Orioles Re-Sign Sam Huff To Minor League Deal
April 26: Huff is back with Baltimore on a minor league deal, per his MLB transactions tracker. Roch Kubatko of MASN first reported the possibility of Huff returning to the organization.
April 25: Huff has cleared waivers and elected free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment, per Jake Rill of MLB.com.
April 21: The Orioles announced Tuesday that catcher Sam Huff has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to catcher Adley Rutschman, who’s returning from a brief stay on the 10-day injured list due to a minor ankle injury.
Huff was just selected to the big league roster last week. He appeared in three games with Baltimore, going 2-for-9 with a double, an RBI and five strikeouts in nine plate appearances. With Rutschman back from the injured list, however, the O’s can turn catching duties back over to their Opening Day tandem of Rutschman and prospect Samuel Basallo.
Huff, 28, signed a minor league deal with the O’s in January. The former Rangers top prospect has now played in parts of six big league seasons and slashed a respectable .246/.299/.427 with a dozen homers in 281 trips to the batter’s box. That’s roughly league-average offense, by measure of wRC+, and more than 10% better than the standard catcher. However, Huff’s output has come in spite of a colossal 36.3% strikeout rate. He’s needed a .354 average on balls in play just to get to league-average with the bat. As such, he’s highly unlikely to sustain his current pace.
On the defensive side of things, Huff has solid framing grades in his limited major league work. He’s struggled with blocking balls in the dirt and controlling the run game. The former seventh-round pick has just an 18.5% caught-stealing rate in his career and has been charged with eight passed balls in 527 innings behind the dish.
Baltimore will have five days to trade Huff or place him on outright waivers. (The latter seems likelier.) Waivers would be another 48-hour process, so the outcome of today’s DFA will be known within a week. If he clears waivers, Huff could be assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk, where he hit .156/.250/.168 in 36 plate appearances before being summoned to the big leagues. However, since he’s previously been outrighted in the past, he’d have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency.
Orioles Select Sam Huff, Designate Jayvien Sandridge For Assignment
The Orioles announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of catcher Sam Huff from Triple-A Norfolk. Left-hander Jayvien Sandridge, who had been pitching in Triple-A, was designated for assignment to open a 40-man spot. Lefty Nick Raquet was optioned to Norfolk to open space for Huff on the active roster.
Huff’s call to the big leagues means the O’s will be playing a reliever short for at least today. Huff joins the roster as a third catcher alongside Samuel Basallo and Maverick Handley. Adley Rutschman hit the injured list last week due to an ankle issue.
Baltimore signed Huff to a minor league contract back in January. He’s a former Rangers seventh-rounder who’s played in parts of five major league seasons. Now 28 years old, Huff once rated as one of the top catching prospects in the sport and carries a decent .247/.301/.430 batting line in the majors. That production comes in a sample of only 272 plate appearances and despite a 36% strikeout rate, however. Huff’s production has been buoyed by a .350 average on balls in play that he’s not likely to sustain over a long period.
Huff has solid framing grades in his limited major league work but has struggled with blocking balls in the dirt and controlling the run game. He has just an 18.5% caught-stealing rate in his career and has been charged with eight passed balls in 507 innings behind the dish.
It’s been a struggle for Huff in a tiny sample of nine games with Norfolk this year. He’s hitting .156/.250/.168 in 36 plate appearances with the Tides but has a much stronger overall track record in Triple-A. Huff entered the season with a lifetime .258/.338/.476 slash, 56 homers, 60 doubles, a pair of triples, a 10.2% walk rate and a more troubling 29.9% strikeout rate in exactly 1200 Triple-A plate appearances.
The 27-year-old Sandridge joined the O’s in a cash swap with the Angels shortly after Opening Day. He was originally a 32nd-round pick by Baltimore back in 2018 but bounced from the Orioles, to the Reds, to the Padres, to the Yankees and to the Angels since that selection. Sandridge made an extremely brief MLB debut last season, facing a total of six hitters and retiring two of them. He has just two-thirds of an inning and two earned runs in the majors.
Sandridge has pitched in parts of seven minor league seasons but totaled only 243 1/3 total innings. He’s logged a solid 3.96 earned run average in that time and punched out nearly one-third of his opponents — but he’s also issued walks at a 17% clip and plunked another 22 of the 1108 batters he’s faced (2%). Coupled with a whopping 44 wild pitches, it’s more than fair to say that command is a major hindrance for the southpaw.
This season, Sandridge has tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings with Norfolk, but he’s walked three of the nine batters he’s faced. It’s only a sample of two games, but it’s notable that his heater, which sat just shy of 95 mph in Triple-A and averaged 95.6 mph in last year’s brief debut, is clocking in at an average of 92.9 mph in 2026.
