Article: Boston Red Sox Arbitration Decisions & Projections: Connor Wong

[Alex Mayes]

C Connor Wong
Age on Opening Day: 29
2023 Salary: $720,000
2024 Salary: $760,000
2025 Salary: $790,000
2026 Salary (Projected): $1,600,000

Background

Connor Wong is the lone piece leftover from the Mookie Betts trade. After a breakout 2024 season, Wong was seen as the potential catcher of the future for the Red Sox. He made his debut with the club in 2021 and took over the full-time catching role in 2023, the first full season after veteran catcher Christian Vazquez was traded to the Astros. He slugged 13 home runs in 2024 and there was a lot of hope entering the 2025 season that another uptick in power was coming. Unfortunately, that didn’t come to pass for the now-veteran backstop.

2025 Season

The 2025 season was one to forget for Connor Wong. He fractured his hand on a catcher interference call early in the season and then subsequently lost his starting job to rookie phenom Carlos Narvaez. Once Wong returned to the roster as a backup and Brayan Bello’s personal catcher, he struggled mightily on offense. For the season, Wong slashed .190/.262/.238 with only eight extra-base hits. He posted a 39 wRC+ to go along with an abysmal -0.7 WAR. Defensively, Wong showed promise behind the dish to kick off the season. His framing was better thanks to a new stance he worked on during the offseason and his defensive metrics all saw improvement. Then, as the season began to wane, so did Wong’s defensive metrics. His once all-red defensive Baseball Savant page turned an icy blue to close the season.

Organizational Catching Depth

MLB: Carlos Narvaez, Connor Wong

AAA: Nathan Hickey, Enderso Lira, Chadwick Tromp, Seby Zavala, Jason Delay

Summary:

The glaring issue with the catching position for the Red Sox is that, behind Narvaez, the depth is paper thin. Wong makes the most sense out of all the names currently on the roster, including recently-signed free agent Jason Delay. He knows the pitching staff and the hope throughout the organization has to be that 2025 was an anomaly in his career and not the start of a dramatic downturn. Wong getting a start every five days isn’t the worst scenario for the Red Sox, but he was pretty much a guaranteed out every time he stepped up to the plate at the bottom of the order. The fact that he didn’t catch Bello’s lone playoff appearance is more telling than not; he doesn’t have the trust of the coaching staff.

Why the Red Sox Should Offer Him a Contract:

Positional depth, that’s it. Connor Wong will likely never be the catcher many had once hoped he was, but he makes for a passable backup to Narvaez. He will be cheap since he’s in his first year of arbitration—just $1.6 million according to MLB Trade Rumors. There’s still untapped potential in his bat, and if his defensive metrics improve and sustain throughout an entire season, then he’s worth the minimal salary he will possibly receive.

Why the Red Sox Should Not Offer Him a Contract

Just take a look at those numbers from the 2025 season above. In short, Wong stunk all season. He hit at the bottom of the lineup and, somehow, seemed to regularly find his way to the plate in meaningful situations where he would either strikeout or ground into a rally-killing double play. There’s bound to be better catchers on the open market who would come at similar prices to Wong’s projected arbitration salary. If the Red Sox are actually in ‘win-now’ mode, trotting Wong out every five days puts them in a position to play from behind when he’s on the field.

Projection

I’m not totally convinced the Red Sox will even get to arbitration with Connor Wong this offseason. While $1.6 million isn’t a ton of money in Major League Baseball, it could be better served to be spent elsewhere on the roster. I think there's at least some likelihood that Connor Wong will be non-tendered and will seek employment with another organization for 2026 and beyond. He’s not far removed from his breakout performance in 2024, but his 2025 campaign was so terrible that the team appears to have lost almost all faith in him. Simply put, Wong doesn’t have much value to this organization, especially as they eye another playoff run in 2026.

View full article

[moonslav59]

I think Wong comes back as the back-up catcher and Bello binky. SP'ers did better when he caught them.

No biggie, if we end up replacing him, but even good back-up catchers are hard to find.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

21 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I think Wong comes back as the back-up catcher and Bello binky. SP'ers did better when he caught them.

No biggie, if we end up replacing him, but even good back-up catchers are hard to find.

Sox minor league position player depth seems alarmingly weak at catcher, first base and third base, with no legit prospects in the upper levels. Worcester and Portland might as well be on Planet Dearth. 

