The White Sox have acquired Max Stassi and cash considerations from the Braves in exchange for a player to be named later. Both teams have announced the deal. Per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun Times, the Braves are expected to pay for the majority of Stassi’s $7M salary next season.
In a multi-player deal with infielder David Fletcher, Stassi, 33 in March, was acquired from the Angels on Friday and was only with the Braves for one day. The seasoned catcher is now leaving for his third organization in two days, with the expectation that he will be able to establish himself as a regular on the south side of Chicago. Yasmani Grandal was lost to free agency earlier in the offseason, and the White Sox needed a seasoned backstop to back up rookie Korey Lee in 2024.
Stassi is more than capable of meeting that need. The veteran’s left hip strain, which kept him off the Opening Day roster in Anaheim the previous season, was the only reason he missed the first half of the 2023 season. After recovering from that midseason setback, Stassi and his spouse announced last month that Stassi would have to miss the remainder of the 2023 season to care for his family due to their son’s three-month premature birth.
Nevertheless, Stassi is anticipated to make a comeback to the field in 2024 and has proven in recent seasons to be a capable big league catcher. Although Stassi was first selected by the A’s in the fourth round of the 2009 draft, he did not play a regular role in the major leagues until the 2018 season, when he split time behind the plate in Houston with Brian McCann and Martin Maldonado. Stassi made his big league debut with the Astros in 2013. In a backup role that season, Stassi performed admirably, slashing a respectable.226/.316/.394 in 250 plate appearances. Despite playing poorly in 51 games in 2019, which led the Astros to trade him to the Angels at the trade deadline that year, Stassi
Between the shortened 2020 season and his first full season as an Angel in 2021, Stassi played 118 games. With strong defense and above-average at-bat offense (113 wRC+), he finished as the ninth most valuable catcher in the league by fWAR. The Angels signed Stassi to an extension as a result of her excellent performance, but that choice would turn out to be misguided. Even though Stassi was productive in those two seasons, he regressed in 2022, hitting just.180/.267/.363 (63 wRC+) at the plate and putting up framing numbers that were more average than the elite totals he had previously achieved.
While the struggles Stassi faced in 2022 and his time away from the game in 2023 make it an understandable decision for the Angels and Braves to go in another direction behind the plate in 2024, it’s easy to see why the addition of Stassi would be intriguing for the White Sox. After all, Lee has less than 100 plate appearances of experience in the big leagues and, even if the club believes the former top-100 prospect to be their catcher of the future, will surely need time and assistant as he looks to transition into a new role as a full-time big leaguer. The addition of a veteran catcher such as Stassi should help with that transition, while also creating a substantial bit of upside for Chicago. Stassi’s contract includes a $7M 2025 club option that features a $500K buyout; if the veteran is able to regain the form he flashed in 2020 and 2021, that $6.5M decision would be a no-brainer to pick up and make for an attractive trade chip as the White Sox retool their roster with an eye toward the future
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