Sandridge is in the second of his three minor league option years. A team looking for some left-handed bullpen depth with a knack for missing bats could roll the dice on a waiver claim or a cash swap like the one that sent Sandridge back to Baltimore in the first place. The Orioles have five days to trade him or place him on waivers. Since waivers are a 48-hour process, the outcome of his DFA will be known within the next week.
Orioles, Sam Huff Agree To Minor League Deal
The Orioles have agreed to a minor league contract with catcher Sam Huff, reports MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko. The ALIGND Sports client will presumably be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring.
A seventh-rounder by the Rangers back in 2016, the as-of-yesterday 28-year-old Huff has played in parts of five major league seasons. He once rated as one of the top catching prospects in the sport and carries a decent .247/.301/.430 batting line in the majors. That production comes in a sample of only 272 plate appearances and spite of a 36% strikeout rate, however. Huff’s rate stats have been buoyed by a .350 average on balls in play.
Huff has solid framing grades in his limited major league work but has struggled with blocking balls in the dirt and controlling the run game. He has just an 18.5% caught-stealing rate in his career and has been charged with eight passed balls in 507 innings behind the dish.
The minor league numbers for Huff aren’t bad. He’s tallied exactly 1200 plate appearances in Triple-A and carries a lifetime .258/.338/.476 slash at that level, including 56 homers, 60 doubles, a pair of triples and a 10.2% walk rate. Contact has been an issue for him even at the top minor league level, though; he’s fanned in an untenable 29.9% of his trips to the plate in Triple-A.
With the Orioles, Huff figures to be a pure depth option. Top prospect Samuel Basallo and mainstay Adley Rutschman will handle the catching duties in the majors. Twenty-seven-year-old Maverick Handley got some looks as a glove-first option behind the dish when the O’s were dealing with injuries in 2025 as well, though he’s since been removed from the 40-man roster. Huff can join Handley in Triple-A Norfolk and give the organization an option as a righty bat at first base, too (not that they’re lacking in that regard). He’s logged 73 career games (566 innings) at first base between the minors and the big leagues.
Players Entering Minor League Free Agency
Major League free agents became eligible to sign with other teams on Thursday, but the minor league free agent market has technically been open since season’s end. MLBTR has published several posts detailing players who had already elected to become minor free agents, but Baseball America’s Matt Eddy (multiple links) has the full account of all the minor league free agents that officially joined their big league counterparts on the open market on Thursday.
This list details only players who have played in the Major Leagues, and whose minor league free agency hasn’t already been covered on MLBTR in the last month.
Athletics: Aaron Brooks, Carlos Duran, CD Pelham, Bryan Lavastida, Nick Martini, Alejo Lopez
Braves: Ian Anderson, Davis Daniel, Enoli Paredes, Amos Willingham, Brian Moran, Jonathan Ornelas, Chandler Seagle, Matthew Batten, Conner Capel
Orioles: Jakson Reetz, Livan Soto, Thaddeus Ward
Red Sox: John Brebbia, Isaiah Campbell, Mark Kolozsvary, Chadwick Tromp, Seby Zavala, Trayce Thompson
Cubs: Yency Almonte, Zach Pop, Caleb Kilian, Austin Gomber, Forrest Wall, Billy Hamilton, Joe Ross, Tommy Romero, Antonio Santos, Tom Cosgrove, Dixon Machado, Nicky Lopez, Carlos Perez
White Sox: Elvis Peguero, Kyle Tyler, Vinny Capra, Chris Rodriguez, Caleb Freeman, Joe Perez, Owen White, Andre Lipcius
Reds: Tejay Antone, Alan Busenitz, Buck Farmer, Josh Staumont, P.J. Higgins, Eric Yang, Levi Jordan, Edwin Rios, Davis Wendzel, Evan Kravetz, Adam Plutko, Charlie Barnes, Alex Young
Guardians: Riley Pint, Tyler Naquin, Parker Mushinski
Rockies: Xzavion Curry, Sean Bouchard, Owen Miller, Karl Kauffmann,
Tigers: Kevin Newman, Brian Serven, Jordan Balazovic, Nick Margevicius, Blair Calvo
Astros: Jon Singleton, Joe Hudson, Kenedy Corona, Greg Jones, Matt Bowman, Luis Contreras, Tyler Ivey, John Rooney
Royals: John Gant, Spencer Turnbull, Bobby Dalbec, Diego Castillo, Geoff Hartlieb, Jordan Groshans, Nick Pratto, Isan Diaz, Stephen Nogosek, Nick Robertson, Joey Krehbiel, Noah Murdock, Ryan Hendrix
