Christian Franklin #33

Christian is in his fifth professional season, all with the Cubs, first as a non-roster invitee to Major League Spring Training...In 221 career Minor League games, owns a .259 average (190-for-734) with 33 doubles, six triples, 18 home runs, 102 RBI, a .789 OPS and 52 stolen bases...At the beginning of the 2025 season, was ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Cubs' No. 25 prospect...Finished third among all Cubs minor leaguers with 34 stolen bases in 2024...Played for Mesa in the Arizona Fall League following the 2023 season, hitting .300 (6-for-20) in six games...Missed the entire 2022 season with a left knee injury...Was selected by the Cubs in the fourth round of the 2021 draft...Played three seasons at the University of Arkansas, hitting .288 (138-for-479) with 27 doubles, four triples, 22 home runs and 99 RBI in 141 games...Was named a First Team All-American by D1Baseball.com and Perfect Game prior to the 2021 season...After the 2021 campaign, was named to the All-SEC Second Team and SEC All-Defensive Team...Graduated from Rockhurst High School in Missouri...Was named to back-to-back Perfect Game Preseason Underclassmen All-American Teams in 2016 and 2017.

2024

Christian spent the entire 2024 season with Double-A Tennessee, batting .268 (93-for-347) with 15 doubles, two triples, five home runs and 38 RBI in 98 games...Finished third among all Cubs minor leaguers with 34 stolen bases, tied for eighth-most in the Southern League...Batted .303 (27-for-89) with three home runs and seven RBI in 24 games in June...In his last 15 games of the season from Aug. 8-25, batted .346 (18-for-52) with nine RBI and eight stolen bases...Tallied five multi-hit efforts in a seven-game span from Aug. 13-21, including two three-hit efforts Aug. 18 and 21...Spent time on the injured list from Aug. 26-end of season with a right hip strain.

2023

Split the 2023 season between the ACL Cubs (seven games), Single-A Myrtle Beach (11 games), High-A South Bend (76 games) and Tennessee (five games)…Batted a combined .254 (79-for-311) with 15 doubles, four triples, 12 home runs, 56 RBI and 14 stolen bases...Set single-season career-best marks in games, runs (67), triples, home runs, RBI and OPS (.828)…Began the season with Myrtle Beach, appearing in 11 games before he was promoted to South Bend April 25...Hit safely in nine of 10 games with an at-bat from May 6-21, batting .353 (12f-ro-34) with one home run and seven RBI...Homered in three-straight games from July 22-25...Was promoted to Tennessee Sept. 12, where he spent the remainder of the season...Played in six games for Mesa in the Arizona Fall League following the campaign, going 6-for-20 (.300).

2022

Missed the entire 2022 season due to a left knee injury.

Made his professional debut in 2021, batting .237 (18-for-76) with three doubles, one home run and eight RBI in 24 games with the ACL Cubs (four games) and Myrtle Beach (20 games)...Following the season, was ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Cubs' No. 21 prospect.