{"id":577403,"date":"2026-02-17T12:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/577403\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:28:16","slug":"catcher-finally-at-red-sox-spring-training-camp-13-years-after-boston-drafted-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/577403\/","title":{"rendered":"Catcher finally at Red Sox spring training camp 13 years after Boston drafted him"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 The Red Sox<\/a> drafted Matt Thaiss 13 years ago.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s finally at spring training camp with them for the first time.<\/p>\n

Boston signed Thaiss to a minor league deal with an invitation to big league spring training<\/a> on Jan. 31. The 30-year-old, who has appeared in 305 major league games, is competing for the backup catcher role behind starter Carlos Narv\u00e1ez<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Boston drafted Thaiss in the 32nd round (953rd overall) in 2013 out of Jackson Memorial High in Jackson, New Jersey. He didn\u2019t sign with Boston and instead kept his commitment to the University of Virginia baseball program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really cool honor to be drafted back then,\u201d Thaiss said. \u201cAnd obviously I went to school but I was very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three years later in the 2016 Draft, the Angels selected Thaiss in the first round (16th overall).<\/p>\n

Ray Fagnant, the Red Sox\u2019 Northeast regional scouting supervisor, scouted Thaiss as a high schooler.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s kept in touch over the years, which has been cool,\u201d Thaiss said about Fagnant.<\/p>\n

Thaiss said he \u201cabsolutely\u201d gave consideration to signing with the Sox in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you get drafted, you consider it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the same time, I was going to a very good school, and I think my mom made it clear that I was going to get an education first.\u201d<\/p>\n

So mom had a big say?<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He made the right decision. As a first-rounder in 2016, he received a $2.150 million signing bonus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great school,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of UVA guys that come through this organization, too, and they do a great job over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Red Sox have drafted nine players out of UVA, including Connelly Early, Kyle Teel and 2025 second-round selection Henry Godbout.<\/p>\n

Thaiss wasn\u2019t sitting at home staring at the MLB draft tracker online when Boston picked him. He found out when he received a call from the team. He didn\u2019t think he was going to be drafted because of his strong commitment to Virginia. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you go through that process in high school, you say what your intentions are, and then when you do that, you don\u2019t really expect to get drafted,\u201d Thaiss said. \u201cBut when there was 40 rounds, it was a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor Wong is the only other catcher besides Narv\u00e1ez on the 40-man roster and the favorite to be Narv\u00e1ez\u2019s backup. But the Red Sox have six non-roster invitee catchers in camp, including three catchers with major league experience in Thaiss, Jason Delay and Mickey Gasper.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always want guys to come in and try to push our guys to get their jobs,\u201d manager Alex Cora said. \u201cThat\u2019s the nature of the business. Connor is healthy, which is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thaiss, a 5-foot-11, 195-pounder left-handed hitter, has batted .210 with a .320 on-base percentage and .332 slugging percentage in 961 major league plate appearances. He\u2019s always been good at not chasing pitches outside the strike zone and taking walks. He\u2019s also a strong blocker.<\/p>\n

He is fighting for a spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone is,\u201d Thaiss said. \u201cJust day in and day out, just coming in, showing up, doing what I need to do, and whatever happens from there happens from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thaiss\u2019 Baseball America scouting report <\/a>coming out of college mentioned his power potential. It noted, \u201cWith plus bat speed and a strong, whippy swing with leverage, Thaiss has above-average to plus raw power. While some scouts project he\u2019ll hit 10-15 home runs per season, his plate discipline should help him translate his raw power to game power\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the past couple years I\u2019ve kind of sacrificed some power for some other things at the plate,\u201d Thaiss said. \u201cTrying to get back to that. These guys have been great here this first week and kind of doing some different things in order to get that back. And then obviously, defensively, we\u2019re always working just to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thaiss hit nine home runs in 95 games for the Angels in 2023, but he had just three home runs in 117 games for the Angels, White Sox and Rays in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think some of it\u2019s mechanical and some of it\u2019s approach-based and just hunting the right pitches and knowing what you\u2019re good at, what you\u2019re not good at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 The Red Sox drafted Matt Thaiss 13 years ago. He\u2019s finally at spring training…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[67031,152,5,3194,2291,4,1586],"class_list":["post-577403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-draft","tag-2026-spring-training","tag-american-league","tag-baseball","tag-greenfly","tag-major-league-baseball-draft","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-draft"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116085974999334281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}