Angels: Shaun Anderson, Brandon Drury, Yolmer Sanchez, Ben Gamel, Evan White, Cavan Biggio, Logan Davidson, Travis Blankenhorn, Oscar Colas, Kelvin Caceres, Dakota Hudson, Chad Stevens, Angel Felipe, Jordan Holloway, Victor Gonzalez
Dodgers: Michael Grove, Luken Baker, Giovanny Gallegos, Kyle Funkhouser, Chris Okey, CJ Alexander, Zach Penrod
Marlins: Jack Winkler, Lane Ramsey
Brewers: Luis Urias, Oliver Dunn, Julian Merryweather, Daz Cameron, Drew Avans, Josh Maciejewski, Jared Oliva
Twins: Jose Miranda, Anthony Misiewicz, Jonah Bride, Thomas Hatch, Daniel Duarte, Connor Gillispie
Mets: Joey Meneses, Jose Azocar, Joe La Sorsa, Gilberto Celestino, Ty Adcock, Bryce Montes de Oca, Yacksel Rios, Oliver Ortega, Luis De Los Santos
Yankees: Kenta Maeda, Jeimer Candelario, Rob Brantly, Andrew Velazquez, Jose Rojas, Joel Kuhnel, Wilking Rodriguez
Phillies: Matt Manning, Adonis Medina, Lucas Sims, Jacob Waguespack, Phil Bickford, Rodolfo Castro, Oscar Mercado, Brewer Hicklen, Christian Arroyo, Payton Henry
Pirates: Brett Sullivan, Nick Solak, Nelson Velazquez, Beau Burrows, Ryder Ryan
Cardinals: Zach Plesac, Anthony Veneziano, Tyler Matzek, Zack Weiss, Drew Rom, Aaron Wilkerson
Padres: Eguy Rosario, Tim Locastro, Reiss Knehr, Nate Mondou
Giants: Sean Hjelle, Miguel Diaz, Max Stassi, Sam Huff, Cole Waites, Drew Ellis, Ethan Small
Mariners: Michael Fulmer, Casey Lawrence, Collin Snider, Jesse Hahn, Nick Anderson, Josh Fleming, Austin Shenton, Jacob Nottingham, Beau Taylor, Cade Marlowe, Jack Lopez, Michael Mariot, Hagen Danner
Rays: Cooper Hummel, Jonathan Hernandez, Jamie Westbrook, Tres Barrera
Rangers: Omar Narvaez, Cal Quantrill, Ty Blach, Alan Trejo, Joe Barlow, Cory Abbott, Michael Plassmeyer, Alex De Goti
Blue Jays: Eloy Jimenez, Buddy Kennedy, Joe Mantiply, Elieser Hernandez, Rene Pinto, Adam Kloffenstein
Nationals: Francisco Mejia, Juan Yepez, Joan Adon, CJ Stubbs, Parker Dunshee, Erick Mejia, Adrian Sampson, Delino DeShields
Giants Outright Sam Huff
Catcher Sam Huff cleared waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A Sacramento, according to a report from Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. Huff had previously been designated for assignment by the club earlier this week.
Huff, 27, was a seventh-round pick by the Rangers back in 2016 who was a consensus top-100 prospect in baseball back in 2020 and 2021. He made his big league debut during the shortened 2020 season and looked utterly sensational in a ten-game sample, slashing .355/.394/.742 in his brief call-up to the majors that year. That strong start to Huff’s career combined with his prospect status to create huge expectations, but he was sidelined by injury for much of the 2021 season and posted pedestrian numbers at Double-A when he was healthy enough to play. He turned things around after arriving at Triple-A, however, and his .260/.336/.533 slash line at the level in 2022 was enough to earn him another shot in the majors.
The backstop was generally a solid but unspectacular hitter in the majors during both the 2022 and ’23 campaigns. He got into 65 games in total for the club those years, and across his 177 plate appearances he hit .244/.299/.409 with a 98 wRC+. That’s just 2% below league average, and slightly better than the average catcher slash line. Even so, Huff was never a particularly robust defender behind the plate, so as a bat-first catcher who was only league average he quickly fell behind other options on the Rangers depth chart like Jonah Heim. Even so, he continued to rake at Triple-A and showed enough offensive talent that the club continued to hold out hope for an eventual breakout.
Things took a turn for the worse in 2024, as Huff barely found use in the majors (appearing in just three games with four total plate appearances) and stopped hitting even at the Triple-A level. After years of raking for the organization’s Round Rock affiliate, Huff slashed just .246/.310/.416 in 111 games at Triple-A last year. That’s not a terrible slash line in a vacuum, but when one factors in both Huff’s status as a then-26-year-old at Triple-A and the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League, it’s easy to see that an 82 wRC+ at Triple-A wouldn’t cut it. With Huff out of options entering 2025, the Rangers gave up on their longtime prospect and designated him for assignment.
