Cubs sign Peter Bourjos to minor-league deal

The Cubs added one more outfielder to the spring-training mix on Thursday:

Peter Bourjos has played for the Angels, Cardinals, Phillies and Rays over the last eight seasons, mostly as a fourth outfielder/pinch-runner/defensive replacement type, though he did lead the American League in triples (11) and stole 22 bases in 2011.

This would appear to be strictly a signing for depth, as Bourjos doesn’t really have the on-base skills (career MLB OBP: .298) that this organization usually prizes.

If the Cubs do keep him out of spring training, he’ll likely be on the roster at Triple-A Iowa just in case there are any injuries where a veteran fill-in would be useful.

He’ll turn 31 at the end of March, and while he used to be a pretty good basestealer, that hasn’t been the case over the last three seasons. In 340 games from 2015-17, Bourjos has 16 stolen bases in 32 attempts, which is: 1) not very many attempts over that time frame, and 2) a pretty poor SB percentage. That might be due to hip surgery he had after the 2014 season. According to MLB Trade Rumors, he was a very good defensive center fielder before that:

... a glowing +37 Defensive Runs Saved and +48.3 Ultimate Zone Rating to the table in 4007 1/3 innings of center field work in the Majors

Ordinarily, a signing like this might not be front-page news. But we don’t have much news at all these days, so here it is. The signing includes a non-roster invitation to spring training, plus:

Seems unlikely he’d make the major-league roster, but you never know.