The Cubs and catcher have agreed to a minor league deal, reports . The Apex Baseball client will presumably receive Pierre Larouche Jersey an invite to major league spring training as well. McGuire, 30, has appeared in the past seven big league seasons as a part-time catcher. Spending time with the Blue Jays, White Sox and Red Sox, he has appeared in 355 games and stepped to the plate 1,038 times. He has a .252/.300/.364 batting line in that time, which translates to a wRC+ of 80. Though that puts him 20% below the league average hitter, its actually not terrible production for his position, since catchers usually produce about 10% le s than par. Unfortunately, the last two years have seen him slide down a bit. With the Red Sox over 2023 and 2024, he slashed .242/.297/.331 for a wRC+ of 70. Defensively, hes generally gotten good marks. Outlets like and consider him to have been a strong framer, while his blocking and work with the running game have been close to average. When the offense was a bit stronger, McGuire was a useful player. FanGraphs considered him to have been worth least 1.2 wins above replacement in each full season from 2019 to 2022. But as his bat dropped off over the past two years, his value slid along with it. Boston outrighted him off their roster in August and McGuire became a free agent at seasons end. The Cubs only have two catchers on their 40-man roster now in and . Prospect should be pushing his way into the mix eventually but hes only 21 years old and has only 68 Triple-A games under his belt, so perhaps hell spend a bit more time in the minors. McGuire will give the club a bit of extra depth without taking up a roster spot for now. If he gets added at any point, he is out of options but his service clock is just below the five-year line, meaning its theoretically po sible for him to be retained via arbitration for 2026 if he has a roster spot at seasons end. Tristan Broz Jersey