Article: Connor Wong Has Made Great Strides Behind the Plate

[Alex Mayes]

It was easy to see when the Red Sox traded for Carlos Narvaez that the team was putting a focus on defensive catchers. We all started to wonder what this could mean for Connor Wong in the long run, as defensive ability had never been his strong suit. He was a catcher that showcased far more offensive potential than defensive. It was fair to wonder if Narvaez would supplant Wong as the starting catcher in 2025, especially after Wong broke his pinky on a catcher’s interference call in early April.

At least in the early returns, though, Wong seems determined to prove everyone wrong. The catching portion of his Baseball Savant page isn’t on fire, but it is plenty red.

If we compare that with his 2024 catching page, we see some significant differences.

These improvements can be linked to a change in Wong’s offseason training program. The Red Sox hired Parker Guinn as the new catching instructor and bullpen catcher. Guinn ended up working with Wong for a couple of days a week during the offseason. With the help of game coordinator and Red Sox catching legend Jason Varitek, Guinn and Wong came up with an offseason program that put a renewed focus on the defensive side of the position. What ended up happening was Wong altered his stance behind the plate. His legs sit in virtually the same positions as they did in previous years, but he’s angled his chest more forward and sits lower in his squat than he has before. This allows him knock down or block balls that would end up as passed balls or wild pitches.

It also allows him to frame pitches with far more success than he has in the past. By sitting lower in the squat, Wong is able to frame pitches that miss down and off either corner as pitches that clip the zone. This allows him to get more calls for the pitchers throwing to him, which, in a non-strike zone challenge world, is as valuable of a skill that a backstop can have. He’s able to give his pitching staff a sense of confidence when he’s behind the plate.

We’re working with a limited number of starts so far in 2025, but it seems like Connor Wong may have figured out the defensive side of catching this season. The offensive side has to come around for it to make sense for him to keep getting starts over Narvaez, but he’s proven in the past that he’s capable of making offensive adjustments when necessary. If both sides of the game start to click for Wong soon, then the Red Sox have a great problem on their hands.

(h/t Jen McCaffrey)

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[TedYazPapiMookie]

Lets remember, the Mookie/Price giveaway brought back nothing from LAD with regard to talent.  Verdugo was a disruptive under performer, the highly touted Jeter Downs was a complete bust but that was not a shock since he was ranked well over 100 and played 18 games at AA where he hit way over his historical level from the previous 198 games.  The 18 games at AA at the end of 2019 allowed Friedman to pump Down's Pipeline position to 44.  He DFA's 2 years later.  Wong is the sole survivor and was ranked 5th or 6th within the LAD organization catcher depth chart.  He projected to be a journeyman catcher at best and until last year he was proving that to be true.  Was 2024 an anomaly in a less than glorious career or did he actually learn how to hit?  The small sample size of success leaves us questioning his skills at hitting and in his 38 bats this season he has done nothing to suggest that 2024 was not an exception.  Add to that he is league average at caught stealing stats and he has a terrible DRS and the need for Narvaez becomes obvious.  We can all hope that he can prove last year was not a fluke hitting and we can all hope he improves defensively but until he does and sustains it, he's just the 6th best catcher in the Dodger organization that was a throw in with some minor potential 5 years ago.