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.
Thaiss and Wallach have both pleasantly surprised. The team should alternate them at first and backup catcher and cut bait on Walsh after O’Hoppe comes back.
O’Hoppe will probably not come back until 2024. Hopefully Walsh can get healthy by then.
@outinleftfield – actually recent reports indicate O’Hoppe is ahead of schedule in his rehab and is already doing baseball activities, including throwing. He hasn’t swung a bat yet, but he’s only a couple months into a 4-6 month rehab. And he’s only 23 years old, so that young labrum will heal quick. The Angels are becoming more confident that he’ll be ready in September or maybe even late August.
Actually, recent reports have O’Hoppe ahead of schedule. He may be back as soon as late August or early September.
Hunter Renfroe has been working out at 1B. We’ll likely see him there before Thaiss or Wallach. One reason is to make room for Jo Adell. I haven’t seen the Angels with this many living parts in years.
I suspect if the Renfroe-at-first experiment (or Jo Adell-in-MLB experiment) fizzles, we’ll see Trey Cabbage at 1B before too long.
Hey, the Angels unexpected success story! Great!
Fletcher has no value on offense. He’s like Yunel Escobar was for them in 2016: empty batting average.
The Angels catching situation is worth writing about. Teams don’t just lose their veteran starting catcher, and then their hot young catching prospect who actually produces, and then just pulls production from their third and fourth catchers out if a hat.
Yes, great article by Darragh.
A good exercise in the correlation between overall BA and BA w/ RISP would be to look up players like Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, and George Brett. Both stats are pretty close to each other for their careers. And the fact that the Angels are top 5 in team BA in the AL tells me that their BA w/ RISP is a fluke and will probably catch up at some point. Why not in Colorado this weekend with a well rested bullpen.
Give Walsh sometime. Bring Fletcher pit him at 2B. Put Drury at 1B. Let Walsh sort it out in the Minors. Nieto and Rendon should be back soon.
That Padlo was called up instead of Fletcher when 3 infielders were hurt tells you all you need to know about Fletcher’s future in the Angels organization.
I wanted Thaiss to make this team, but he appears to be a really bad receiver of pitches. He’d be a lot better if the league went to RoboUmp, But as a #2 catcher, or if they ever go to RoboUmp, he’s fine.
Seriously, this was your article?
Who are you criticizing here?
I think if you read between the lines, the Angels are going to trade their number one prospect….who happens to be a catcher.
Thaiss will enable the Angels to do that.
Who is that?
Quero. I’m not counting O’Hoppe and Neto.
I heard on an Angels broadcast earlier this week that O’Hoppe is already throwing, though not every day, so hopefully he’ll be back soon.
Seriously, this was your response?
This was a spot on article.
For real. Why is MLBTR writing about this guy if he isn’t a trade/extension/transaction candidate? Is his agent paying them for it to juice his numbers in arbitration? Or are they just trying to recoup some readership from Fangraphs, trying to do some half-baked attempt at statistical analysis? Either way, it’s pathetic.
I’m glad to see both Thaiss and Wallach stepping into the role. We have had issues at catcher for years.
We sure have. Catching is not this team’s problem.
Injuries have been this team’s problem. I was hoping the Angels would steal a win against the Dodgers. Now we have four days to get some players back.
Inability to drive in RISP strikes again.. plus a couple of really nice outfield assists by the Dodgers would have ultimately changed the course of at least the first game.
I get that, but the stat in not predictive and changes from month to month, week to week and game to game.
If you hit 260, given enough ABs, you’ll hit around 260 wit RISP.
With so many injuries, there are holes in this lineup, so the holes are going to get a lot of ABs with RISP.
By the way, I just saw on twitter the Angels OPS+ in high leverage situations is 855. That 4th in baseball behind the TB, ARI and TEX.
I’m not even sure what their batting average with RISP is, I’m not sure the people who are complaining have even looked it up. It’s just something they feel.
Ever since the team refused to extend Bengie Molina. And the trade of Jeff Mathis.
Bengie Molina made it clear he wanted to test free agency. He had nothing left to prove with the Angels after already winning a ring and a couple of division titles after that.
He still wanted to come back. His value was not just catching. he had vast knowledge of pitchers and could help batters and other catchers
@Aragon what you just described is what you hirs someone to do as a coach. Which Bengie Molina definitely would not have been interested in at age 31. As for Angels why would they pay a player $4.5m to do that and cost a roster spot? As that is what he was given by Jay’s. They had 2 young players who had to b on roster in Napoli who was tearing up minors and Mathis who was a former 1st RD pick of theirs. The two young catchers were complemented by a veteran backup who they still had under contract for 2 more seasons. Bengie just was in no way a fit for them at that point.
As far as when they traded Mathis years later, he just flat out did not hit at MLB level.
Agreed. I still remember his comment..
“The Angels dumped me like trash”
Thaiss has been an unexpected boost. Glad to see it.
Crazy how things work out. Thiass probably would of been cut and maybe on another team, if Stassi wasn’t hurt and could of played by late April.
Wow. Anyone paying attention to the Mariners/Yankees game? Mariners are treating the Yankees like a AA team, and Donaldson’s inability to catch/throw was nuts. Was hoping for a Mariners win, but what a beatdown they’re having.
Not to be overlooked but Bryan Woo has no-hit the Yankees through 5 innings so far
I wouldn’t know. MLB never posts the Mariners
O’Hoppe is the real deal. He’s the starter as soon as he’s healthy.
Thaiss is less a “success story” and more of a “offensively he hasn’t totally sucked but defensively he looks like a First Baseman behind the plate but at least he’s healthy” story. While Wallach has been a decent backup it’s clear he inherited zero of his father’s ability at the plate
Thaiss needs to go back to first, he wouldn’t be bad as a third catcher I guess technically he was, and wallach should be the backup at this point I wrote off stassi.
10% above average on offense for all hitters and 5th best hitter among catchers. That is a whole lot better than “offensively he hasn’t totally sucked”.
Thaiss is totally a success story. Name me 5 catchers who can hit .260+ with enough plate discipline to post a .350+ OBP. That, in addition to being a first round pick, is why they’ve stuck with him for so long.
There’s 7 million reasons why Stassi will have a roster spot in 2024
Angels have released guys making a huge amount more than $7 million.
Stassi isn’t even injured he’s out for personal reasons, if he sits out any longer I can see them cutting ties depending on the severity of the issue.
It will be O’Hoppe the #1, and Thiass backing him up, with occasionally playing 1b.
Stassi probably will be the minor league depth piece next year, since Wallach will be a gone as a F/A.
Wonder if the giants would take stassi, if he comes back by the deadline. Probably one of the better ones available.
Defensively, they’ve got issues w stealing. The Royals game is best example with 2 stolen bases in the bottom of the 9th to come back 10-9. They’re 5th to last in CS and also 2nd to last in Wild Pitches allowed.
The only thing that 10-9 loss indicated was the Royals snapping a long losing streak. It happens. Sometimes the game averaging itself out is bigger than those little things fans lose their minds over.