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Chad Wallach

Angels Sign Chad Wallach To Minor League Deal

By Darragh McDonald | June 11, 2025 at 6:12pm CDT

The Angels have signed catcher Chad Wallach to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had previously been with the Rangers on a minor league deal but was released a few days ago.

Wallach, 33, is a known commodity for the Halos. He got into 77 games for them over the 2022 and 2023 seasons. He also spent last year at Triple-A Salt Lake on a minor league deal but didn’t get called up.

He pivoted over to the Rangers at the start of this year and got into 28 games for Triple-A Round Rock. He struck out 27.2% of the time but also walked at a strong 11.4% clip and hit four home runs. That added up to a .245/.333/.408 line and 89 wRC+.

Wallach faced a steep path to playing time in Texas, where Jonah Heim and Kyle Higashioka are the primary catching duo. Even when Higashioka went on the injured list earlier this year, it was Tucker Barnhart who got the call to cover for him. Higashioka subsequently returned from the IL and Barnhart was bumped off the roster but quickly re-signed on a new minor league deal.

The Angels have Logan O’Hoppe and Travis d’Arnaud at the big league level. For much of the season, they had Chuckie Robinson at Salt Lake on an optional assignment, but he was lost to the Dodgers via waivers a couple of weeks ago. Though Wallach is not on the roster, he essentially replaces Robinson as the top option to get called up if either O’Hoppe or d’Arnaud suffers an injury.

Including his time with the Angels, Wallach has also suited up for the Reds and Marlins. He has 155 big league games under his belt over seven separate seasons. He has a .198/.263/.328 batting line but solid defensive grades.

Image courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images

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Los Angeles Angels Texas Rangers Transactions Chad Wallach

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Rangers Release Nick Ahmed, Re-Sign Hunter Strickland To Minors Deal

By Nick Deeds | March 22, 2025 at 8:29pm CDT

The Rangers announced this evening that they’ve released shortstop Nick Ahmed. In addition, they’ve re-signed right-hander Hunter Strickland to a minor league deal after Strickland was himself released by the club yesterday. The news comes not long after president of baseball operations Chris Young told reporters (including MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry) that a group of eight non-roster veterans had been informed they would not be making the Opening Day roster. Aside from Ahmed, that list includes Adrian Houser, JT Chargois, Joe Barlow, David Buchanan, Tucker Barnhart, Chad Wallach, and Matt Festa. While the specific contract situations aren’t known for all of those players, Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports writes that the Rangers won’t block any non-roster invitee from pursuing a big league opportunity elsewhere should they so desire.

So far, Ahmed appears to be the only player in that group to take the Rangers up on that and seek his release. The 35-year-old veteran spent the first ten seasons of his career in Arizona, winning two Gold Glove awards during that time and serving mostly as a capable glove-first option at shortstop for the Diamondbacks. Ahmed began to struggle with injuries and ineffectiveness later in his tenure with the club, however, and appeared in just 89 games with a .216/.258/.332 (58 wRC+) slash line in 264 trips to the plate between the 2022 and ’23 seasons. That led Ahmed to hit the open market for the first time in his career last winter, and he ultimately spent the 2024 campaign bouncing around the other contending NL West clubs with 52 games in San Francisco, 17 with the Dodgers, and two as a Padre.

Ahmed’s numbers at the plate last year were once again lackluster, as he hit a paltry .229/.267/.295 overall with a 59 wRC+, though he provided steady defense in L.A. and San Diego amid injuries to incumbent shortstops Mookie Betts and Ha-Seong Kim. If a club suffers an injury at shortstop, it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine him finding a role with a big league club as a glove-first placeholder, though it’s also possible he’ll simply search for a minor league opportunity with a club that’s less settled at shortstop than the Rangers, for whom Corey Seager is entrenched as an everyday player.

