Blue Jays claim former Yankees prospect who might be Ernie Clement lite

The Toronto Blue Jays are continuing to add to try and raise the competitive floor of their roster before Opening Day. The latest move, a waiver claim, brings in a 26-year-old infielder who is still looking to make his major league debut and probably reminds Blue Jays fans of a current fan favourite.

On Wednesday (Feb. 18) the club announced they had claimed Ben Cowles off waivers from the Chicago Cubs. The NL Central division team had to designate Cowles for assignment a few days ago after they added Shelby Miller to the roster. In a corresponding move, the Blue Jays placed pitcher Bowden Francis on the 60-day injured list.

The addition of Cowles also means that there is now a key positional battle that will be taking place in Blue Jays camp as they try to figure out their 26-man roster ahead of Opening Day.

Blue Jays turn up the heat on a key position battle, claiming Ben Cowles off waivers

Cowles was originally drafted by the New York Yankees in the 10th round of the 2021 MLB draft. He played in 128 games at Triple-A last season, hitting .235/.300/.371 with nine home runs and 152 strikeouts.

As it currently stands, the Blue Jays lack some depth in the middle infield spots and Cowles could find his way on the big league roster to be a back up for a couple of middle infielders, including the guy he's being compared to, Ernie Clement. If everything goes according to plan, Andrés Giménez will occupy shortstop while Clement will be the every day second baseman. A few years ago, it was Clement who forced his way on to the big league club based on his ability to play multiple positions and he has been worth 4.3 oWAR (according to Baseball Reference) in his three seasons (325 games) with the Blue Jays.

Clement's bat also played up in the post-season, as he set the MLB record for the most hits (30) in a single post-season, and the Blue Jays will be looking to him to carry that over to the 2026 campaign, especially in the wake of losing Bo Bichette in free agency.

Cowles will be trying to move ahead on the depth chart against some familiar faces to Blue Jays fans. Immediately behind Giménez and Clement on the depth charts is Davis Schneider, but he hasn't played shortstop in the majors, while getting into 103 games at second and four games at third.

After Schneider, Leo Jiménez figures into the mix. Jiménez was looking like a promising prospect, steadily climbing through the system and improving on his numbers at each stage. In 2024, a 23-year-old Jiménez made his MLB debut with Toronto and in 63 games he hit .229/.329/.358 with four home runs. While the offense wasn't spectacular, he showed his versatility by playing 166 innings at second and 323 innings at shortstop and made just four errors in his first trip to the bigs.

But in 2025 he was hampered by injuries throughout much of the season. Between starting his season with Triple-A Buffalo, his rehab stints in Single-A and Rookie Ball, and his 18 game call up with the Blue Jays, Jiménez played in just 44 games last season.

He's going to be participating in the World Baseball Classic with Panama and with the Blue Jays fielding an outfield heavy lineup, the 24-year-old right handed hitter could win out on the numbers game. The Blue Jays offensive portion of their 26-man roster (according to FanGraphs roster resource page) has seven outfielders on the projected lineup. Those include George Springer, Addison Barger, Daulton Varsho, Jesús Sánchez, Schneider, Nathan Lukes and Myles Straw.

Barger and Schneider are loosely in this mix because they can (and have) played the infield in the majors, but neither guy has manned shortstop with the Blue Jays. While one of the benefits of this current roster configuration is that it allows manager John Schneider to have some fluidity if he needs to bring Barger or Schneider from the outfield to the infield in the middle of a game, it leaves them a bit short handed defensively in the event of a long term injury.

Giménez missed significant time last year, and he wasn't effective at all against left-handed pitching, with a .495 OPS in 86 plate appearances. So it made a ton of sense to want to give a long hard look at Jiménez getting a shot at the big league roster to try and balance out the lineup with a right-handed hitter who could play at short.

Cue Cowles now putting some pressure on that internal battle. Over his five years in the minors he has logged 1858 innings at short, 1181.2 at second and 790.2 at third base. Scouting reports say he has a decent floor as a guy who can bring defense and speed to the table, indicative of his lengthy playing time at those three spots, and he has 70 steals across the five levels of minor ball. The rest of his offense needs some work though. His walk rate dropped from 10.4% in '24 to 7.2% last year while his strikeout rate was 28.8% in 2025.

But he also has some options, while Jiménez does not. If the Blue Jays don't see Jiménez as a big league player, they'll have to risk passing him through waivers in order to send him down, while Cowles could be sent up and down a couple of times in 2026. There's no guarantee either guy goes north with the Blue Jays at the end of March, but this does create some compelling competition in camp.