James is in his fifth professional season, all with the Cubs organization … is a non-roster invitee to Major League Spring Training for the first time...Has played in 336 career Minor League games, batting .289 (381-for-1,317) with 64 doubles, 16 triples, 24 home runs, 169 RBI and a .766 OPS...At the beginning of the 2025 season, was ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Cubs' No. 5 prospect and the No. 73 overall prospect in baseball...Participated in the 2024 SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game...Played for Mesa in the Arizona Fall League following the 2023 season … batted .417 (35-for-84) with three doubles, five triples, three home runs and 15 RBI in 22 games...Was named the AFL Hitter of the Year and to the AFL Rising Stars Team...Was named the Cubs Minor League Player of the Month for Sept./Oct. 2021...Was selected by the Cubs in the second round (56th overall) of the 2021 draft...Graduated James Madison High School in Vienna, Va...Was the No. 1 recruit in Virginia in 2021 according to Perfect Game...Was committed to the University of North Carolina prior to being drafted...Was named to the All-American First Team by MaxPreps in 2021.
2024
James in 2024 reached the Triple-A level for the first time in his career, splitting the season between Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa...Batted a combined .300 (133-for-443) with 23 doubles, six triples, seven home runs, 52 RBI, 47 stolen bases and a .773 OPS...Led all Cubs minor leaguers with 47 stolen bases...Began the season with the Smokies, playing in 89 games with the club...Went 3-for-4 with his lone multi-homer effort of the season April 23 at Rocket City...Was named the Southern League Player of the Month for June after batting .393 (35-for-89) with five doubles, one triple, four home runs and 12 RBI in 22 games...Participated in the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game during All-Star week in Arlington, Texas...Was promoted to Iowa on Aug. 6 where he finished the season...Finished the season ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Cubs' No. 5 prospect and MLB's No. 55 overall prospect.
2023
In 2023, played the majority of the season with High-A South Bend (80 games), but was promoted to Double-A Tennessee (three games) at the conclusion of the season...Batted .285 (87-for-305) with 14 doubles, three triples, four home runs, 46 RBI, a .753 OPS and 16 stolen bases with South Bend...Hit safely in 13 of 15 games from July 16-Aug. 3, batting .323 (20-for-62) with two home runs and nine RBI, including an eight-game hitting streak from July 20-28...Tallied a season-high five RBI and a season high-tying four hits Sept. 6 in a 26-7 win over Quad Cities...Was promoted to Tennessee Sept. 12 … helped lead the Smokies to a Southern League championship...Following the season, participated in the Arizona Fall League, playing in 22 games with the Mesa Solar Sox...Finished among the AFL leaders in triples (first, 5), average (second, .417), hits (second, 35), SLG (second, .679), OPS (second, 1.174) and OBP (third, .495)…Was named the Arizona Fall League Hitter of the Year and to the Arizona Fall League Rising Stars team.
2022
Spent the entire 2022 season with Single-A Myrtle Beach, playing in 113 games...Led Myrtle Beach with 124 hits and 20 stolen bases and was tied for the team-lead in doubles (19) and triples (6), while finishing fourth in RBI (50).
2021
Made his professional debut in 2021, batting .327 (33-for-101) with seven doubles, one triple, six home runs, 19 RBI and a .970 OPS in 25 games with the Rookie Level ACL Cubs...Was named the Cubs Minor League Player of the Month for Sept./Oct. after batting .391 (18-for-46) with four doubles, one triple, four home runs and 11 RBI in 11 games.