As for Strickland, the veteran of ten MLB seasons has had an up-and-down career. The righty debuted in 2014 with the Giants and dominated out of the bullpen with a 2.64 ERA and 3.15 FIP over his first four years in the big leagues, but things took a turn for the worse after that. In three seasons split between the Giants, Mets, Mariners, and Nationals, Strickland posted a brutal 4.68 ERA and 4.92 FIP, both well below league average figures. He enjoyed a bit of a renaissance in 2021, pitching to a solid 2.61 ERA across 57 appearances for the Rays, Angels, and Brewers, but struggled for the Reds in 2022 and did not pitch in the majors the following year. He returned to the big leagues for Anaheim last year and posted a solid enough 3.31 ERA, though his 4.45 FIP and issues with the long ball (ten homers allowed in 73 1/3 innings) both left much to be desired. Now that he’s back in the fold, he’ll stick with the Rangers as a non-roster depth option headed into the season.

As for the other players besides Ahmed told they will not be making the team today, the most notable among those is Houser, who appeared to be in the mix for the club’s rotation after injuries sidelined Cody Bradford and Jon Gray. The club signed Patrick Corbin to a big league deal so he could serve as rotation depth, but with Corbin not expected to be ready for Opening Day the exclusion of Houser from the big league rotation would seemingly leave the final two rotation jobs behind Nathan Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom, and Tyler Mahle for youngsters Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker despite uneven spring performances from both former first-round picks.

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Texas Rangers Transactions Adrian Houser Chad Wallach Hunter Strickland J.T. Chargois Joe Barlow Matt Festa Nick Ahmed Tucker Barnhart

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Rangers Sign Chad Wallach To Minors Contract

By Mark Polishuk | January 19, 2025 at 11:27pm CDT

The Rangers have signed catcher Chad Wallach to a minor league split contract, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reports.  Wallach will receive an invitation to Texas’ big league Spring Training camp.

The veteran backstop spent the last three seasons in the Angels organization, re-signing with the Halos in each of the last two winters.  After seeing some action in every MLB campaign from 2017-23, Wallach didn’t get any time in the Show last year, as he hit .247/.337/.430 over 335 plate appearances with Triple-A Salt Lake.  Logan O’Hoppe and Matt Thaiss stayed healthy and handled all of the catching duties for Los Angeles last season, so there was never any reason for Wallach to receive a call-up.

As he enters his age-34 season, Wallach now heads into a new environment with the Rangers, though his path to playing time isn’t much clearer.  Jonah Heim and Kyle Higashioka are set to be the Rangers’ top catching duo, and Tucker Barnhart was also inked to a minor league contract.  It could be that Texas simply wants as many backstops in camp as possible, but should Barnhart opt out of his deal to pursue another opportunity elsewhere, Wallach might be viewed as the likelier candidate to actually stay in the organization as an experienced catcher for the Triple-A affiliate.

Wallach has hit .198/.263/.328 with five home runs over 443 career plate appearances during his seven MLB seasons.  A backup for much of his career with the Reds, Marlins, and Angels, he received his most playing time in 2023, when a spate of injuries to the Halos’ catching corps allowed Wallach to amass 172 PA over 65 games.

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Texas Rangers Transactions Chad Wallach

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Angels Sign Chad Wallach To Minor League Deal

By Mark Polishuk | December 23, 2023 at 2:53pm CDT

The Angels have re-signed catcher Chad Wallach to a minor league contract, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports (X link).  Wallach entered free agency after being outrighted off the Halos’ 40-man roster following the season, and it is safe to guess that his new minors deal contains an invitation to Spring Training.

It is the second catcher signing in as many days for Los Angeles, as Francisco Mejia was also added on a minors contract yesterday.  Logan O’Hoppe is set to be the Angels’ starting catcher and Matt Thaiss has the inside track on the backup job, but Mejia and Wallach will provide some veteran competition and depth in Spring Training.  Since Thaiss also has some experience as a corner infielder, the Halos could even consider carrying three catchers on the Opening Day roster, depending on how the rest of their offseason dealings play out.

