The Rangers and veteran catcher Austin Wynns are in agreement on a minor league contract, as first indicated by their transaction log at MLB.com. Wynns, a client of Klutch Sports, joins his fourth organization of the season — his third in the American League West. He’s already suited up for the A’s and Braves this year, and he spent some time in the Angels’ system before being shipped to Atlanta for cash.
Wynns has just four hits in 53 big league at-bats (57 plate appearances) this season, though his track record in a larger sample is obviously better than that. He’s appeared in 299 major league games and carries a career .228/.273/.342 slash in 840 turns at the plate.
This year’s struggles are due in no small part to a bizarrely low .103 average on balls in play — nowhere close to the league-average .289 and the .294 mark Wynns carried into the season. Wynns hasn’t made much hard contact this season, but his current mark would be the 10th-lowest single season BABIP of the 2000s among the more than 13,000 players with at least 50 plate appearances in a given season. (Coincidentally, Phillies catcher Rafael Marchán is right there with him at .102 this season.) That’s not to say Wynns will dial it back to his similarly fluky run with the Reds from 2024-25, when he hit .390/.429/.661 in 63 plate appearances, of course. Those two extremes, if anything, underscore the inherent volatility when looking at a couple weeks worth of at-bats for any player.
Wynns is a career .277/.363/.410 hitter in parts of eight Triple-A seasons. He draws good marks for his ability to block balls in the dirt, and he’s posted career caught-stealing rates north of 30% both in the big leagues and in the minors. He’s not a great framer, but the blend of blocking, throwing and quality on-base numbers in the upper minors makes him a fine third catcher on any club’s depth chart.
That’s more or less where Wynns will land with Texas. The Rangers are currently entrusting catching duties to Kyle Higashioka and Elias Díaz while Danny Jansen is on the injured list and working back from a forearm strain. Díaz has stepped up and hit well in a tiny sample of 26 plate appearances, but he can’t be optioned and will thus be a possible roster casualty when Jansen returns. Díaz would have the right to reject an outright assignment upon clearing waivers, so bringing Wynns into the fold ensures that the Rangers can keep some veteran catching depth in the organization even if Díaz eventually opts to depart.
