Cubs Trade for Complementary Catcher Matt Thaiss, Cut Trey Wingenter as Roster Shuffle Continues

As an early-offseason cover your ass move in case the market prevents you from reasonably upgrading, this is fine.

If the Cubs roll into Opening Day with Thaiss on the 26-man, it's probably a failure.

32 minutes ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

In their second incremental but clearly positive move of the day, the Cubs added a left-handed bat to set a floor at catcher, and further clarified their fluid relief pitching depth chart.

Image courtesy of © Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

It was almost too obvious not to happen. When the Angels designated left-handed hitter and catcher Matt Thaiss for assignment to make room for Travis d'Arnaud last week, the fit between Thaiss and the Cubs was instantly visible. He's a stopgap backstop, someone to pair with Miguel Amaya in the short term and to ensure they don't have to rush Moises Ballesteros—unless they either acquire a different catcher via free agency or trade or find Ballesteros to be unexpectedly sound and ready, in which case Thaiss might never play a game in a Cubs uniform. As a roster spot placeholder in November, though, he's a no-brainer of an addition.

Thaiss, 29, is a left-handed bat and a catcher, though attaching each label to him stretches their definitions slightly. He batted just .203/.323/.299 last season. He has both a disastrous tendency to swing and miss (even within the strike zone) and a lousy batted-ball profile. He doesn't hit the ball nearly hard enough, nor lift or pull it enough, to make up for an unavoidably high strikeout rate. However, he does have excellent plate discipline, rarely chasing pitches and working his way on base at a good rate, given his other shortcomings.

Since Amaya is a right-handed batter whom the team hopes will be a lefty-masher anyway, Thaiss should never see a lefty in the Cubs roster mix. He's a .220/.332/.351 hitter against right-handed pitchers since the start of 2022. That's perfectly solid, from a catcher hitting at the bottom of the order, so the team just needs him to sustain that on-base ability. This is not an upside play; it's just about making the roster better than it was last year. No longer should one-third of the team's at-bats at catcher be an irredeemable sin against baseball, void of any production whatsoever.

Unfortunately, Thaiss also isn't any help behind the plate, at least based on his track record. He's a subpar pitch framer and has thrown out just 16% of opposing base stealers since the start of 2023. This acquisition takes no real pressure off Amaya, but it does alleviate whatever pressure the team was feeling to find a backup who could be a bridge to Ballesteros, whom the team presumably has at least some hope of promoting within the first few months of next season. He has three years of team control remaining, but they will only come into play if the Cubs are able to draw a new level of play out of him on one side of the ledger or the other. They probably have better coaches than the Angels do, but not good enough to turn Thaiss into a player whom they'll want to keep around for very long.

Thaiss is also out of minor-league options, which is why the Angels only got cash considerations from the Cubs in exchange for him. In order to stay in the organization, he'll have to show the Cubs he can be a credible big-leaguer. He's cleared that standard the last two years, though, despite his many shortcomings, and they had no backup catcher in place at all before making this move. Given the minimal cost, that made adding Thaiss appealing.

It did involve an opportunity cost, of course, because the team had a full 40-man roster. As Thaiss comes in, out goes Trey Wingenter, the big, funky righty with electric stuff whom they claimed off waivers late in the 2024 season. Wingenter, too, is out of options, but as a reliever, he plays a position where being able to be shuttled to the minors is much more important than it is for catchers. After the team acquired Eli Morgan earlier in the day (and removed Patrick Wisdom from the roster), the Cubs basically balanced their scales here. Morgan, who has an option year, takes the place of Wingenter. Thaiss, who plays a more needed position, takes the place of Wisdom. 

In each transaction, the Cubs clearly get better. They get better only by a tiny fraction, but they do get better. They're perhaps $1.5 million cheaper, and they're better. The transactions cost them Alfonsin Rosario and however much cash they sent to the Angels, but those are small considerations. These are scene-setter moves, but they're solid ones. If, from here, the Cubs merely make another handful of slightly larger moves like these, fans will be rightfully livid come Opening Day. If, however, they go on to convert these small improvements into something genuinely valuable by making larger-scale additions at key positions of need, the deals will look very savvy.

This neatly echoes the trade deadline, when the team seemed to be carefully canceling out certain transactions and just staying ahead by being pleased with the aspects that didn't cancel out. Back then, they gave up Hunter Bigge in one move, but got back Jack Neely in another. They gave up Josh Rivera in one deal, but brought in Ben Cowles in another. They gave up Mark Leiter Jr. in one move, but acquired Nate Pearson in another. After all that, they felt they were fairly tidily swapping Christopher Morel for Isaac Paredes, and Paredes is the more valuable player. Although the bigger moves will be the ones that determine the success or failure of Jed Hoyer's approach, these have been a series of well-executed maneuvers over a span of several months. The edges of the roster needed major upgrades this winter, and this week has already brought a few of them—with another few possible in the coming days and weeks.

 

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Not sure I agree with that at all.

56 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

Not sure I agree with that at all.

With which part? You quoted the whole article! 😄 

2 hours ago, Matthew Trueblood said:

With which part? You quoted the whole article! 😄 

The part I bolded

yeah, not sure "clearly better" is accurate, unless we are treating it as if their only options were the players currently in the system... and I'd argue that Mo Baller might be good enough with the bat to offset surely awful defense at the MLB level to at least put his value on par with Thaiss