Red Sox Sign Catcher Riley Adams to Minor League Deal

Riley Adams Signs Minor League Deal With Red Sox to Chase Major League Return

When Riley Adams hit free agency and the phone started ringing, the veteran catcher faced a familiar professional crossroads. He needed to answer a single pressing question: What is the best path back to the big leagues?

Last week, Adams found his answer by agreeing to a minor league contract with the Boston Red Sox that includes an invitation to major league spring training. The transaction marks the team’s first move of the offseason, introducing a fresh piece of competition to a catching depth chart that currently features Adley Rutschman and Connor Wong.

“An opportunity to earn my way to the big leagues is the biggest thing,” Adams said in a telephone interview. “Obviously, everyone’s goal is to get to the big leagues and contribute at the big league level, and so I don’t think I would have signed with the Red Sox if me or my agent or anybody thought that, hey, there wasn’t a lane to — if I go out and earn it — be a big leaguer again.”

Evaluating the Red Sox Catcher Landscape for 2027

The road ahead in Boston offers both opportunity and clear roster hurdles. Heading into the 2027 season, the Red Sox feature Rutschman as their primary starter, though durability has been a question mark after five stints on the injured list over the past two seasons, alongside an elbow issue that cut his late-season action short. Meanwhile, backup Connor Wong logged a .233 batting average and a .655 OPS last year, numbers the club viewed as a step forward.

Adams enters this mix looking to recapture the form that carried him through parts of five major league seasons with the Nationals and Blue Jays. After spending the 2026 campaign entirely at Triple-A with the Nationals, the 30-year-old catcher posted a .273 batting average, a .389 on-base percentage, and a .506 slugging rate. He also showcased career-best power with 16 home runs and 15 doubles while splitting time behind the plate and at first base.

Riley Adams believes he has a big league opportunity with Red Sox — Photo: europesays.com

The Red Sox front office took notice of that offensive production, alongside defensive strides made under a player development staff hired by Paul Toboni, now with the Nationals. Adams turned 30 in June and welcomed his first child, a daughter, with his wife Courtney late in the season. Despite missing out on major league action for the first time since 2020, he viewed the minor league stretch as a mental reset.

“It was honestly such a fun year. In a weird way, it was kind of what I needed to get back to having fun again,” Adams said. “Sometimes you kind of spiral in certain directions that you don’t always want to be in, and sometimes you do have to just remind yourself that I’m still playing a kids’ game for a living and it’s pretty special what I get to do.”

Early Integration and Familiarity With Fenway Park

Signing in October brings immediate organizational benefits. Adams noted that having a full offseason ahead allows him to connect right away with Boston’s training and coaching staffs through scheduled calls.

Red Sox Sign Catcher Riley Adams to Minor League Deal — Photo: bostonglobe.com

Those conversations serve a venue he has known for a decade. Adams first visited Fenway Park in 2016 during a workout day with the Orleans Firebirds of the Cape Cod Baseball League. Years later, as a rookie with Toronto in 2021, he experienced a quintessential major league initiation during an eighth-inning rendition of “Sweet Caroline.”

Meet the Pros: Washington Nationals Catcher, Riley Adams

“And I remember going up through the minor leagues, playing all the different Red Sox [affiliates], and hearing the song. And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is cool, but it’s not, like, that exciting,’” Adams recalled. “And then I just remember getting to Fenway, and the fans sold out singing it at the top of their lungs, and I was like, ‘OK, this is special.’ Christian Vázquez was leading off that inning, and he just turned to me and was like, ‘This is pretty sick, huh?’”

Away from the roster maneuvering, major league sources confirmed that David Besky, the Red Sox director of baseball sciences since 2023 when he arrived from Driveline, is departing the organization to accept a position with the Nationals.