That led him to join the Giants, for whom he entered the season as the backup to defensive stalwart Patrick Bailey. Ultimately, Huff appeared in 20 games with San Francisco but hit just .208/.259/.340 with a wRC+ of 68 in 58 plate appearances. While he’s always been prone to swing and miss, Huff’s 43.1% strikeout rate in a Giants uniform was downright alarming. Given that lackluster performance, it’s hardly a shock that the Giants decided to go in another direction for their backup to Bailey. With that being said, the club clearly still valued Huff as a potential depth option behind the plate. He’ll return to Triple-A for the time being as a non-roster depth piece for the Giants, and if he goes through the end of the season without being added back to the 40-man roster he’ll be able to elect minor league free agency and hit the open market for the first time in his career.
Giants Designate LaMonte Wade Jr., Sign Dominic Smith
The Giants are shaking up their struggling offense. The team announced Wednesday that first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. and backup catcher Sam Huff have been designated for assignment. Veteran first baseman Dominic Smith, who recently opted out of a minor league deal with the Yankees, has been signed to a one-year, major league contract. San Francisco also selected the contracts of outfielder Daniel Johnson and catcher Andrew Knizner from Triple-A and optioned infielder Christian Koss.
After a hot start to the season, the Giants have dropped 14 of their past 23 games. The offense has been the primary culprit, particularly over the past two weeks. Over the past 14 days, Giants hitters have posted a combined .209/.297/.306 batting line. They haven’t scored more than four runs in a game since May 16 and have been shut out or held to one run seven times in that span.
Wade’s struggles have been a major component of the team’s offensive drought, but unlike many of his teammates, the 31-year-old veteran has simply never gotten going in 2025. Wade was hitless in his first 18 trips to the plate this season and hasn’t pulled himself out of that funk. He’s batting .167/.275/.271 on the season and is currently in the midst of a 3-for-22 skid.
It’s been a swift and fairly shocking decline for Wade, who was a solidly above-average bat for San Francisco from 2021-24. He’s been the Giants’ primary first baseman in that stretch, and while he’s never been a huge power threat, he’s been an on-base machine. Wade was one of the best acquisitions of the Farhan Zaidi era in San Francisco, coming over from the Twins in a Feb. 2021 trade that sent righty Shaun Anderson to Minnesota. The swap drew minimal attention at the time, but Wade went on to bat .248/.352/.415 in his first four years as a Giant.
As recently as last season, Wade slashed .260/.380/.381 with a massive 15.5% walk rate. He’s been heavily platooned in his career, taking just 12% of his plate appearances against lefties and slashing .193/.288/.250 in that time, but Wade has been consistently productive against righties until 2025.
Wade’s 2025 struggles seem to stem from a loss of bat speed and, accordingly, pronounced troubles against velocity. He punished four-seamers from ’21-’24 but is hitting just .164 with a .262 slugging percentage against them in 2025. Statcast measured Wade’s bat speed at 73.8 mph in 2023 and 72.4 mph in 2024; he’s down to 69.7 mph in 2025, which places him in the 18th percentile of big league hitters.
Wade is still drawing walks at an outstanding 12.4% clip, and his 18.1% chase rate on pitches off the plate is the sixth-lowest among the 220 MLB hitters with at least 150 plate appearances this season. It’s clear that he has excellent pitch recognition and is still making good swing decisions — he’s just not doing any damage when he does make those correct choices.
In Wade’s defense, his .211 average on balls in play is more than 70 points shy of league-average. That can’t be entirely explained by bad luck, however, as he’s currently sporting a career-high 47.3% fly-ball rate. Fly-balls that stay in the yard are easier to convert into outs than grounders and especially line-drives, so even there’s unquestionably been some bad luck at play, Wade’s current batted-ball profile shouldn’t portend a rebound all the way back to his career .279 BABIP. That’s especially true given that he’s already hit more harmless infield pop-ups (six) through 169 plate appearances than he did in all of 2024 (four) in 401 trips to the plate.
Wade is being paid $5MM and is a free agent at season’s end. There’s still about $3.12MM of that sum that’s yet to be paid out. That figure could make it hard to find a trade partner, though the Giants could pay down a portion of the salary if another team has some interest.
The remaining money on Wade’s contract might be steep enough to allow him to pass through waivers if the Giants go that route, as any team that claimed him would take on that full $3.12MM (or a bit less, depending on the date he’s actually placed on waivers). If Wade were to clear, he has enough service time to reject a minor league assignment and retain the rest of that guaranteed money. In that scenario, any club that signs him would only need to pay him the prorated league minimum. That’d be subtracted from what the Giants owe him, but San Francisco would still be on the hook for the rest of his salary.
For at least the time being, Wade will be replaced by Smith. The former first-round pick is a veteran of eight big league seasons but has seen his offense drop after a huge 2019-20 showing wherein he batted .299/.366/.571 in 396 plate appearances with the Mets. Smith has begun to slip into journeyman status; the Giants are his seventh organization since 2022.
