more as a high-average hitter who contributes more on the bases than in the home run column. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but he’ll need to continually hit for average to offset his lack of power and walks.
Despite the down showing last year, the Cubs selected Triantos to the 40-man roster this past November. He’d surely have been scooped up in the Rule 5 Draft if not, and his solid bounceback showing has surely made the Cubs glad they chose to do so. He’s being called up well beyond the point where he could accrue a full year of service in 2026 or pick up enough service time to be a Super Two player down the road. Future optional assignments will determine just how long the Cubs control Triantos — he’s in the first of three minor league option years — but he’s under team control through at least the 2032 season.
