Matt Thaiss News: Inks NRI deal with Boston

Thaiss signed a minor-league contract with the Red Sox on Saturday that includes an invitation to big-league spring training, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reports.

Thaiss has plenty of MLB experience, having played in 305 career regular-season games, mostly with the Angels. He's struggled with the bat, however, posting a .652 OPS with 23 homers, 95 RBI, seven steals and a 28.3 percent strikeout rate across 961 plate appearances. Boston is expected to begin the campaign with Carlos Narvaez (knee) and Connor Wong (hand) as its top backstops, so Thaiss will probably enter spring training as insurance in case one of those two catchers is sidelined.