Toronto Blue Jays sign former Texas Rangers catcher.
Photo credit: https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/_/id/40565/matt-whatley
The Toronto Blue Jays announced that they have decided to sign another catcher, this time former Texas Rangers backstop Matt Whatley.
According to Keegan Matheson of MLB.com, the Toronto Blue Jays are inviting catcher Matt Whatley to spring training as a non-roster invite.
The former three-time All-Summit League catcher was drafted by the Texas Rangers with the 104th overall pick in the third round of the 2017 MLB Draft.
Last season Whatley held a .199/.294/.319 line with two doubles and five home runs across 50 games with Triple-A Round Rock.
This was similar production compared to the .203/.289/.322 line he held across 70 contests at Triple-A Round Rock during the 2023 campaign.
The Oral Roberts University product posted a .211/.301/.295 line across 107 games at the Double-A level.
Whatley, who was the highest Summit League baseball draftee since ORU's Jerry Sullivan was taken 83rd overall in the 2009 draft, ironically grew up idolizing Hall of Famer Ivan 'Pudge' Rodriguez.
He excelled behind the plate, recording a perfect fielding percentage in 507 total chances and threw out 43 percent of base stealers.
Whatley earned a spot on the 2017 ABCA/Rawlings All-Midwest Region Second Team and was selected as a finalist for the Rawlings NCAA Division I Golf Glove team.
His defensive efforts behind the dish were also noticed by the voters for that prestigious national honor that only a handful of catchers can say they earned, the Johnny Bench Award, which Whatley humbly received following his stellar campaign in 2017.
«Winning the Johnny Bench Award was huge,» Whatley said. «I noticed the watch list when I was a freshman, and I didn't really think much of it after that. With all the work I did at ORU and with the coaches and having a great staff of pitchers and a great defense in front of me, that really helped out in me winning the award.»
The ORU product posted a .211/.301/.295 line across 107 games at the Double-A level.
Given his lack of recent success, Whatley will likely spend the majority of the 2025 season in the minor leagues.
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