Rays acquires Matt Thaiss – MLB Trade Rumors

The White Sox exchanged the recipient Matt Thaiss to the rays for the voltiseur of the minor leagues Dru BakerAccording to the announcements of the two clubs. Given that Baker was not on the 40 man, the voltiseur transferred from the shelves was transferred Jonny Deluca to the list of 60 days injured to open a place for Thaiss. They will have to open an active list place once Thaiss is reported to the club. The number of 40 men from Chicago falls to 39. In terms of their active list, catcher Korey Lee was reinstated in the IL to take the vacant place.

Thaiss, 30, has just been acquired by the SOX during the offseason. They sent money to the Cubs, bringing Thaiss to the southern side. He appeared in 35 games and went to the plate 110 times, with some positive results. It has only one circuit stroke, but walked more than it was struck, pulling free pass in 20.9% of its appearances compared to a 19.1% withdrawal rate.

It is better than his previous work in attack. With the angels in 2023 and 2024, he made 493 trips to the plate. He had a high level of 13% during these seasons, but was also withdrawn from a high clip of 28.6%. He was returned to the Cubs then the White Sox in the off -season professions.

His work behind the plate was more a question mark, because he never received excellent notes there. Baseball prospectus And Statcast considered its blockage and its jet to be adequate but with a lower framing. Fangraphs Thaiss has not been a large supervisor in his career, but has been over average so far in 2025.

Although his work for SOX was sufficient on the whole, he never seemed likely to spend a lot of time on the list. Thaiss began the year of sharing the time to capture with Lee, but the SOX had two high -level perspectives in the wings: Edgar Quero And Kyle Teel.

Lee went to the Il soon in the season, landing there because of a sprained left ankle on April 10. Who has Omar Narváez For the big leagues briefly, but Quero was in the majors a week later. Now that Lee is in good health again, he and Quero will share the capture work. Teel plays very well in Triple-A and could also be in the majors. These factors have all pushed the options out of the list options.

For the shelves, they deployed a tandem of Danny Jansen And Ben Rortvedt Behind the plate this year. Jansen started slowly but heated himself lately, bringing his line to. 200 / .333 / .336 for the year, which leads to a 103 WRC +. Rortvedt, on the other hand, has a dreary line .100 / .194 / .117. This represents only 67 appearances of plates, but it now has a line. 187 / .277 / .266 and 61 WRC + more than 572 plaques appearances in his big league career.

Rortvedt is out of options, it is therefore possible that it is designated for assignment once Thaiss will be able to join the team. If the switch works, the Rays could keep Thaiss beyond 2025. He entered this year with his service clock at three years and 38 days, which means that it is his first of the three refereeing seasons. With Jansen on a one -year agreement, Thaiss has a chance to stick to the Rays for 2026 if he holds his place until the end of this season.

In order to make this potential upgrade behind the plate, they separate from Baker. Today aged 25, he was selected by the Rays in the fourth round of the 2021 draft. He is considered a capable voltiper, but his bat was stopped at the level of the upper minor league. Since he was promoted to Double-A in August 2023, he has had a shot line .280 / .345 / .338 and 101 WRC +. This includes a line .245 / .344 / .302 at the triple-a level.

Even if he doesn’t hit much, Baker has at least wheels. He stole 49 bags in 2023 and 42 last year. For the SOX, they were probably going to cut Thaiss soon anyway, so they exchanged him for a leaflet on Baker. Baker could perhaps serve as a quick bench outfall, with offensive developments in addition to that being a bonus.

As for Deluca, he suffered a tension in the shoulder in early April. His 60 -day count is retroactive to his initial placement of the IL, he will therefore be eligible for reintegration on June 6. He has just started a rehabilitation assignment on weekends, so he could perhaps be ready to return to the big leagues once this meeting takes place.

Photo graceful of Denny Medley, Imagn Images