Article: Replacing Connor Wong's Defense At Catcher Is The Easiest Path To Improved Red Sox Pitching In 2025

[Daniel Fox]

Connor Wong had a nice offensive season in 2024 but his defense is hurting the Red Sox pitching staff.

Red Sox fans love to complain. Spend five minutes on X, and you’ll hear about everything wrong with the club, from John Henry’s indifference to Alex Cora’s decision-making to Triston Casas’ pregame routine. Yet, during all my time on the app, one issue isn’t talked about enough: Connor Wong’s defense.

I was stunned to see the results from the RedSoxStats Twitter survey that only 7% of fans want Wong to be replaced as the starting catcher, and I think the reason is that it's hard to truly appreciate the impact of catcher framing. It’s much easier to measure offense, as anyone can tell you what a good batting average or home run total is. It’s also become easier to measure defense, as Statcast’s Outs Above Average puts a digestible numerical value on defensive value. But framing? Does that even matter? It feels much easier just to blame the umpire for missing calls.

Framing does matter, and Wong’s inability to assist his pitchers actively costs the team runs. He rated 57th out of 59 catchers last season with -7 framing runs. That might not seem like a lot, but consider the type of pitchers the Red Sox have on their staff. Besides Nick Pivetta, the Red Sox rotation consisted entirely of sinkerballers who rely on command rather than overpowering hitters. They are also a largely inexperienced staff, with Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, and Kutter Crawford all in their first or second full seasons in an MLB rotation. They would have benefited tremendously from a catcher they could have confidence in, but instead they got one who cost them strikes regularly.

As much as Wong struggled with framing, his blocking is worse. Only Francisco Alvarez and Shea Langeliers were worse than Wong’s -12 Blocks Above Average, with the former being an elite framer and the latter being an Oakland Athletic. To put it another way, no team with any kind of postseason aspirations trotted out a catcher as bad as Wong every day.

You might think, “Well, Wong is still young and getting used to catching. Maybe he will improve next season.” The issue with that line of thinking is that Wong actually regressed from his rookie season to 2024. He went from -5 framing runs to -7 and from -7 Blocks Above Average to -12. He also took a major step back in throwing out runners, going from the 92nd percentile in Caught Stealing Above Average to the middle of the pack.

Another point one might argue is that Connor Wong was one of the best offensive catchers in baseball, which is technically true on the surface but doesn’t tell the whole story. For one, he is one of the many hitters on the Red Sox with a plate approach issue, striking out 114 times against just 28 walks. If you look at Wong’s Baseball Savant page, you would never guess that he had a 110 OPS+:

As you can see, every single under-the-hood metric indicates that Wong is a well-below-average hitter. He doesn’t hit the ball hard, doesn’t square up the ball consistently, swings and misses far too often, and frequently expands the zone. The difference between his batting average (.280) and the expected batting average based on the quality of contact (.233) was the second-highest in all of baseball. Every indication is that Wong was exceptionally lucky and is unlikely to post another above-average offensive season unless he alters his approach.

If we’re being honest with ourselves, and I try to be when writing these articles, I couldn't care less about how a catcher hits. Sandy Leon, the primary catcher for the greatest Red Sox team ever, had a .511 OPS on the year. Did that matter? Of course not. What mattered was that he was a great defensive catcher and that the pitchers loved throwing to him.

With that in mind, let me propose a new starting catcher for the 2025 Red Sox, and no, it’s not Kyle Teel. The 2022 first-round pick is the unquestioned catcher of the future, but the future is not right now. There is still more work to be done, such as making more frequent and harder contact and being more consistent on defense.

No, the catcher I want the Red Sox to sign is Kyle Higashioka. The soon-to-be free agent checks all the boxes I’m looking for to help reshape the pitching staff. As Gerrit Cole’s former personal catcher and the starting backstop on a great Padres team this year, Higashioka knows how to control a pitching staff and earn the trust of veteran pitchers. He has been anywhere from an above-average to an elite framer throughout his career. Though he took a step back with his throwing and blocking in 2024, he has usually graded at least average in both categories. He is also far from a zero from the plate, homering 17 times in only 84 games and having a swing made for Fenway Park.

I understand that suggesting replacing a 29-year-old catcher in his prime with a 35-year-old journeyman may be unpopular, but Wong’s defense over the past two years hasn’t been good enough. It's hard to hear the organization talk about the “Run Prevention Unit” and trot out a catcher who actively hurts their pitchers defensively. Simply put, the Red Sox pitching staff needs to improve and an easy way to accomplish that goal is to improve defensively behind the dish.