Hopefully, guys like Arias, Godbout and Gonzales continue to develop and move up fast. Mayer looks destined for 3B.

If Bregman isn't resigned, I like Bichette as the best free agent option for a quality bat who can start somewhere in the infield. If Boston won't pay market prices for Alonso or Schwarber, then trade for Yandy Diaz at 1B -- which will add another solid contact man who won't strike out.

[mvp 78]

Zero chance Wong is non-tendered. None. His defense was improved this year. His bat should be a tick better and somewhat playable as it has been in the past. They have NO depth at catcher in the org. It'd be absolutely stupid to move on from Wong. 

[moonslav59]

10 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Sox minor league position player depth seems alarmingly weak at catcher, first base and third base, with no legit prospects in the upper levels. Worcester and Portland might as well be on Planet Dearth. 

Hopefully, guys like Arias, Godbout and Gonzales continue to develop and move up fast. Mayer looks destined for 3B.

If Bregman isn't resigned, I like Bichette as the best free agent option for a quality bat who can start somewhere in the infield. If Boston won't pay market prices for Alonso or Schwarber, then trade for Yandy Diaz at 1B -- which will add another solid contact man who won't strike out.

I'm okay with just picking up a catcher, when you need one as a back-up. It all seems sort of hit or miss when adding a catcher.

After Tyler Heineman had a .396 OPS for Sox & TOr in '24 and just 63 PAs in the previous 2 seasons, he hit .777 for TOR, this year. Higgy hit .660 in his final 3 years in NY, then has hit .714 in his last 2 seasons at ages 34-35 with 28 bombs in 590 PAs. Carson Kelly got some talk, here, last winter and signed for $5M with the Cubs: .761 OPS w 17 dingers in 421 PAs. When you hear success stories like these, it make you want to cut Wong loose and roll the dice with someone else, but most catcher additions end up being pretty bad on offense.

In MLB, last year, the 15th best catcher team OPS was .689. BOS was #20 at .653, and that could have been way worse, if not for Narvaez. 7 teams were below .615 and 5 below .606.

I think Wong bounces back on O. He improved his defense and production numbers from the pitchers he caught. He won't hit like 2024, but he should hit significantly better than 2025. His career OPS is .680 (87 OPS+.) The league catcher OPS was .700 in 2025. .680 is not that bad for a back-up, in this context.

 

[notin]

10 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Zero chance Wong is non-tendered. None. His defense was improved this year. His bat should be a tick better and somewhat playable as it has been in the past. They have NO depth at catcher in the org. It'd be absolutely stupid to move on from Wong. 

They could non-tender him and still re-sign him.

Or sign one of those Thomas Nido/Matt Thais/Eric Hasse journeymen.  Although they do already have Jason Delay…

[JoeBrady]

14 hours ago, notin said:

They could non-tender him and still re-sign him.

Or sign one of those Thomas Nido/Matt Thais/Eric Hasse journeymen.  Although they do already have Jason Delay…

If they non-tendered him, he'd be gone tomorrow.  He stays.

[moonslav59]

17 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

If they non-tendered him, he'd be gone tomorrow.  He stays.

They would trade Wong before letting him just go for nothing.

[notin]

5 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

They would trade Wong before letting him just go for nothing.

Assuming a partner could be found….

[notin]

24 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

If they non-tendered him, he'd be gone tomorrow.  He stays.

If they non-tender him, he’ll shop around for best offers.  Maybe he does better than his projected $1.6m.  Maybe not.   But he’s not some unique talent to get caught up in a bidding war…

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, notin said:

Assuming a partner could be found….

Not a big assumption when you see the state of catching depth in MLB.

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, notin said:

If they non-tender him, he’ll shop around for best offers.  Maybe he does better than his projected $1.6m.  Maybe not.   But he’s not some unique talent to get caught up in a bidding war…

He will likely settle before the arb- maybe for around $1.5M. That's not much more than the min wage.

[notin]

21 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Not a big assumption when you see the state of catching depth in MLB.

Is Wong necessarily better than the Fungibles Free Agent crowd?

