Minor MLB Transactions: 1/9/18

We’ll track the day’s minor transactions in this post:

• The Rangers have picked up catcher Mike Ohlman on a minor league deal with an invite to Major League Spring Training, per FanRag’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). The 27-year-old made his big league debut with Toronto last year but collected just 13 plate appearances over the life of seven games. An 11th-round pick of the Orioles back in 2009, Ohlman has logged a respectable .758 OPS in 518 Triple-A plate appearances thus far in his minor league career. Robinson Chirinos is slated to handle the bulk of the Rangers’ catching duties, but Ohlman will vie for a backup gig along with Juan Centeno, Brett Nicholas and Jose Trevino.

Earlier Moves

• The Red Sox have an agreement in place with catcher Oscar Hernandez, per Alex Kolodziej of Fan Rag (via Twitter). Hernandez, 24, has spent the past few seasons in the Diamondbacks organization after landing there — and ultimately sticking — as a Rule 5 pick back in December of 2014. A well-regarded defender, Hernandez hasn’t shown enough bat yet in the minors to receive a shot at a steady job at the game’s highest level. (That also cost him his 40-man spot in Arizona.) Last year, he compiled a .197/.257/.348 slash in 255 plate appearances at Double-A. Whether Hernandez will ever get things going at the plate remains to be seen, but he should at least represent a defensively viable depth option for the Boston organization.