However, even though Smith has bounced around the league, he’s managed to deliver passable, if unspectacular offense in each of the past two seasons. Over 893 plate appearances between the Nationals, Red Sox and Reds, he’s slashed a combined .247/.321/.370. That’s about 8% worse than average, by measure of wRC+, but is still miles better than what Wade has produced so far in 2025. Smith was hitting decently with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Scranton, slashing .255/.333/.448 with eight homers in 189 turns at the plate.
In all likelihood, Smith will be a placeholder at first base. Top prospect Bryce Eldridge was promoted from Double-A to Triple-A yesterday and shouldn’t be too far from getting a look in the majors. The 2023 first-rounder is still only 20 years old, but you wouldn’t know it when taking a look at the .280/.350/.512 line (147 wRC+) he produced against older, more experienced competition in Double-A this year. Eldridge is widely regarded as one of baseball’s 25 best prospects, and once he gets a call to the majors, he’ll get everyday at-bats at first base. Smith could hang around in a bench role if he’s hitting well enough, but Eldridge is considered San Francisco’s first baseman of the future and shouldn’t be long for the minors.
Huff, 27, has appeared in 20 games this year and only tallied one multi-hit effort. In 58 plate appearances, he’s turned in a .208/.259/.340 batting line with a huge 43.1% strikeout rate. The former Rangers top prospect has struggled to make contact throughout his limited run in the majors over the years. Huff entered 2025 with a career 33.6% strikeout rate in 214 plate appearances at the MLB level.
Patrick Bailey is entrenched as the Giants’ starter behind the plate and is among the sport’s best defenders at any position, but he’s struggling with the bat as well (.191/.254/.276). Bailey is so good defensively that the Giants aren’t going to make any changes there, but with their catcher batting an MLB-worst .191/.253/.291, they’ll shuffle things up on the reserve side and hope for a bit more offense from Knizner.
Knizner, 30, isn’t a great hitter himself. He’s a career .210/.279/.317 hitter in 887 major league plate appearances. That said, his career 23% strikeout rate is markedly lower than that of Huff. Knizner isn’t as well regarded from a pitch-framing standpoint, but Statcast gives him much better grades than Huff when it comes to blocking balls in the dirt.
Knizner has also had a massive showing in Triple-A this year, batting a combined .378/.512/.520 with more walks than strikeouts in 129 plate appearances between the top affiliates for the Nationals and the Giants. No one would realistically expect him to maintain even 75% of that pace in the majors, but given Huff’s struggles and the broader-reaching difficulties incurred by the Giants’ lineup as a whole, it’s not a surprise that Knizner’s eye-popping numbers earned him a bump to the big leagues.
Rounding out today’s influx of new bats in the Giants clubhouse is Johnson, whom they signed out of the Mexican League earlier this season. As was the case with Jerar Encarnacion in 2024, Johnson posted video game numbers in Mexico (.429/.512/.943) and caught the eye of Giants scouts. He’s been quite good since signing back on May 2, hitting .272/.312/.534 with six homers and five steals in 109 plate appearances. He’s seen brief MLB time with the Guardians and Orioles but has only 95 big league plate appearances to his credit. Johnson has a solid Triple-A track record, having slashed .257/.323/.452 in parts of six seasons.
Giants Notes: Stassi, Huff, Villar, Schmitt
Max Stassi won’t exercise the opt-out clause in his minor league contract, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes, and the catcher will instead remain in the Giants organization and play with Triple-A Sacramento. Yesterday marked the first of three opt-out dates automatically included in Stassi’s contract due to his Article XX(b) free agent status, and Stassi’s next chance to evaluate his future will come on May 1 if he hasn’t yet been added to the Giants’ roster.
There apparently wasn’t much drama in the competition between Stassi and Sam Huff to be Patrick Bailey‘s backup catcher, as Slusser notes that Stassi “has known the plan for a while and is fine with it.” If anything, playing in Sacramento has particular appeal for the catcher because he lives in the city and can spend more time with his family. Playing in the minors also allows Stassi the more regular on-field action he needs to ramp up after undergoing hip surgery last year.
Tom Murphy will miss the start of the season due to a herniated disc, creating the opening for Huff to eventually win the backup job. Formerly a top prospect in the Rangers’ farm system, Huff’s defense was often called as a question to stick in the catching role, and Jonah Heim ended up passing Huff on the depth chart. After Huff’s numbers dropped off at Triple-A last year, Texas designated the backstop for assignment, and the Giants claimed him away off waivers in January. The change of scenery seems to have helped thus far, as Huff has been tearing it up at the plate in the Cactus League.
