Former second-round draft pick and top-100 prospect James Triantos was added to the 40-man roster of the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday. The 22-year-old infielder was one of three minor leaguers that were protected by the Cubs from the Rule 5 draft along with Pedro Ramirez and Riley Martin.
It was a tough 2025 season for Triantos, who was limited to 102 games at Triple-A after missing time on the injured list on two separate occasions. The right-handed hitter finished the year with a slash line of .258/.315/.369, while primarily starting at second base, although Triantos also made 30 starts in center field and six starts in left for the Iowa Cubs.
It wasn’t exactly a banner year, but the Cubs obviously believe in his potential and now have him on the 40-man roster.
Heading into 2025, Triantos was still considered a top-100 prospect in MLB. At one point the Cubs were considering Triantos as a backup on the active roster if Nico Hoerner wasn’t ready to begin the regular season after recovering from his arm surgery.
Selected in the second round of the 2021 MLB Draft out of high school, Triantos won’t be 23-years-old until next January.
2025 season interrupted by injuries
The 2025 season has so far been one to forget for a former top prospect in the Cubs’ minor league system. Infielder James Triantos was recently placed on the injured list at Triple-A, marking the second time the ex top-100 prospect has been sidelined because of injury in 2025.
Triantos, who was ranked No. 73 in MLB Pipeline’s top-100 prospects list entering 2025, has been limited to only 33 games so far in his age-22 season. On Sunday, the Iowa Cubs officially placed Triantos on the injured list with an undisclosed issue.
The right-handed hitting prospect last played on May 24, against the Columbus Clippers.
Earlier in the season Triantos missed two weeks from April 18 through May 1, with a leg issue. Overall in 2025, Triantos is slashing .250/.304/.313, in 138 plate appearances. The real bummer with this latest setback is that Triantos was finally starting to turn it around at Triple-A, posting a 110 wRC+ in his last 13 games.
From May 11-24, Triantos recorded seven multi-hit games and slashed .319/.396/.383, with five stolen bases, five runs driven in and nine runs scored. After a dismal start to the year that consisted of a .210 batting average accompanied by a 14/4 strikeout to walk ratio, Triantos was once again spraying the ball to all fields and his strikeout to walk ratio normalized back to 8/6.
Selected in the second round with the 56th overall pick out of high school in the 2021 MLB Draft, Triantos reached Triple-A in 2024 after hitting .300 in 89 games with the Tennessee Smokies and earning a selection to the 2024 All-Star Futures Game. At 21-years-old, the infield prospect continued to hit against older competition and ended his first stint at Triple-A with a slash line of .302/.351/.384, in 26 games.
Triantos was invited to big-league camp to begin spring training in 2025, and he definitely had the attention of Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell. As the team was monitoring Nico Hoerner’s recovery from offseason surgery, Triantos was on the radar as a potential depth piece if needed.
Via Baseball America.
Triantos earned his first invite to big league camp this year, where Cubs manager Craig Counsell wanted the 22-year-old to learn, listen and seize the experience. He also played in their Spring Breakout game, going 2-for-4 with a run and stolen base.
“We want James to continue to defensively really work hard at second base and become as good as he can,” Counsell said. “Offensively, I think James has a profile of high contact—it’s a real gift. Picking the right pitches to put in play is a little bit of the next challenge for him.”
Triantos started 104 games at third base during the 2022 season at Single-A Ball with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Since then, the Cubs have primarily played him at second base, where Triantos has logged 176 starts since 2023.
He has similar hitting tools as Nico Hoerner, so Cubs fans have definitely been paying attention to Triantos’ development in the minors. For now, you simply have to hope that he’s only dealing with a minor injury because you’d hate to see a talented young player have to miss more time.
In 2023, Triantos underwent knee surgery in spring training, which knocked him out of game action until May and limited him to 83 total games.
