Cubs prospect James Triantos felt nerves bubbling up in the week leading up to his first game in center field. It was early August, and it wasn’t just his first game in the outfield for the High-A South Bend Cubs, but his first ever.
He was given five days notice, and his reaction was: “All right, sounds good. I’ll figure it out.” As that fateful Saturday approached, and Triantos’ practice fly-ball count climbed, he zeroed in on one simple thought.
“The ball has to go in my glove,” he recounted this offseason in a conversation with the Sun-Times. “I’m going to make good throws. As long as the ball ends up in my glove, I’ll be fine.”
Triantos, 20, is one of a group of prospects who could make an impact as the Cubs open a new championship window. Some, of course, will be traded away for major-league talent, but president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer also values youth — for both an injection of energy and payroll efficiency.
Approaching the new year, the Cubs have yet to make any major-league acquisitions, which is making fans understandably antsy. But it’s too early, in a slow-moving winter, with big-name free agents and trade candidates still available, to judge the Cubs’ offseason just yet.
The other team-building avenue — player development — at least is picking up steam.
“You get into trouble when you just rely only on free agents, and you get into trouble when you rely just on your farm system,” general manager Carter Hawkins said at the MLB winter meetings this month. “We’re in a unique spot where the guys that are coming up in the farm system are knocking on the door, but they’re not necessarily pounding on the door quite yet.”
The Cubs prospect ranks, rated No. 4 by MLB Pipeline, include players who already have tasted the big leagues like lefty Jordan Wicks and outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. They’re expected to contribute again this year. Right behind them are guys who could force themselves into the conversation over the course of the season, like Kevin Alcantara and Triantos, who were Arizona Fall League All-Stars — or “Fall Stars” — this offseason.
“I want to be knocking on the door of the big leagues next year,” Triantos said. “I feel like I’d be ready.”
Triantos, whose contact ability caught the Cubs’ attention before they drafted the second-round pick out of high school in 2021, finished the season with a three-game stint in Double-A. He’d slashed .285/.363/.390 up to that point with South Bend and then went 4-for-12 with a double, a walk and two RBI in Tennessee.
He carried that momentum into the AFL, where he won the offensive player of the year.
“If somebody doesn’t swing and miss a lot, that usually transfers up the levels,” Cubs minor-league hitting coordinator Rachel Folden said in a phone interview. “So does whiff; whiff rate transfers up and usually increases as you go up the levels. It’s a really hard skill to teach, as we’re finding out, just teaching people to make more contact and to swing and miss less. And he’s always had this innate ability to put the bat on the ball.”
Folden was also the club’s Arizona Complex League hitting coach in Triantos’ first season of pro ball, getting an even closer look at his transition.
“It was just about letting him obviously get bigger and stronger coming out of high school, but also just picking the right pitches to swing at,” she said. “Because he does hit the ball really hard when he connects.”
The focus on approach — maintaining his aggressiveness but narrowing it to his hot zones — has continued as Triantos has climbed through the levels, to make the most out of his swing. This fall, he found that starting early helped improve his decision-making.
The bigger question has been identifying Triantos’ best defensive position, a process that evolved this year when he started learning the outfield.
Triantos said he never even played outfield in little league; he was a shortstop and pitcher back then. But he has embraced the challenge, while continuing to get time at second and third base.
“The most natural part is being able to cut it loose and make throws to bags,” Triantos said. “The hardest part is definitely reading the ball off the bat, different types of angles.”
AFL day games added a degree of difficulty with Arizona’s notorious “high skies” and bright sun.
If Triantos adapts well in the outfield, the added position will provide another avenue to get his bat in the lineup.
“Wherever I go, I’m going to hit,” he said. “That’s just how I feel. So, put me at second, put me in left, put me in center, put me at third, wherever. As long as I’m able to help the team out, help us win, I’m having fun.”