The rest of San Francisco’s bench mix has yet to be determined, though Luis Matos will likely claim the backup outfielder role. Since it doesn’t seem like Jung Hoo Lee‘s recent back issue is serious (“I don’t even want to use the word injury, it was so mild,” Lee told Slusser and other reporters), the Giants could take two infielders from the group of Casey Schmitt, Brett Wisely, David Villar, and prospect Christian Koss.
Villar seems to be the odd one out, as Slusser feels the Giants will be designating him for assignment this week since Villar is out of minor league options. The infielder hit a respectable .231/.331/.455 over 181 plate appearances in his 2022 rookie season, but then struggled badly over 140 PA in 2023 and seemed to fall out of favor for playing time. Villar has a very impressive .268/.377/.511 slash line and 60 homers over 1182 career Triple-A plate appearances, with the caveat that that production came in Sacramento in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. A rival team in need of infield depth might be impressed enough by those numbers to take a flier on Villar if he does up on the waiver wire in the coming days.
There would seemingly be a lot more interest if the Giants made Schmitt available, as Slusser reports that multiple teams have expressed trade interest this offseason. The Giants, however, don’t have much interest in moving Schmitt, who is still two seasons away from even gaining arbitration eligibility. He also has one minor league option year remaining, giving the Giants flexibility in sending him back and forth from Triple-A.
Schmitt has a good track record of Triple-A results, and he showed improvement at the big league level in 2024, albeit in significantly fewer at-bats than he received in his 2023 rookie season. Schmitt hit .206/.255/.324 in 277 PA in 2023, and then bumped that up to a .252/.283/.477 slash line over 113 PA last year. In theory, Schmitt should again see limited action now that Willy Adames was signed to bring more stability to San Francisco’s infield, which in turn bumped Tyler Fitzgerald into a regular second-base role.
Poll: Giants Backup Catcher
Entering Spring Training, there was some belief that veteran catcher Tom Murphy‘s job backing up Patrick Bailey in San Francisco wasn’t entirely assured even in of the $4.25MM guaranteed remaining on his contract with the Giants. The door has opened for other alternatives even more since then, as the club announced yesterday that Murphy will miss multiple weeks with a herniated disc in his mid-back.
While Murphy is still tentatively expected to be available at some point in the first half, his availability for the start of the season is in serious doubt. With the club’s incumbent likely to miss at least the start of the season due to injury, the Giants have little choice but to seriously consider the number of alternative options currently in camp with them. The club has four catchers in camp aside from Bailey and Murphy as things stand: Sam Huff, Max Stassi, Logan Porter, and Adrian Sugastey. Sugastey is just 22 years old and slashed a meager .210/.241/.304 at Double-A last season, leaving him extremely unlikely to be called up to the majors until he’s had more time to develop. Huff, Stassi, and Porter all appear to be legitimate contenders for the job, however.
To the extent that there’s a favorite for the job, it seems that status would fall to Huff now that Murphy is out of commission. Unlike the other options in camp with the club, Huff is already on the 40-man roster after being plucked off waivers from the Rangers shortly after the new year. A former consensus top-100 prospect, Huff was a seventh-round pick by the Rangers in 2016 who blossomed into an intriguing bat-first catcher during his time in the minor leagues. Above-average offense isn’t necessarily a must from a club’s backup catcher, but given Bailey’s light-hitting, defense-first profile it’s easy to see why the Giants might be attracted to Huff as a potential complement.
A career .263/.334/.480 hitter across all levels of the minors, Huff has 78 games in the big leagues under his belt across four seasons with Texas. Unfortunately, that big league playing time has been something of a mixed bag. While he’s posted a solid 112 wRC+ in 214 career MLB plate appearances, he’s struck out at a massive 33.6% clip and largely been buoyed by a .353 BABIP that seems unlikely to be sustainable. Huff has generally been regarded as a below-average defender behind the plate as well despite a strong throwing arm and decent framing ability. That lack of defensive excellence puts more pressure on Huff’s bat, and it can be difficult for a high-strikeout profile like Huff’s to offer consistent production in a bench role.
Those potential question marks surrounding Huff could open the door for Stassi to take the job. The most experienced catcher in the backup mix for the Giants (even including Murphy), the soon to be 34-year-old has participated in parts of 10 MLB seasons, including a three-year run of regular at-bats with the Angels from 2020 to 2022. While the 2020 and ’21 seasons saw Stassi briefly break out offensively with a solid 113 wRC+, Stassi is mostly a glove-first catcher; he hit just .180/.267/.303 across 102 games in 2022 and has a career wRC+ of just 83. With +20 framing runs since the start of the 2018 season according to Statcast, however, Stassi makes up for his lack of offense with excellent defense that could pair with Bailey to give the Giants the best defensive tandem behind the plate in the sport.