Wallach is a known quantity in Anaheim, first joining the organization after being claimed off waivers from the Dodgers in August 2021.  The Angels have outrighted Wallach off the roster four times, and this marks the second straight offseason that Wallach had elected free agency and then re-signed with the organization.

Wallach’s defense and reputation as a quality game-caller have led to a seven-year Major League career, consisting of 155 career games and 443 plate appearances with the Reds, Marlins and Angels from 2017-23.  Due to the Angels’ catching injuries last season, Wallach set new career highs in both games played (65) and PA (172), though he didn’t deliver much at the plate.  Over his 443 career PA, Wallach has hit .198/.263/.328 with 11 home runs — seven of those dingers came in 2023.

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Los Angeles Angels Transactions Chad Wallach

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Angels Outright Six Players

By Nick Deeds | October 16, 2023 at 6:41pm CDT

The Angels have outrighted first baseman Jared Walsh, outfielder Brett Phillips, catcher Chad Wallach, right-handers Jaime Barria and Carson Fulmer, and left-hander Jhonathan Diaz, per MLB.com’s Transactions page. It had not previously been announced that the group were designated for assignment, but each player evidently cleared waivers. Walsh, Phillips, Wallach, Barria, and Fulmer will each now have the opportunity to elect free agency and hit the open market this offseason.

Walsh, 30, is perhaps the most noteworthy of the group. A 39th-round pick by the Angels in the 2015 draft, Walsh made it to the majors in 2019 and broke out in a big way during the shortened 2020 season, slashing an incredible .293/.324/.646 with nine home runs in just 108 trips to the plate. He followed up that breakout campaign with a strong 2021 as the club’s regular first baseman. In 144 games that year, Walsh hit .277/.340/.509 with 29 homers in his first full season of big league action en route to his first career All Star appearance. Unfortunately, things went down hill for Walsh from there. The slugger has struggled with neurological issues in recent years and struggled to be an effective big leaguer as a result, slashing just .197/.258/.355 in 157 games across the past two seasons. Deep as Walsh’s struggles have been in recent years, if he can prove himself to be healthy it’s certainly feasible that a club with a need at first base could give him a look thanks to his significant success in the relatively recent past.

Phillips, 29, made his big league debut with the Brewers during the 2017 season, slashing a solid .276/.351/.448 in 98 trips to the plate for the club. That said, Phillips’s true calling card is his outfield defense, which has allowed him to appear in the majors for each of the past seven seasons of his career despite only posting a better-than-average slash line in 2021 besides his debut season. Though he’s slashed a paltry .187/.272/.347 for his career including an abysmal .152/.230/.269 line the past two seasons, Phillips has managed to bounce between the Brewers, Royals, Rays, Orioles, and Angels throughout his career and could enter free agency as a solid, glove-first depth piece for interested clubs, though it’s possible he’ll have to settle for a minor league deal.

Wallach, 31, made is MLB debut in 2017 and since then has bounced around the major and minor leagues as a depth option behind the plate, with previous major league stints in Cincinnati and Miami as well as Anaheim. 2023 was the journeyman’s first extended big league opportunity thanks to injuries to the club’s typical catching corps of Logan O’Hoppe and Max Stassi, and Wallach performed passably in the role with solid framing numbers and 70 wRC+ that placed him 49th among 69 catchers with at least 100 big league plate appearances this season. Wallach figures to once again receive interest as a potential depth piece for clubs in need of additional catching options this offseason.

