Article: Connor Wong To Injured List With Fractured Finger

[Davy Andrews]

The Red Sox will need to lean on offseason trade acquisitions Carlos Narváez and Blake Sabol much more than they hoped to this early in the season.

Monday night's gloomy 6-2 loss to the Blue Jays cost the Red Sox much more than a game. On a high first-inning slider from Richard Fitts, outfielder George Springer clipped Wong's glove and fractured his pinky finger. Wong remained in the game to finish the inning but reported swelling and numbness and did not return for the second inning, replaced by Carlos Narváez. After the game, the Red Sox placed Wong on the 15-day injured list with a fractured left pinky finger and called up Blake Sabol from Triple-A Worcester to take his place on the roster. The team has not set a timetable for Wong's return yet, but Baseball Prospectus's recovery dashboard indicates that the average player returns after 42 days, or six weeks, from a break or fracture to the hand.

Catcher interference has been growing more common in recent years because of the increased emphasis on catcher framing. Reaching out and catching the ball earlier allows catchers to present the ball to umpires when it's closest to the strike zone, but it also puts their hands in harm's way. “That’s a tough play,” Fitts told reporters after the game. “He’s trying to steal strikes for me and he’s trying to do whatever he can. So I hope the best for him.” Wong explained the situation using a common refrain from catchers, that framing is less about stealing strikes and more about keeping them strikes. “I feel like on that one, it was more so just saving a strike,” he said. “I set up down and away on a breaking ball and saw it pop up there and wanted to make sure I was able to catch it and stick it. Maybe late reaction, and he caught me.”

Wong put up a breakout offensive campaign in 2024, but the underlying numbers indicated that he was the benefit of some major batted ball luck. Meanwhile, his defensive numbers, specifically his pitch framing grades, took a huge step back. Wong spent much of the offseason working on his framing and bulking up in order to give himself a better chance to withstand the grind of a long season. Over the first week and change of the season, the defensive work appeared to be paying off. Although he was batting just.089, framing numbers from Basball Savant and Baseball Prospectus rated Wong as above average behind the plate, a huge step forward from last season's marks.

In Wong's absence, Narváez appears set to step up as the primary catcher, sharing time with Blake Sabol. The Red Sox acquired Narváez in an offseason trade with the Yankees, The team raved about his defense, and although pitch framing metrics aren't available in the minors, he did appear to be one of the best framers at the Triple-A level over the past two seasons. However, Narváez has a total of just 10 major league games under his belt, four of them coming this year, and he will now be thrust into the primary role for a club with World Series aspirations and expectations. It will be a huge challenge for the 26-year-old rookie. So far this season, his offense has been a pleasant surprise. He's currently 6-for-14 with three doubles and four walks.

The left-handed swinging Sabol also came to via an offseason trade. He came up with the Pirates and spent the last two seasons in the Giants organization. Sabol has 121 games of major league experience. He has run a 95 wRC+ over that time, slightly below the league-average but solid for a catcher. However, his defense has not graded out particularly well. His reputation as a bat-first catcher also had him playing corner outfield occasionally, and he's putting up an above-average offensive line in Worcester so far this season. If he's going to contribute in Boston, it's more likely to be with the bat than with the glove. Behind Sabol, the Red Sox still have Seby Zavala in Worcester. Zavala signed a minor league deal over the winter, and when he didn't make the club out of camp, he had the chance to look for a roster spot elsewhere, but ended up accepting the assignment to Triple-A. Beyond that, it's possible that the Red Sox will look to pad their depth with external candidates like the recently DFA'd Chadwick Tromp, but the team has expressed nothing but faith in Narváez, so at least for now, it appears unlikely that they go out and look for another big league catcher in trade.

With Wong likely to be out for most of the first half, Narváez will have a big say in the team's performance. If he can continue hitting or provide the defensive value that the team has praised over the last few months, he can help keep the Red Sox, who currently sit just half a game behind the Yankees for the division lead, in the hunt. If he should experience growing pains during his first extended stint at the big league level, it could be a real blow to the team's playoff chances.

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[mvp 78]

Sabol is apparently not a great catcher, so I'm not looking forward to this. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

39 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Sabol is apparently not a great catcher, so I'm not looking forward to this. 

Sabol is not Wong, but may not be right, either.

Seby Zavala is a better defensive catcher, and closer in age and career HRs to Crash Davis...

[moonslav59]

If Zavala is Wong, I don't want to be right.

[Old Red]

6 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Sabol is apparently not a great catcher, so I'm not looking forward to this. 

14 SB against so far this year in 14 attempts.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Just now, Old Red said:

14 SB against so far this year in 14 attempts.

He's perfect!

