{"id":442079,"date":"2026-02-01T03:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T03:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/442079\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T03:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T03:34:07","slug":"red-sox-matt-thaiss-agree-to-minor-league-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/442079\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox, Matt Thaiss Agree To Minor-League Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Red Sox have agreed to a minor-league deal with catcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thaisma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-31_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Matt Thaiss<\/a>, according to Andrew Parker of SoxProspects (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/redsox\/2026\/01\/red-sox-sign-free-agent-catcher-305-mlb-games-to-minor-league-deal-as-connor-wong-insurance.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">link<\/a> via Chris Cotillo of MassLive). Thaiss receives an invite to big-league Spring Training.<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old was a first-round pick out of the University of Virginia in 2016 by the Angels. He debuted for them in 2019, batting .211\/.293\/.422 with an 86 wRC+ and a .211 ISO in 164 plate appearances that year. Thaiss has continued to post mid-80s wRC+ values throughout his career. After not getting much playing time from 2020-22, he got an extended look in 2023, making 307 PA in 95 games for the Halos. His 27.0% strikeout rate that year was worse than average, though his above-average 11.7% walk rate kept his on-base percentage above .300 even as he posted a low batting average.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/ohopplo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-31_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Logan O\u2019Hoppe<\/a>\u2019s ascension to the starting catcher role limited Thaiss\u2019s playing time. That November, the team signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/darnatr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-31_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Travis d\u2019Arnaud<\/a> as their new backup catcher and designated Thaiss for assignment. He was traded first to the Cubs and then eventually to the White Sox. He split 2025 between the White Sox and the Rays, batting .218\/.349\/.288 with an 89 wRC+ that was plenty serviceable for a backup catcher. Reviews of his defense were mixed. He was worth 3 Defensive Runs Saved in 411 2\/3 innings behind the plate this year, drawing positive marks for his blocking. On the flip side, Statcast rated his caught stealing rate, framing, and pop time all in the 18th percentile or lower.<\/p>\n<p>For the Red Sox, Thaiss is a no-risk depth option behind incumbent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/n\/narvaca01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-31_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Carlos Narvaez<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=wongco01,wong--002con&amp;search=Connor+Wong&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-31_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Connor Wong<\/a>. Narvaez had a 97 wRC+ in 446 PA this year and was worth 10 DRS behind the plate. Wong and Thaiss won\u2019t challenge him for starting time, but Thaiss\u2019s consistent mid-80s wRC+ and above-average walk rate could challenge Wong for the backup spot, where Wong was a decent defender but a black hole offensively in 2025 (39 wRC+). Thaiss has over three years of service time and is out of options.<\/p>\n<p>Photo courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Red Sox have agreed to a minor-league deal with catcher Matt Thaiss, according to Andrew Parker of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[39909,363,99],"class_list":["post-442079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-matt-thaiss","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}