{"id":522439,"date":"2026-01-15T22:59:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T22:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/522439\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T22:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T22:59:23","slug":"cubs-claim-ben-cowles-back-from-white-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/522439\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Claim Ben Cowles Back From White Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cubs have claimed infielder Ben Cowles<\/a> off waivers from the White Sox, per a team announcement. The Sox designated Cowles for assignment one week ago when they claimed catcher Drew Romo<\/a> off waivers from the Mets.<\/p>\n

Cowles lands back with the Cubs, who designated him for assignment back in September. They originally acquired the former Yankees tenth-rounder as part of the trade sending Mark Leiter Jr.<\/a> to the Bronx. The White Sox claimed him a few days later, but it\u2019ll just be a stay of a few months with the South Siders before heading north back to the Cubs.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old Cowles has yet to take a plate appearance in the majors. He split 2025 between the Triple-A clubs for the two Chicago teams, slashing a combined .235\/.300\/.371 with nine homers, 18 steals, a 7.2% walk rate and a 28.8% strikeout rate. He\u2019s viewed as a serviceable defender at shortstop who can also handle second base and third base, giving him a chance to carve out a role as a utility player.<\/p>\n

Although his 2025 numbers were ugly, Cowles hit .286\/.372\/.457 with nine homers, 14 steals, a 10.4% walk rate and a 17.7% strikeout rate in 92 Double-A games during the 2024 season. He still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so he\u2019ll give the Cubs some depth around an infield that became more crowded with this week\u2019s signing of Alex Bregman<\/a>. That signing already pushed Matt Shaw<\/a> into a utility role, meaning Cowles will likely open the season with the Cubs\u2019 Triple-A club in Des Moines \u2014 if he sticks with the organization until Opening Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs have claimed infielder Ben Cowles off waivers from the White Sox, per a team announcement. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,16984,138,49,2561,4,396,2562],"class_list":["post-522439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-baseball","tag-ben-cowles","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-mlb","tag-white-sox","tag-whitesox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115901616069746811","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}