Barria, 27, made his MLB debut in 2018 and has spent his entire career with the Angels to this point. His rookie season was an impressive one, as he posted a 3.41 ERA that was 23% better than league average by ERA+ in 26 starts, though his 4.58 FIP left something to be desired. Barria struggled in a swing role in 2019 before bouncing back with a 3.62 ERA and matching 3.65 FIP in 32 1/3 innings of work during the shortened 2020 season. That set off what has become a trend of Barria alternating between struggles and success every other season; while he posted excellent numbers in 2022 with a 2.61 ERA as a multi-inning reliever, he struggled in 2021 and especially the 2023 campaign, during which he posted a 5.68 ERA and 6.07 FIP across 82 1/3 innings of work. Still, given Barria’s relative youth and previous success, it seems like a reasonable bet that he’ll find interest in his services this offseason.

Fulmer, who was selected eighth overall by the White Sox in the 2015 draft, struggled to a 6.41 ERA and 5.93 FIP across 130 2/3 innings for the first six seasons of his big league career while bouncing between the White Sox, Tigers, Orioles, and Reds organizations. After a solid season at the Triple-A level for Fulmer with the Dodgers in 2022, he signed on in Anaheim and return to the big leagues late in the year. He pitched fairly well in ten innings of work, striking out six while posting a 2.70 ERA across three appearances. The 29-year-old figures to once again receive interest from clubs this offseason, though it seems likely he’ll once again be limited to minor league offers.

Diaz, meanwhile, will remain in the Angels organization as a player with less than three years service time who’s just received the first outright assignment of his career. The 27-year-old lefty made his big league debut in Anaheim back in 2021, and has posted a 4.84 ERA with a 4.83 FIP across 35 1/3 innings of work in the big leagues split across the last three seasons. Diaz sports identical 14.4% strikeout and walk rates for his big league career thanks to a brutal 2023 campaign that saw him walk seven batters in seven innings while striking out just four and posting a 10.29 ERA. He’ll remain a decent left-handed depth option for the Angels going forward.

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Los Angeles Angels Transactions Brett Phillips Carson Fulmer Chad Wallach Jaime Barria Jared Walsh Jhonathan Diaz

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Angels Select Chad Wallach, Designate Chris Devenski For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald and Anthony Franco | August 25, 2023 at 4:42pm CDT

The Angels announced that catcher Matt Thaiss has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 24, due to right shoulder inflammation. Fellow catcher Chad Wallach has been selected to the roster as his replacement. To open a 40-man spot for Wallach, right-hander Chris Devenski was reinstated from the injured list and designated for assignment.

Wallach, 31, served as part of the club’s catching duo alongside Thaiss for much of the year. The Angels had originally planned on having Max Stassi and Logan O’Hoppe behind the plate but both ended up spending significant time on the injured list, bumping Thaiss and Wallach to the top of the depth chart. But when O’Hoppe returned from the IL last week, Wallach got designated for assignment, eventually clearing waivers and accepting an outright assignment. With Thaiss now set to miss an undetermined amount of time, Wallach has his roster spot back.

In 58 games for the Halos this season, Wallach struck out in 34.2% of his plate appearances but launched seven home runs. His .209/.279/.403 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 84, indicating he’s been below average overall, but fairly solid by backup catcher standards. He also produced two Defensive Runs Saved and was just under average in terms of framing. He can be retained for next year via arbitration but is out of options.

Devenski has made 29 relief appearances for the Halos on the season. The veteran has a 5.06 ERA across 33 2/3 innings despite generally solid underlying marks. Devenski has a decent 23.6% strikeout percentage and has walked only 6.4% of opposing hitters. He has kept the ball on the ground and missed bats on a respectable 11.9% of his offerings. Opponents have hit only .244/.295/.394 against him, but he’s had a hard time stranding the runners he does allow to reach base.

The 32-year-old Devenski has bounced around the league following a strong 2016-17 run with the Astros. He owns a 5.38 ERA in 175 2/3 frames between four clubs since the start of the 2018 season. The Halos will put him on waivers in the coming days. If he goes unclaimed, he’d have the right to elect free agency.

