Thaiss drew a one-out walk off of Max Meyer in the sixth inning and swiped second base, but the White Sox were unable to cash him in. He then drew a bases-loaded walk in the seventh inning, increasing the White Sox’ lead to 5-2. On the season, he’s now hitting .226/.402/.339 with one homer, eight RBI and one stolen base. Astonishingly, that .226 batting average was the fourth highest average in the White Sox’ starting lineup on Friday. Yikes.

The 30-year-old backstop drew a rare start as the team’s designated hitter and batted third for the White Sox on Tuesday. He led off the fourth inning with a single off of Seth Lugo then scored the game’s first run on a two-out RBI single off the bat of Brooks Baldwin. Thaiss also led off the sixth inning with a single, took second on a wild pitch and ultimately scored on an error by Jonathan India. Even with the two-hit attack though, he’s hitting just .228/.392/.351 on the season with one homer and seven RBI in his first 74 plate appearances.

Lee started against a lefty on Opening Day, but Thaiss, a left-handed hitter, has played over him against righties the last two days. It was expected that Lee would be displaced as the White Sox’s starting catcher at some point this season, but we assumed it would be for Kyle Teel or Edgar Quero over the summer and not by Thaiss on the first weekend of the season.

Thaiss is on the move again in a crosstown Chicago swap just a few weeks after being shipped to the Cubs from the Angels where he batted .208/.313/.342 with 22 homers and six steals in 771 plate appearances dating back to 2019. The 29-year-old former first-round pick never quite panned out in Los Angeles and projects as merely extra catching depth for the White Sox behind starter Korey Lee until top prospects Edgar Quero and Kyle Teel are ready to ascend to the big leagues.