Brett

Jackson

Jackson is batting .385 in eight Cactus League games and registered a cool .869 OPS with 20 home runs in 115 games last year in the minor leagues. But the Cubs want him to get regular playing time, which he wouldn’t get in Chicago. “It’s just at-bats sometimes,” manager Dale Sveum said Wednesday. “Some of these guys get to the big leagues now before they get 2,000 at-bats in the minor leagues. You learn with more at-bats, tinkering.”

“My approach is I have a really great opportunity and I’m going to try as hard as I can to seize it,” Jackson said. “That being said, there are a lot of decisions outside my control. I think I’m big league ready and I’m 100 percent confident in my abilities.” The Cubs are not in a rush to promote prospects before their time, but Jackson has shown an impressive combination of speed and power in his first two full minor league seasons. It’s not unrealistic to think he could push Marlon Byrd or David DeJesus for a spot on the big league roster.

The stolen base was the first of Jackson’s career, while the walk was only his fourth in 51 plate appearances. Jackson swiped 91 bases in 402 career minor-league games, so the theft should be the first of many. Jackson has now contributed extra-base hits in back-to-back games for the first time since making his MLB debut on August 5, but is still hitting just .191/.255/.340. He’s had only two multi-hit games.

Jackson went deep in the second inning off Reds starter Todd Redmond. The 24-year-old outfielder is batting just .182/.234/.318 in 12 games since his promotion, but the Cubs believe he could have a very bright future.

Jackson should play pretty regularly down the stretch, but he’s taking a seat against the left-hander Clayton Richard. The 24-year-old has eight strikeouts over his first 12 plate appearances in the majors. David DeJesus will make the start in center field Wednesday while Joe Mather plays right.

Of course, he struck out in his other at-bat, bringing his total of 37 strikeouts in 74 official at-bats. However, he’s certainly been pretty good when not striking out, collecting four homers, five doubles and 14 walks through 23 games.

On a per at-bat basis, Jackson will likely strike out as often as any National Leaguer over the rest of the season. He might produce anyway and his power-speed combo makes him interesting in fantasy leagues, but growing pains should be expected.

They’re expected to meet the team in Los Angeles, though it’s not clear if they’ll be activated in time for Sunday’s game or if the Cubs will wait until Monday in San Diego. Jackson, who is the more highly regarded prospect of the two, has batted .256/.338/.479 with 15 homers and 27 steals at Triple-A Iowa this season. He strikes out way too much, but his power/speed combo is intriguing. Vitters has put up a .304/.356/.513 batting line with 17 homers at the same level. It’s doubtful the Cubs would promote them unless they planned to play them every day, so expect Jackson to be in center field and Vitters to be at third base regularly.

He’s playing center field and batting second Sunday against the Dodgers. Jackson piled up 158 strikeouts at Iowa this season while batting just .256, but he also hit 15 homers and stole 27 bases. Ranked before the season by Baseball America as the team’s No. 1 prospect, he’s worth consideration in deeper mixed leagues.

He’ll likely roster spot of Reed Johnson, who was traded to an unknown team. Jackson, who turns 24 later this week, entered play Monday hitting .255/.337/.482 with 46 extra-base hits (15 homers), 24 stolen bases and an .819 OPS in 100 games at the Triple-A level this year. The Cubs likely aren’t calling him up to sit, so he’ll be worth a look in NL-only leagues immediately.