Stassi comes with his own flaws, however. Most notably, he hasn’t played in the big leagues since 2022 due to a combination of family considerations and injuries. At nearly 34 years old, Stassi has reached the age where many catchers start to struggle to stay effective due to the toll the position takes on the body, and that concern is exacerbated for Stassi in particular due to both his checkered recent history and the fact that he regressed both offensively and defensively during the 2022 campaign.
Of course, that regression may have also had something to do with his career-high workload that year, an issue that would not come up in 2025 should he serve as Bailey’s backup. On the other hand, Stassi offers little upside, with even a solid rebound from his 2022 season likely ending with him being a below-average hitter. Huff offers significantly more upside, both due to the potential of his bat and because he has less than two years of MLB service time under his belt at this point, allowing him to be controlled through the end of the 2029 season.
Porter, meanwhile, stands as less likely to earn the job than either Huff or Stassi but also represents something of a middle ground between the two. The 29-year-old is the least experienced of the trio at the big league level, having appeared in just 11 games with the Royals back in 2023. With that being said, he has a reputation as a strong defender and pairs that with a bat that showed some life at Triple-A last year, where he slashed a combined .267/.370/.453 (114 wRC+) in 73 across the Royals, Mets, and Giants organizations. Given his lack of big league experience, Porter could be controlled long-term and even optioned to the minor leagues if added to the 40-man roster, while Huff is out of options and Stassi has enough service time to decline an optional assignment.
Assuming Murphy begins the season on the injured list, which catcher should the Giants pair with Bailey? Is Huff’s former top prospect status and offensive upside worth the lackluster defense and potential contact issues? Should the club gamble on Stassi’s track record of MLB success despite his long layoff from big league games and worrying signals in his 2022 campaign? Or should the club take a chance on Porter despite his minimal big league experience? Have your say in the poll below:
Who should back up Patrick Bailey on Opening Day?
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Sam Huff 48% (1,701)
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Max Stassi 43% (1,525)
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Logan Porter 9% (335)
Total votes: 3,561
Tom Murphy Out Multiple Weeks With Herniated Disc
Giants backup catcher Tom Murphy was diagnosed with a mid-back herniated disc, the team announced to its beat writers this morning (link via Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle). He’ll receive an epidural injection and be sidelined for multiple weeks. The Giants haven’t formally ruled Murphy out for Opening Day, but things certainly appear to be trending that direction.
Waiver claim Sam Huff and minor league signee Max Stassi will compete for the backup job behind Patrick Bailey if Murphy is indeed sidelined into the season. The Giants also announced that they’ve pulled catcher Adrian Sugastey from minor league camp and formally given him a non-roster invitation to big league camp, replenishing some of the lost depth.
San Francisco signed Murphy, 34 in April, to a two-year deal worth $8.25MM in the 2023-24 offseason. Though he came to the Giants with notable durability issues, the veteran backstop had a track record of stout production when healthy. From 2019-23 with the Mariners, he turned in a combined .250/.324/.460 batting line in 807 plate appearances — despite playing his home games in perhaps the worst hitters’ environment in the sport. By measure of wRC+, Murphy was 16% better than average at the plate during his run with the M’s.
To this point, Murphy’s contract has played out quite poorly. The righty-hitting veteran appeared in just 13 games early in the 2024 season before suffering a Grade 2 knee strain that was originally expected to shelve him for “at least” six weeks but ultimately proved to be season-ending in nature. Murphy logged only 38 plate appearances in his first year with the Giants and posted an anemic .118/.211/.235 slash.
Though Murphy had a history of injuries, the knee troubles were a new development. He’d previously endured lengthy absences due to a forearm fracture, a foot fracture, a dislocated shoulder and a ligament injury in the thumb on his catching hand. Knee problems were not something he’d battled prior — just as this new development of back woes is not something that’s hampered him in the past.
Last offseason’s addition of Murphy came after years of former No. 2 pick Joey Bart struggling in San Francisco. Murphy’s two-year deal surely played a role in pushing the out-of-options Bart off the roster, and the breakout he enjoyed after being traded to the Pirates only further adds a layer to Murphy’s health troubles. Bart hit .265/.337/.462 in 282 plate appearances with the Bucs last year, hitting his way to the top of the Pirates’ depth chart as we enter the 2025 campaign.
In Huff and Stassi, the Giants have a pair of experienced options to back up Bailey — who’s perhaps the game’s best defensive catcher (and one of the best defensive players in MLB, at any position). Huff just turned 27 and was at one point a top-100 prospect with the Rangers. He owns a solid-looking .255/.313/.455 slash in 214 big league plate appearances, but the Rangers clearly weren’t bullish on his chances of sustaining that production. Given that he’s benefited from a .353 average on balls in play and fanned in more than one-third of his career plate appearances, that’s an understandable concern.
