In late February, the Chicago Cubs announced that they had signed veteran free-agent OF Shane Victorino to a minor league deal. Victorino got an invite to spring training in hopes of making the 25 man roster as the fifth outfielder and a bench player.
It wasn’t going to be easy for Victorino to make the roster, seeing as Matt Szczur, who has bounced around between the big league club and Triple-A the last few seasons, is out of options and would need to make the roster in order to avoid the risk of losing him to another team (by placing him on waivers).