He's Riley K. Adams and he's from San Diego, where, as a 13-year-old, he conducted experiments on alternative methods for the eradication of pampas grass, an invasive species. When he's not presenting at the California State Science Fair, he spends his time as a Quad-A catcher, first in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, then with the Nationals. The Red Sox signed the free agent to a minor league deal yesterday.
Adams is 30 years old but has played in only 263 MLB games. So it's safe to say that, no, he has not proven himself capable of sticking on a big league roster. At the plate, he struggles to make contact big time, posting a career strikeout rate of 32.5%. Only two qualified hitters in all of baseball had a higher strikeout rate than that last year and one of them, Colson Montgomery, just set the all-time record for most strikeouts in a single season. It's really, really hard to make it in the big leagues when you whiff that much. And in Adams's case, it doesn't help that he's not known to be particularly special with the glove; he's relatively adept at controlling the running game, but grades out as a poor framer.
But what Adams does have is a very quick bat and some serious power. During his last stint in the big leagues, which came with the Washington Nationals in 2025, Adams popped 8 dongs in just 286 plate appearances. That's not quite what Mickey Gasper did this year, when he went crazy with 10 in 225, but it's not all that far off. And like Mikey, Adams is a terror against AAA pitching; he put up a .273/.389/.506 slash line with 16 homers in 82 AAA games this past season.
263 career games, .211/.287/.354, 21 HR, 38 2B, 66 BB, 276 K, 80 OPS+
When I said he has serious power, I meant it. Here he is launching a ball completely out of the park during a spring training game:
And here he is showing off his arm:
Tipping his cap and saying "I think my work here is done" after once again saving the backyard of a home in La Jolla, California from the ravages of pampas grass using his pioneering dry ice removal method.
This is a depth signing. In all likelihood he'll have the same role on the '27 Sox as Jason Delay had on the '26 Sox, which is to say, no role at all. But having said that, there is something to like in that bat, and the Red Sox have a very recent history of getting gold out of 30-year-old journeyman catchers with power. That doesn't mean you should expect him to do what Mickey Gasper did this year — you should never expect to see that ever again , actually — but it does mean that you should keep an eye on him.