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[notin]

Bring back Jansen…

[Bellhorn04]

How much for Higgy? is the question, I guess.

[win red sox]

This is such low hanging fruit to improve the overall team. There are plenty of free agent catchers that the sox can get on a cheap 1-3 year deal. I do think Wong stays on as the backup until Teel is ready,, but in no way should he be the primary catcher.

[notin]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

How much for Higgy? is the question, I guess.

Certainly Higashioka picked the right time to have a career year at the plate.

Given his age, he can almost certainly be had for less money and shorter years than the much younger Jansen.

Higashioka wouldn’t surprise me at all as a short term solution paving the way for Teel…

[moonslav59]

Great article. I'm with notin on going with the shorter deal, which might be Higgy.

Teel could be ready by 2026.

I also think getting a pitcher (or two) from MN, along with 1 year catcher, jeffers would work. Not sure how he ranks on D, but nobody seems worse than Wong.

One Q: didn't Wong look okay on some defensive metrics, in 2023?

 

[notin]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Great article. I'm with notin on going with the shorter deal, which might be Higgy.

Teel could be ready by 2026.

I also think getting a pitcher (or two) from MN, along with 1 year catcher, jeffers would work. Not sure how he ranks on D, but nobody seems worse than Wong.

One Q: didn't Wong look okay on some defensive metrics, in 2023?

 

Pop up time and arm strength…

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Pop up time and arm strength…

Was he this bad on blocking and framing in 2023?

[moonslav59]

Last year, we saw the tides shift mid season on how well our pitchers did with differing catchers. I've avoided the issue, this year, as it seemed Wong became more of a FT catcher over a split duty set-up like 2023.

Here are some numbers- pitcher by pitcher:

OPS Against (PAs)

Houck: .537 w McGuire (199) .612 w Wong (464)  .856 w Jansen (80)

Pivetta: .561 w McGuire (169) .698 2 Jansen (94) .801 w Wong (332)

Criswell: .700 w McGuire (143) .760 w Wong (210)  .857w Jansen 71)

Crawford: .501 w McGuire (122) .728 w Wong (526) .797 w Jansen (111)

Bello: .599 w Jansen (167) .744 w Wong (415) .823 w McGuire (120)

Wink: .728 w Wong (150) .743 w McGuire (114) .836 w Jansen (72)

Slaten: .533 w McGuire (89) .593 w Wong (114)

As you can see, Wong did not do the best with our top pitchers. Only Wink did slightly better with Wong.

While Wong is still young enough, and many catcher "mature" in their late 20's or even early 30's, I'm not sure how much longer we can stick with Wong.

I'm fine with the idea of adding Higgy or Jansen or trading for Jeffers.

Splits in 2024 (L/Rcareer)

Higgy .742 v L/.737 v R (.720/.644)

Jansen .714 v L/ .634 v R (.703/.737 reverse split)

Jeffers .817 v L/ .693 v R (.832/.695)

Jeffers looks like the better batter, especially vs LHPs.

 

 

 

[moonslav59]

ERA 2024:

Houck: 1.82 McG, 3.30 Wong, 5.09 Jansen

Crawford: 1.17 NcG, 4.57 Wong, 7.20 Jansen

Pivetta: 2.42 McG, 3.68 Jansen, 5.24 Wong

Bello: 3.23 Jansen, 4.64 Wong, 5.81 McGuire

Criswell: 2.32 Jansen, 3.12 McG, 5.33 Wong

Wong is so far behind with all 5 of these guys, I think I'm convinced a change is needed.

[Larry Cook]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

ERA 2024:

Houck: 1.82 McG, 3.30 Wong, 5.09 Jansen

Crawford: 1.17 NcG, 4.57 Wong, 7.20 Jansen

Pivetta: 2.42 McG, 3.68 Jansen, 5.24 Wong

Bello: 3.23 Jansen, 4.64 Wong, 5.81 McGuire

Criswell: 2.32 Jansen, 3.12 McG, 5.33 Wong

Wong is so far behind with all 5 of these guys, I think I'm convinced a change is needed.

Is there any real correlation here??? 
 

I mean whoever caught Houck early in the year caught him when he was fresh got a huge advantage over those who caught him in the second half when he had a dead arm 
 

[moonslav59]

4 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

Is there any real correlation here??? 
 

I mean whoever caught Houck early in the year caught him when he was fresh got a huge advantage over those who caught him in the second half when he had a dead arm 
 

Why look at just one pitcher and not the fact that Wong was not #1 with any?