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Los Angeles Angels Transactions Chad Wallach Chris Devenski Matt Thaiss

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Angels Designate Zack Weiss For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | August 22, 2023 at 2:45pm CDT

The Angels announced today that right-hander José Marte was reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake. To make room for him on the 40-man roster, righty Zack Weiss was designated for assignment. Additionally, catcher Chad Wallach cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Salt Lake.

Weiss, 31, was first added to the Angels’ roster in September of last year. In that span of just under a full year, he’s served as a frequently-optioned depth arm for the club, tossing 18 2/3 innings in the majors, allowing 3.86 earned runs per nine frames in that time. He struck out 30.9% of batters faced but also walked 11.1%.

This year, he’s spent the majority of his time in Triple-A, tossing 37 1/3 innings with a 6.03 ERA. That’s been in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but Weiss has still walked 14% of opponents, which hasn’t helped matters. It seems those control issues have nudged him off the roster. Since the trade deadline went by long ago, the Angels will have to put Weiss on waivers in the coming days. Despite his struggles with the free passes,  he’s always had decent strikeout numbers to go with and could perhaps garner interest from other clubs.

He has less than a year of service time and a full slate of options, which could appeal to a club in search of some depth and with the ability to have some long-term patience. If he were to clear waivers, he lacks the previous career outright and three years of major league service necessary to elect free agency, though he would qualify for minor league free agency if not on a roster at season’s end.

Marte, 27, will take that roster spot from Weiss. He was placed on the injured list in March due to a right elbow stress reaction and has only just now been activated. He’s a similar pitcher to Weiss, in that he generally pair high strikeout numbers with high walk totals. In 15 major league innings, he’s punched out 26.3% of opponents while giving free passes to 27.6% in that small sample. In Triple-A last year, he had a 29.5% strikeout rate and 14.7% walk rate.

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Los Angeles Angels Transactions Chad Wallach Jose Marte Zack Weiss

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Angels Outright Chad Wallach

By Nick Deeds | August 20, 2023 at 7:40pm CDT

The Angels announced this evening that they have assigned catcher Chad Wallach outright to Triple-A Salt Lake. The club designated Wallach for assignment on Friday, clearing the way for top prospect Logan O’Hoppe to make his return from injury. Wallach has enough service time to reject that assignment, if he so chooses, though he would forgo the remainder of his 2023 salary in doing so.

Wallach, 31, shared time behind the plate with Matt Thaiss for the Angels throughout much of the season thanks to injuries to both O’Hoppe and Max Stassi, the club’s initially planned tandem. Wallach performed admirably in the role, with a wRC+ of 84 in 149 trips to the plate that leaves him roughly middle of the pack among catchers with that many plate appearances this season. Wallach paired that decent offensive production with a solid glove and had the look of an above-average backup catcher throughout his time in Anaheim this year.

That being said, Wallach cooled significantly over his last two months with the club. In 67 trips to the plate since June 17, Wallach hit an anemic .119/.200/.220 with a massive 38.9% strikeout rate. That significant decline with the bat combined with Wallach’s lack of options remaining likely contributed to the journeyman catcher going unclaimed on waivers. Now that he’s been outrighted to Triple-A, Wallach will have to decide whether to remain with the Angels in the minor leagues or test the waters of free agency.

Free agency might be an attractive route for Wallach, given the constant need for catching depth around the big leagues and his solid performance as a back-up this year. That being said, Wallach is likely the Angels’ first choice to join the roster in the event of an injury to O’Hoppe or Thaiss, a reality that could lead the veteran to decide he’s best off remaining in the organization as he searches for his next big league opportunity.