Stassi, 33, hasn’t suited up in the majors since 2022 due to injuries and a harrowing 2023 ordeal wherein his son was born more than three months premature and spent more than six months in the NICU. Thankfully, the end result was Stassi and his wife being able to take their baby boy home, but Stassi’s return to the diamond in 2024 didn’t go as hoped. He’d missed time with a left hip strain early in the 2023 season, and left hip troubles resurfaced in 2024 — this time requiring season-ending hip surgery.
When he’s been on the field, Stassi has been inconsistent but shown signs of being more than a backup. From 2020-21, he slashed .250/.333/.452 with 20 homers in 118 games and 454 plate appearances. He’s an elite pitch framer who’s also shown quality blocking skills on pitches in the dirt. If he’s back to full strength after a grueling couple of years — both personally and professionally — Stassi is an intriguing backup option. He’s need to be added to the 40-man roster, however.
The Giants have a handful of other health issues to keep an eye on in camp, though to this point there doesn’t appear to be major concern on any fronts. Outfielder Heliot Ramos is dealing with an oblique issue, per the Chronicle’s Susan Slusser, but it’s only expected to sideline him for around a week. Ramos is among the most critical young players on the Giants’ roster. The longtime top prospect broke out in 2024, slashing .269/.322/.469 with 22 homers in 518 trips to the plate. The overwhelming majority of his production came against lefties (.370/.439/.750), but if he can improve his .240/.286/.387 output against fellow right-handers, Ramos has massive everyday potential.
Southpaw Erik Miller is also a bit behind, per Slusser. He’s dealing with some numbness in his pitching hand that has naturally led to some concern. He’s not yet undergone extensive testing, so there’s no telling if he’ll miss any time, but the 27-year-old Miller had a breakout of his own during last year’s rookie effort. In 67 1/3 innings out of Bob Melvin’s bullpen, he logged a 3.88 earned run average with a huge 30.6% strikeout rate but also a bloated 13.4% walk rate. He’s currently projected to be the only southpaw in the Giants’ bullpen. They don’t have another left-handed relief candidate on the 40-man roster, although non-roster players like Joey Lucchesi, Enny Romero, Ethan Small and Miguel Del Pozo all have varying levels of MLB experience.
Giants Claim Sam Huff, Designate Austin Warren
The Giants claimed catcher Sam Huff off waivers from the Rangers and designated reliever Austin Warren for assignment in a corresponding move. Both teams have announced their end of the transaction.
Huff, 27 next week, once ranked not just as the Rangers’ top catching prospect but one of the top 100 prospects in the sport. He’s appeared in parts of four big league seasons now but has played sparingly in recent seasons. He’s appeared in 78 big league games and slashed .258/.313/.455 with 10 homers in 214 plate appearances. It’s quality production overall, but Huff has also benefited from a .353 average on balls in play while fanning in just over one-third of his big league plate appearances.
Huff barely saw the majors last season, in large part due to prolonged struggles in Triple-A. Despite prior success at the top minor league level, he slashed .246/.310/.416 in Round Rock last year. That looks solid enough relative to major league averages, particularly for catchers, but it was 21% worse than league-average (by measure of wRC+) in the hyper-charged offensive environment in the Pacific Coast League. He also struck out in 31.4% of his plate appearances at Triple-A.
There are defensive question marks with Huff as well. Listed at 6’4″ and 240 pounds, he’s one of the largest catchers in the game. He’s drawn poor marks for his framing, blocking and throwing behind the plate, which perhaps isn’t a huge surprise given the rarity with which players of his size can stick behind the dish. The Rangers have also given him time at first base and designated hitter in an effort to get his bat into the lineup more often in Triple-A, but last year’s downturn in production and a lack of minor league options squeezed Huff off the roster in Texas.
The Giants have a fair bit of catching depth already, with starter Patrick Bailey and backups Tom Murphy and Blake Sabol all on the 40-man roster. Huff can’t head to Triple-A due to his lack of minor league options, but he could potentially give San Francisco a third catcher in the majors and a platoon partner for lefty-hitting first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. If not, it’s possible the Giants will eventually designate Huff themselves and attempt to pass him through waivers in an effort to retain him as non-roster depth.
Warren, 28, missed the bulk of the 2024 season recovering from Tommy John surgery but returned to toss 10 2/3 innings of 1.69 ERA ball down the stretch for the Giants. He agreed to a deal avoiding arbitration earlier this offseason, though per FanGraphs’ Jon Becker, he’ll be guaranteed only the $350K minor league split on that deal in the wake of this DFA.
That split could also make it easier for Warren to clear waivers, at which point the Giants could retain him as non-roster depth. In 48 2/3 innings across parts of four MLB seasons, Warren has a 3.14 ERA with an 18.8% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate. The Giants can explore trade possibilities for the next five days but will have to place Warren on waivers if no deal comes together by that point.