The White Sox have traded catcher Matt Thaiss to the Rays for minor league outfielder Dru Baker, in response to bulletins from each golf equipment. Since Baker wasn’t on the 40-man, the Rays transferred outfielder Jonny DeLuca to the 60-day injured record in an effort to open a spot for Thaiss. They might want to open an energetic roster spot as soon as Thaiss studies to the membership. Chicago’s 40-man depend drops to 39. By way of their energetic roster, catcher Korey Lee has been reinstated from the IL to take the vacated spot.
Thaiss, 30, was simply acquired by the Sox within the offseason. They despatched money to the Cubs, bringing Thaiss to the South Facet. He has appeared in 35 video games and stepped to the plate 110 instances, with some optimistic outcomes. He has only one dwelling run however has walked greater than he has been struck out, drawing a free move in 20.9% of his appearances in comparison with a 19.1% strikeout price.
That’s higher than his earlier work on offense. With the Angels in 2023 and 2024, he made 493 journeys to the plate. He had a robust 13% stroll price over these seasons but in addition struck out at a excessive clip of 28.6%. He was flipped to the Cubs after which the White Sox in offseason trades.
His work behind the plate has been extra of a query mark, as he has by no means obtained glorious marks again there. Baseball Prospectus and Statcast have thought of his blocking and throwing to be enough however with subpar framing. FanGraphs agrees that Thaiss hasn’t been an awesome framer in his profession however has him above common to date in 2025.
Although his work for the Sox has been enough on the entire, he by no means appeared prone to spend a very long time on the roster. Thaiss began the yr sharing the catching time with Lee, however the Sox had two high prospects ready within the wings: Edgar Quero and Kyle Teel.
Lee went to the IL pretty early within the season, touchdown there on account of a left ankle sprain on April tenth. That received Omar Narváez to the large leagues briefly however Quero was up within the majors every week later. Now that Lee is wholesome once more, he and Quero will share the catching work. Teel is taking part in nice in Triple-A and may very well be up within the majors quickly as properly. These elements have all pushed the out-of-options Thaiss off the roster.
For the Rays, they’ve been deploying a tandem of Danny Jansen and Ben Rortvedt behind the plate this yr. Jansen began gradual however has been heating up these days, getting his line to .200/.333/.336 for the yr, which results in a 103 wRC+. Rortvedt, then again, has a dreary .100/.194/.117 line. That’s solely 67 plate appearances however he now has a .187/.277/.266 line and 61 wRC+ over 572 plate appearances in his huge league profession.
Rortvedt is out of choices, so it’s potential he’ll be designated for project as soon as Thaiss is ready to be part of the crew. If the swap works, the Rays might maintain Thaiss past 2025. He got here into this yr together with his service clock at three years and 38 days, that means that is his first of three arbitration seasons. With Jansen on a one-year deal, Thaiss has an opportunity to stay with the Rays for 2026 if he holds his spot by way of the top of this season.
Extra to come back.
