The Boston Red Sox quietly added some catching depth on Tuesday, signing Andrew Knizner to a minor league deal and assigning him to Triple A Worcester. The 31-year-old became a free agent last week after opting out of his contract with the Colorado Rockies organization.
Knizner had been raking at Triple A Albuquerque before he walked. In 33 games there, he hit .279 with a .961 OPS, 10 home runs and 22 RBIs. That production looked even better when you adjust for the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League — his wRC+ was 24 percent above league average.
His big league track record is less exciting. Over parts of seven seasons with the Cardinals, Rangers and Giants, Knizner has a .211/.281/.316 slash line in 323 games. He did hit 10 homers in 70 games for St. Louis back in 2022, but last year with San Francisco he managed just .221/.299/.299 in 33 games.
Defensively, he’s gotten better. His framing numbers used to be bad, but Statcast has rated him more favorably the last two years. He’s also solid at blocking pitches. The one issue: he’s thrown out only 19.6 percent of base stealers for his career, which is below the league average. He has done well with automated ball-strike challenges in the minors, though.
The Red Sox already have three catchers on the big league roster — Carlos Narvaez, Connor Wong and Mickey Gasper — plus three more at Worcester in Jason Delay, Matt Thaiss and Nathan Hickey. So this move isn’t about an immediate need.
It might be about what comes next. The Athletic reported that chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has been shopping Wong in trade talks. Knizner gives Boston an experienced fallback option if they deal one of their current guys. Narvaez has struggled at the plate this year (.197/.270/.283) after a promising 2025 rookie season. Wong has been better, hitting .256/.344/.354, and Gasper has been seeing more time behind the plate lately.
Knizner won’t be on the 40-man roster unless the Red Sox need him. For now, he’s just another insurance policy in an organization that seems to be taking offers on its catching corps.
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