For now he’s just a depth piece. But that could change.
Who is he and where did he come from?
He’s Yasmani Grandal and he comes to us, originally, from Havana Cuba. Unlike most Cuban ballplayers, though, Grandal did not defect from the island as a professional. Instead, his family was granted entry to the United States when was 10-years-old, after they were selected to receive green cards through a now-threatened State Department lottery program.
Grandal went on to play college ball at the University of Miami, where he finished second to Bryce Harper for the 2010 Golden Spikes Award. He has since played for five different MLB teams, though, judging by the ink on his back, he’s obviously a diehard Red Sox fan who has been pining to play in Fenway his whole career:
Is he any good?
Grandal was quietly one of the best catchers of his generation. In the eight seasons between 2014 (when he first became a starting catcher with the Padres) to 2021 (his last really productive year with the White Sox) Grandal put up 34.3 fWAR, which was second only to Buster Posey amongst all catchers during that span.
Grandal never quite received the same praise as many of his more famous peers like Posey and JT Realmuto, though, thanks to the unique nature of his production. Grandal never hit for average much (he’s a career .233 hitter) but generated most of his offensive value by having one of the most advanced batting eyes in all of baseball. In 2021 he led the league with an absurd 23.2% walk rate. Rounding out the top-five that season were Juan Soto, Joey Gallo, Bryce Harper, and Shohei Ohtani, which is pretty good company to keep. But he wasn’t just patient at the plate. Grandal also provided plenty of pop, topping out at 28 home runs in 2019 and a .520 slugging percentage in 2021.
Obviously, though, it is no longer 2021. Grandal’s production has plummeted in recent seasons. In the 289 games he played from 2022-2024, he actually put up a negative WAR, slashing .221/.305/.328 with just 22 total homers. He remains a very good receiver, however, finishing 11th in catcher framing runs in 2024 (for reference, Connor Wong was 53rd in that metric last year). Offensively, the 9.9% walk rate he posted with the Pirates last year — while a far cry from his prime — would have been the fourth-best mark on the 2024 Sox, behind only Triston Casas, Tyler O’Neil, and Rafael Devers. And his 18.9% strikeout rate would have been the second-best mark on the team, behind only Masataka Yoshida.
Tl;dr, just give me his 2024 stats.
72 G, 9 HR, 10 2B, .228/.304/.400, 9.9% BB%, 18.9% K%, 95 OPS+
Show me a cool highlight.
The dude was hitting walk-off homers as recently as last August. I got a feeling he’s still got something left in the tank.
What’s his role on the 2025 Red Sox?
As of now he’s not even on the 40-man roster and has had just five at-bats at AAA Worcester. But even so, it’s at least possible that Grandal finds himself as the team’s backup catcher at some point this season.
Carlos Narvaez has only played 18 big league games in his career, which is nothing as far as sample sizes go. But, so far, Narvaez is living up to his reputation as a glove-first catcher by hitting just .200/.273/.275 on the season. And while Narvaez is demonstrating his value as a receiver, he’s struggling to control the running game.
Grandal is 36-years-old and well past his prime, but it’s not crazy to think that he could end up outproducing Narvaez with the bat while coming close to matching him defensively. And if strikeouts remain a problem for the Sox — and they currently lead all of baseball with 190 of those — then Grandal’s advanced approach at the plate could be a welcome addition to the lineup.
Either way, we might know his role soon enough. Grandal can opt-out of his minor league deal by May 1. He wasn’t in spring training with any team, so the next two weeks are essentially his chance to get up to speed and demonstrate that he can help the big league club.