The Red Sox have signed catcher Jason Delay to a minor league deal, according to Just Baseball Media’s Aram Leighton. Presumably the contract contains an invitation for Delay to attend Boston’s big league Spring Training camp.
Delay was a fourth-round pick for the Pirates in the 2017 draft, and he had spent his entire pro career in Pittsburgh’s organization before he was traded to the Braves back in April. Atlanta wanted a bit of extra catching depth while Sean Murphy was on the injured list, but Delay ended up not getting any action at the big league level. Delay instead hit .200/.261/.257 over 251 plate appearances at the Double-A and (mostly) Triple-A levels before he was outrighted off the 40-man roster at the end of July.
Though Delay could’ve opted for free agency since he had a past outright on his record, he chose to stick it out with Triple-A Gwinnett for the rest of the season and then elected to become a free agent in early October. It didn’t take long for Delay to line up his next team, as he’ll now become the third catcher in Boston’s organization with any MLB experience.
The first two of those backstops are Carlos Narvaez and Connor Wong, who project as the starting and backup catcher in 2026. That said, Wong is coming off a rough 2025 season and he underwent hand surgery a couple of weeks ago, plus Narvaez also had a minor knee surgery. Both backstops are expected to be ready for Spring Training, yet Delay’s addition gives the Red Sox some guard against any rehab setbacks, or the possibility that the Sox could move on Wong entirely.
Delay received a good chunk of playing time with the Pirates in 2022-23 before Joey Bart, Yasmani Grandal, and Henry Davis pushed Delay down the depth chart in 2024. Over 373 career PA in the majors, Delay has hit .231/.295/.315 with two home runs.
