The Red Sox have signed free agent outfielder Trayce Thompson to a minor-league contract, the club announced on Monday. The deal comes with an invitation to major-league spring training.
Thompson, who turns 34 next month, is the younger brother of five-time NBA All-Star Klay Thompson and the son of two-time NBA champion Mychal Thompson. He is a veteran of seven major league seasons who has appeared in 369 total games for the White Sox, Dodgers, Athletics, Cubs, and Padres.
Originally selected by the White Sox in the second round of the 2009 draft out of Santa Margarita Catholic High School (Calif.), Thompson broke in at the big league level in 2015. The right-handed hitter has since batted .212/.300/.411 with 41 doubles, five triples, 45 home runs, 126 RBIs, 128 runs scored, 17 stolen bases, 115 walks, and 346 strikeouts over 369 plate appearances in the majors.
After slashing .163/.285/.294 with two doubles, six home runs, 17 RBIs, 17 runs scored, two stolen bases, 24 walks, and 77 strikeouts in 72 games (179 plate appearances) between the Dodgers and White Sox in 2023, Thompson did not appear at the major league level in 2024. He instead split the year between the Mets’ and Cubs’ Triple-A affiliates, registering a .233/.315/.471 line with 19 doubles, one triple, 23 home runs, 66 RBIs, 58 runs scored, nine stolen bases, 46 walks, and 120 strikeouts across 107 games spanning 432 trips to the plate.
On the other side of the ball, Thompson has proven capable of playing all three outfield positions. Between his stops in Syracuse and Iowa last season, the 6-foot-2, 225-pounder made 55 starts in center field, 31 starts in right field, and 13 starts in left field. In total, he recorded seven outfield assists and committed two errors in 192 chances.
Thompson becomes the 21st player to receive a non-roster invite from the Red Sox this spring. He will wear the No. 37 at camp in Fort Myers and figures to provide the club with experienced outfield depth at Triple-A Worcester to open the 2025 campaign.
(Picture of Trayce Thompson: Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)
After taking two out of the three from the Detroit Tigers this past week, the Red Sox welcomed another AL Central opponent in the Chicago White Sox to town for a three game weekend set on Friday. In a pitching matchup between Dylan Covey for the White Sox and Chris Sale for the Red Sox, neither teams lineups could do much last night, as the two sides combined for one total run.
In his 14th start of the season, Sale put together a fantastic performance against his former club. Having surrendered 10 earned runs in his last 10.1 innings pitched in his last two starts, the lefty limited the White Sox to just one run in eight innings pitched last night.
Over those eight innings, Sale scattered seven hits and one walk while fanning 10 on 109 pitches, 79 of which went for strikes.
Fastball velocity has been a topic of conversation for Sale this season, but he was consistently throwing heat. Out of those 109 pitches mentioned above, 11 were clocked in at 99 MPH or higher, with the fastest coming in at 100.3 MPH on the hurler’s 69th pitch of the night in the fifth. I don’t know if the radar gun at Fenway was acting up a bit, but seeing Sale consistently reach 95+ MPH on Friday was certainly impressive stuff.
With all that said, Sale did make some mistakes last night, and the most costly of them came in the seventh. On the first pitch of the inning, White Sox catcher Kevin Smith lined a softly hit ground-rule double just in between Brock Holt and the right field wall to put a runner at second with no outs.
Two batters later, after Smith had advanced to third on a Yoan Moncada groundout, Trayce Thompson drove in the go-ahead run on a line drive single to left that was just out of Xander Bogaerts’ reach. With Smith scoring from third on the play, the only run of the night crossed the plate. Can’t put the blame on Sale for that one, more bad luck than anything.
Other than that though, Sale escaped the seventh thanks to Sandy Leon picking off Thompson at second base.
I found it a bit surprising to see him come back out for the eight, but the Florida native ended his night on a positive note by retiring the side in order in the eighth. A performance worthy of a win, but the Red Sox lineup definitely let Sale down.
Speaking of the Red Sox lineup, they managed to reach base FOUR times against a White Sox with one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball. Credit to starter Dylan Covey though, he, like Sale, was also fantastic last night.
Andrew Benintendi led off things in the first with a double to left field that almost went for a solo homer, but fell just short. Brock Holt followed that up by drawing a seven pitch walk to put runners on first and second with no outs, but nothing came of it.
Later in the fifth, a one out double off the bat of Rafael Devers created another scoring chance for the Red Sox, but nothing came of it with Jackie Bradley Jr. and Blake Swihart both striking out to end the inning.
Two innings later, a similar situation presented itself when the Red Sox chased Covey out of the game and had runners on first and second with one out after Mitch Moreland reached on a force out at second and Eduardo Nunez reached on an E5. Unfortunately, White Sox reliever Jace Fry struck out Rafael Devers and Bradley Jr. back to back and that was that.
Some notes from this one:
The Red Sox were without JD Martinez last night due to back spasms. If you remember, Martinez departed Thursday’s game against the Tigers late because of the same issue. Alex Cora said he was looking to give the Red Sox outfielder a day off anyway, and he should be back in the lineup this afternoon.
Making his second career start against the team he started his career with, Chris Sale now owns a 4.15 ERA in 13 innings pitched against the White Sox.
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With the Yankees picking up a win against the New York Mets last night, the Red Sox now trail them by half a game in the American League East standings.
In the middle game of this series, it will be a pitching matchup featuring two southpaws in Carlos Rodon for the White Sox and David Price for the Red Sox. For Rodon, today will mark his first start of the season after he was placed on the 60-day disabled list on April 12th. And for Price, well, the Red Sox are undefeated in his last five starts, so that should leave you feeling pretty confident going into this afternoon’s contest. First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 PM.
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