San Francisco Giants Sign Former Phillies Catcher to Deal

The San Francisco Giants have signed a catcher to bolster organizational depth at the position.

Detroit Tigers catcher Donny Sands shakes hands with pitcher Tyler Holton after live batting / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

The San Francisco Giants have added a new catcher to their organization and he made his organizational debut on Sunday for Triple-A Sacramento.

Signed to a minor league deal, Donny Sands will now help bolster the organization's positional depth at catcher.

Sands is a 28-year-old journeyman at this stage in his career and has bounced from team to team in the last couple of years. The catcher was originally drafted by the New York Yankees in the eighth round of the 2015 MLB draft before being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2021.

It was with the Phillies he made his MLB debut in 2022 where he appeared in three games with four plate appearances. He has yet to record a hit at the Major League level.

Following the 2022 MLB season, Sands was traded to the Detroit Tigers in a high-profile trade that also saw Philadelphia send Matt Vierling and Nick Maton in exchange for outfielder Kody Clemens and closer Gregory Soto.

In late March of this year, Sands was released by the Tigers and subsequently signed by the Giants and assigned to Triple-A.

With Patrick Bailey and Tom Murphy both out with injury, Sands will provide some depth as a potential third catcher if needed. He will face competition for that role with Jackson Reetz who is also at Triple-A Sacramento.

Over the course of four seasons at the Triple-A level Sands is slashing .259/.350/.400, a respectable performance that if replicated for San Francisco's organization could once again see him called up for a short-term stint in the event of another injury.