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Los Angeles Angels Transactions Chad Wallach

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Angels Designate Chad Wallach For Assignment, Transfer Anthony Rendon To 60-Day IL

By Darragh McDonald | August 18, 2023 at 4:55pm CDT

The Angels announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported selection of prospect Nolan Schanuel. They also reinstated catcher Logan O’Hoppe from the 60-day injured list. One active roster spot was opened by first baseman C.J. Cron being placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 16, due to low back inflammation. Chad Wallach was designated for assignment, opening a spot on both the active and 40-man rosters. To open a second spot on the 40-man, third baseman Anthony Rendon was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Wallach, 31, signed a minor league deal with the Halos in the offseason and had his contract selected in April when O’Hoppe landed on the injured list due to a torn labrum in his shoulder. Wallach has been sharing the catching duties with Matt Thaiss since then, generally performing well by backup catcher standards.

He struck out in 34.2% of his plate appearances and only batted .209, but he hit seven home runs in just 149 plate appearances. His 84 wRC+ indicates he was 16% below average overall, but catchers generally produce less at the plate, as the league’s backstops have a collective wRC+ of 89 this year. He’s been graded as a decent defender this year, with +1 Defensive Runs Saved and framing marks close to average.

But just as he joined the roster as O’Hoppe went to the injured list, he now departs as O’Hoppe is activated. The Halos will be hoping that O’Hoppe can pick up right where he left off, as he was hitting .283/.339/.547 before the shoulder injury. The club will put Wallach on waivers in the coming days, since the trade deadline is now in the rearview mirror. If any other team were to put in a claim, they could control him for two more years via arbitration. If he were to clear, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency.

As for Rendon, he was placed on the injured list in mid-July due to a left shin contusion after fouling a ball off his leg. An MRI in the days after that IL placement revealed a deep bone bruise and he was shut down at that point. Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reported this week that Rendon had yet to resume baseball activities. Once healthy, he’ll presumably need to get back into game shape with some kind of rehab assignment after this layoff.

Today’s transfer means he’s ineligible to return until 60 days from his initial IL placement, which would be the second week of September. Whether he’s ultimately able to return late in the year or not, this will go down as another frustrating campaign due to health reasons. Signed to a seven-year, $245MM deal after 2019, he has yet to play in 60 games in a season as an Angel, with just 43 so far this year. The first year of the contract wasn’t his fault, as the pandemic eventually led to a truncated 60-game schedule. But he’s made frequent IL trips in three straight seasons now.

Since the start of 2021, he’s played just 148 total games over that three-year stretch, going on the IL due to a left groin strain, left knee contusion, left hamstring strain, right hip impingement, right wrist surgery, another left groin strain and now this left shin contusion/bone bruise. He’s hit .235/.338/.363 in that time for a wRC+ of 97.

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Los Angeles Angels Transactions Anthony Rendon C.J. Cron Chad Wallach Logan O'Hoppe Nolan Schanuel

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The Silver Lining Of The Angels’ Catching Injuries

By Darragh McDonald | June 22, 2023 at 5:40pm CDT

The Angels came into 2023 with an apparent logjam behind the plate, something that MLBTR’s Anthony Franco examined back in February. Prospect Logan O’Hoppe had just been acquired from the Phillies at last year’s deadline and seemed ready for an extended big league audition. Max Stassi was coming off a rough 2022 season but the club committed to him with a $17.5MM extension at the start of that year. With those two seeming to be likeliest candidates for jobs on the major league roster, it looked like Matt Thaiss might get squeezed out.

Thaiss, now 28, had already been through some ups and downs prior to the 2023 season. He was considered a bat-first catcher when the Angels selected him in the first round of the 2016 draft, using the 16th overall pick to nab him. Since his bat was considered his standout tool, they decided to focus on that, moving him to first base and seemingly abandoning the idea of him catching.

He always hit well in the minors, with an overall batting line of .278/.367/.454 in 582 games down on the farm. However, he wasn’t able to hit the ground running in the big leagues. He first reached the majors in July of 2019 but hit just .211/.293/.422 in the second half of that season for a wRC+ of 86. Over the next three years, he would spend the vast majority of his time on optional assignment, only getting into 40 major league games over those campaigns. He struggled in his sporadic chances, hitting .196/.307/.299 for a 74 wRC+.

