The Toronto Blue Jays claimed infielder Ben Cowles, a veteran of five seasons in the Chicago Cubs organization, off waivers Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In a corresponding roster move, pitcher Bowden Francis was placed on the 60-day injured list.<\/p>\n
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MORE: Red Sox issue, retract, reissue statement about Fanatics uniform snafu<\/a><\/p>\n Francis is out for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery<\/a> on his right elbow.<\/p>\n Cowles, 26, was designated for assignment by the Cubs last week when they signed free agent reliever Shelby Miller.<\/a><\/p>\n Last year at Triple-A Iowa, Cowles slashed .238\/.304\/.382 in 113 games while seeing time at second base, third base and shortstop.<\/p>\n The Cubs claimed Cowles off waivers from the Chicago White Sox in January. He only played one month in the White Sox organization after being claimed off waivers \u2014 from the Cubs, coincidentally \u2014 in September 2025.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The Blue Jays place a premium on defense. They lost shortstop Bo Bichette in free agency, signed third baseman Kazuma Okamoto as a free agent, and moved Ernie Clement to second base. Cowles has yet to make his big league debut, but could see time as a defensive replacement for all three players in 2026.<\/p>\n Cowles will join the Jays\u2019 spring training camp in Dunedin, Florida as a longshot to make their opening day roster \u2014 but with a chance to make a fast impression on his new team.<\/p>\n \u2014 Enjoy free coverage of the top news & trending stories on The Big Lead <\/a>\u2014<\/p>\n OLYMPICS: USA figure skater Isabeau Levito gushes over Olympic Village<\/a><\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n NFL: Tyreek Hill makes hilarious first move after Dolphins release<\/a><\/p>\n CBB: 2026 college basketball rankings, updated AP Top 25 after Week 15<\/a><\/p>\n MLB: Tigers infielder from Taiwan apologizes to Koreans after trash talk goes viral<\/a><\/p>\n SPORTS MEDIA: College Hall of Famer, father of Chicago Bulls coach, dies<\/a><\/p>\n VIRAL: Chloe Kim \u2018obsessed\u2019 with $100k gift from NFL star Myles Garrett after Olympics<\/a><\/p>\n The post Cubs lose 5-year veteran infielder to Blue Jays<\/a> appeared first on The Big Lead<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays claimed infielder Ben Cowles, a veteran of five seasons in the Chicago Cubs organization,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,16984,88,754,138,5809,24,49,4245,161,6130,3685,4,58761,89,839,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-580304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-ben-cowles","10":"tag-bo-bichette","11":"tag-bowden-francis","12":"tag-chicago","13":"tag-chicago-bulls","14":"tag-chicago-cubs","15":"tag-chicago-white-sox","16":"tag-chicagocubs","17":"tag-cubs","18":"tag-ernie-clement","19":"tag-kazuma-okamoto","20":"tag-mlb","21":"tag-myles-garrett","22":"tag-red-sox","23":"tag-shelby","24":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116094901399719063","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580304","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=580304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}