Astros Sign Matt Thaiss To Minor League Deal

The Astros are signing catcher Matt Thaiss to a minor league contract and assigning him to Triple-A Sugar Land, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’d been released from a non-roster deal with the Red Sox last week.

Thaiss has played parts of seven seasons in the majors, six of them with the Angels. A first-round pick in 2016, he has hit .210/.320/.332 in just under 1000 career plate appearances. While that’s adequate offense for a backup catcher, Thiass doesn’t have the plus glove which teams typically like in that role. He’s a good blocker but has mediocre pitch framing grades and a below-average arm. The Angels dabbled with him at third base early in his career, but it has been a full-time catching role for the last few seasons.

The lefty batter has spent this season at Triple-A Worcester in the Red Sox’ system. He didn’t perform as hoped offensively, hitting .201/.314/.313 with three home runs in 170 plate appearances. Thaiss’ typically strong plate discipline was unchanged. He didn’t hit the ball especially hard and only had a .224 average on balls in play.

Houston hasn’t gotten much out of the Yainer Diaz and Christian Vázquez combination this season. They’re bottom five in MLB with a .208/.254/.343 batting line out of the position, which also featured a handful of at-bats from César Salazar and Collin Price. Price remains on the 40-man roster but has been on the Triple-A injured list since the middle of June. Salazar, who was outrighted last month, went on the minor league IL this week. Thaiss is a depth pickup who’d probably get the call if either of the big league catchers suffer an injury before Price or Salazar return.