Coming into 2023, he was out of options on account of languishing in the minors for most of the previous three years, but he was on the catching depth chart again. Although the Angels had initially moved him to first base and had also tried him at third, they moved him back behind the plate in 2021. He got into 54 games as a catcher for Triple-A Salt Lake that year. In 2022, he was behind the plate for 45 more Triple-A games and 14 in the big leagues.

It seemed like a fork in the road was coming at the start of 2023. He was out of options and was blocked by one player with a longer major league track record as well as a younger and shinier prospect. Although Thaiss was a former first-round pick and had plenty of minor league success, it seemed like he was destined to be cut from the roster.

But a couple of plot twists have happened since then. Stassi opened the season on the injured list due to a hip strain and has stayed there due to an undisclosed family situation. That opened a door for Thaiss to stick on the Opening Day roster as O’Hoppe’s backup, but then O’Hoppe landed on the injured list himself just three weeks later. He was diagnosed with a torn labrum in his shoulder that required surgery, putting him out of action for four to six months.

In less than a month, Thaiss went from the roster bubble to the club’s top catching option. No club wants to lose its top two catchers, of course, but at least this finally created some runway for them to see what Thaiss could do in the big leagues.

Thankfully for both him and the Angels, it has been working out well so far. In 51 games, he’s received 155 plate appearances. His 27.1% strikeout rate is on the high side, but he’s paired that with an excellent 13.5% walk rate. Among catchers with at least 150 trips to the plate, only Will Smith and Adley Rutschman have walked at a higher clip. Thaiss has just three home runs, but his .267/.374/.382 batting line amounts to a 116 wRC+. That places him in the top five in the league among backstops over that threshold of 150 plate appearances.

Of course, it’s not a total shock that he’s performing well at the plate, since that’s always been considered his best skill and he’s always hit on the farm. But he’s also holding his own defensively. By each of Statcast’s Blocks Above Average and their Caught Stealing Above Average metrics, Thaiss is graded with a zero or exactly league average. That’s not going to blow anyone’s socks off, but it’s a nice outcome for a guy who’s always been considered bat-first and wasn’t even catching as of a few years ago. Thaiss is still considered slightly below league average by Defensive Runs Saved and FanGraphs’ framing metric, but he’s not killing the club back there.

It’s also worth mentioning that veteran Chad Wallach is holding up his end of the deal as well. Those Statcast metrics consider him a bit below average, but he’s hit six home runs and is slashing .247/.304/.482 for a wRC+ of 114. For a guy who signed a minor league deal and was fourth on the depth chart coming into the year, that’s excellent production.

Turning back to Thaiss, he may not be a superstar but he’s inflated his own stock significantly in a few months. The roster squeeze won’t be coming back anytime soon, since O’Hoppe probably won’t be back until rosters expand in September — if he returns at all this season. Stassi’s timeline is completely unknown. He still has one guaranteed year left on his extension at $7MM, plus a $500K buyout on a 2025 club option, but after a dismal campaign in 2022 and this year potentially being entirely lost, he’s won’t be guaranteed any roster spots going forward.

Thaiss came into this year with one year and 38 days of service time, meaning he will finish this season at 2.038. That will leave him shy of Super Two status, allowing the Angels to potentially retain him cheaply for next year and three more arbitration campaigns beyond that. His defense still seems like a work in progress, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect continued improvements there given his relatively short amount of time getting reacquainted with the position.

The Angels have often had star power from Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and others, but failed to succeed as a team due to injuries and a lack of depth. This year, they lost both of their primary catchers by the end of April, but it hasn’t been a disaster, with Thaiss and Wallach deserving credit for picking up the slack.

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Los Angeles Angels MLBTR Originals Chad Wallach Logan O'Hoppe Matt Thaiss Max Stassi

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