[moonslav59]

Looks like Narvaez will be getting a longer look than planned.

Maybe he wins the 60% role.

[vegasbob]

Wong who was having significant trouble buying a hit in his very limited ABs so far will get a chance at a clean restart come mid to late May.     Maybe that will be a win from this not so good situation. 

It may also  allow Connor, when back to remain fresher deeper into the season  .

It may also prompt Breslow to reconsider the catcher position  by trade deadline.  It is Narvaez's job to perform and solidify . Let's wish him well in doing so

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, vegasbob said:

Wong who was having significant trouble buying a hit in his very limited ABs so far will get a chance at a clean restart come mid to late May.     Maybe that will be a win from this not so good situation. 

It may also  allow Connor, when back to remain fresher deeper into the season  .

It may also prompt Breslow to reconsider the catcher position  by trade deadline.  It is Narvaez's job to perform and solidify . Let's wish him well in doing so

As much as I am always for upgrading the pitching staff (from the top- not the bottom,) I think adding to our catcher position is a pretty high priority. 

We seem to have duplicate values at middle infield and outfield, so maybe something happens, this summer or next winter.

That being said, I've been pretty high on Narvaez since the trade. I worries about how his OBP would translate to the bigs, but so far, so good, in a tiny sample size. His D has been praised for a while.

[Larry Cook]

They say that the ball always finds the weak defenders. 
New saying is injuries always find the positions that lack depth!!!!!

[moonslav59]

11 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

They say that the ball always finds the weak defenders. 
New saying is injuries always find the positions that lack depth!!!!!

That seems so true, for the Sox, anyway.

[mvp 78]

12 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

They say that the ball always finds the weak defenders. 
New saying is injuries always find the positions that lack depth!!!!!

Wong was trying to get as close to the plate as possible to frame a pitch. If they just added the robo umps already, these catching interferences would go away. I feel like we're starting to see more and more of these than ever before. 

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Wong was trying to get as close to the plate as possible to frame a pitch. If they just added the robo umps already, these catching interferences would go away. I feel like we're starting to see more and more of these than ever before. 

Another reason for robo umps.

[Kimmi]

7 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Wong was trying to get as close to the plate as possible to frame a pitch. If they just added the robo umps already, these catching interferences would go away. I feel like we're starting to see more and more of these than ever before. 

I know it's coming, but I'm still 100% against robo umps.  Among the reasons for being against them is that the skill of pitch framing will no longer be relevant, depending on the extent to which robo umps are used

Hurry back Wong.

[mvp 78]

12 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

I know it's coming, but I'm still 100% against robo umps.  Among the reasons for being against them is that the skill of pitch framing will no longer be relevant, depending on the extent to which robo umps are used

Hurry back Wong.

Yeah, I didn't grow up caring about pitch framing so if it goes away my life will be the same. 

[Kimmi]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Yeah, I didn't grow up caring about pitch framing so if it goes away my life will be the same. 

I didn't grow up caring about pitch framing, per se, but I did grow up highly valuing the defensive skills of a catcher.

[moonslav59]

The skill of deceiving an ump is not something I value all that much.

[mvp 78]

15 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

The skill of deceiving an ump is not something I value all that much.

I agree. I also believe "framing" should just be catching the ball where it is and holding it for the ump to see rather than pulling it back to the middle of the zone every pitch. It's annoying to watch a pitch 6"s outside get brought back into the zone. 

Blocking a ball? Cool! Throwing a runner out? Cool! Pop times? Cool! Pulling every ball back into the middle of the zone after you catch it? Lame! 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

I agree. I also believe "framing" should just be catching the ball where it is and holding it for the ump to see rather than pulling it back to the middle of the zone every pitch. It's annoying to watch a pitch 6"s outside get brought back into the zone. 

Blocking a ball? Cool! Throwing a runner out? Cool! Pop times? Cool! Pulling every ball back into the middle of the zone after you catch it? Lame! 

Check! Check the check! The batter raised his eyebrows at that pitch -- did he go around? Ask someone else for help, like another ump around 100 feet away from the guy standing right behind the batter.

And if it's 20 degrees with the wind chill, the answer every time will be the same, because frozen old umpires want to punch the air to keep the blood circulating: Checkmate! 

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

I agree. I also believe "framing" should just be catching the ball where it is and holding it for the ump to see rather than pulling it back to the middle of the zone every pitch. It's annoying to watch a pitch 6"s outside get brought back into the zone. 

Blocking a ball? Cool! Throwing a runner out? Cool! Pop times? Cool! Pulling every ball back into the middle of the zone after you catch it? Lame! 

They shouldnt even try on bad pitches. It hurts their cred and make the ump think you do not respect the ump.