Wong does have more versatility. But not many teams carrying two catchers value that…

[Duran Is The Man]

29 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Not a big assumption when you see the state of catching depth in MLB.

the A's have a catcher in AAA named Daniel Susac who is blocked by Shea Langeliers that i wouldn't mind as a backup behind Narvaez.

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

the A's have a catcher in AAA named Daniel Susac who is blocked by Shea Langeliers that i wouldn't mind as a backup behind Narvaez.

I'd be fine with some sort of upgrade, and just because I don't see it as a major need, doesn't mean we shouldn't do it.

I think I'm more okay with Wong than others. I don't think his bat is as bad as it looked, this year. His defense and results with with pitchers improved a lot in 2025. I guess I'd have to see who we'd need to give up for a promising catcher. I also have seen many highly regarded catching prospects fizzle out and moderately considered prospects, like Narvaez, shine.

[moonslav59]

14 minutes ago, notin said:

Is Wong necessarily better than the Fungibles Free Agent crowd?

Wong does have more versatility. But not many teams carrying two catchers value that…

He got great results from the staff he caught- better than Narvaez got. There is something of value to continuity and comfort between catchers and the staff.

[notin]

12 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

the A's have a catcher in AAA named Daniel Susac who is blocked by Shea Langeliers that i wouldn't mind as a backup behind Narvaez.

Susac was a first round pick 3 years ago.  He's more likely the heir to catcher for the Athletics than he is blocked by the arbitration-eligible Langeliers. 

Of the two, the A's probably prefer to move Langeliers, although they could also move him to DH....

[notin]

4 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

He got great results from the staff he caught- better than Narvaez got. There is something of value to continuity and comfort between catchers and the staff.

Fair.  And they may bring him back like they have many others before.

 

But he was also Bello's primary catcher.  Some of us (by which I mean me) think Bello might be a part of a trade himself this off-season...

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, notin said:

Fair.  And they may bring him back like they have many others before.

 

But he was also Bello's primary catcher.  Some of us (by which I mean me) think Bello might be a part of a trade himself this off-season...

If that happens, keeping Wong becomes less advantageous, but I still do not think upgrading our back-up catcher is a significant need. If something comes up, sure. It's a long winter, and Brez can work on multiple things and should look for an upgrade, but my thought is that so many teams want catching that the cost will likely be too high. If we can trade a bubble player or borderline Rule 5 guy, fine, but I'm not thinking we should give up a lot for a slight upgrade.

[notin]

31 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

If that happens, keeping Wong becomes less advantageous, but I still do not think upgrading our back-up catcher is a significant need. If something comes up, sure. It's a long winter, and Brez can work on multiple things and should look for an upgrade, but my thought is that so many teams want catching that the cost will likely be too high. If we can trade a bubble player or borderline Rule 5 guy, fine, but I'm not thinking we should give up a lot for a slight upgrade.

Say the off-season unfolds like this:

Sox re-sign Bregman and Matz.  And sign Josh Bell.  Not unrealistic.

Sox trade Duran to WS Runnerup Dodgers for C Dalton Rushing and RHP Emmet Sheehan.  Sox then send Sheehan and another (Harrison?) to MN for Joe Ryan.  (Yes this all works on BTV.)

So you have:

C: Rushing

1b: Bell

2b: Mayer (or Story)

3b: Bregman

SS: Story (or Mayer)

LF: Anthony

CF: Rafaela

RF: Abreu

DH: Yoshida ( or Casas if he is actually healthy)

BN: Narvaez, Gonzalez, Eaton

SP; Crochet, Ryan, Bello, Sandoval, Crawford

BP: Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Fitts (soxprospects has come around to agreeing with me on him here), Bernardino, Hicks, Matz, Weissert.

 

Still bringing back Wong?  Got one bench spot open…

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Is Wong necessarily better than the Fungibles Free Agent crowd?

Wong does have more versatility. But not many teams carrying two catchers value that…

Which FA would you rather have than Wong? I looked at it for catcher and it left me feeling like Wong was fine enough. Bring Vaz back maybe? 

[notin]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Which FA would you rather have than Wong? I looked at it for catcher and it left me feeling like Wong was fine enough. Bring Vaz back maybe? 

There is no one blatantly better, but Wong doesn’t shine over a lot of them either.

I could see brining him back, but I don’t think it’s such a lock.

I also think it’s possible the Sox try to upgrade at starting catcher and let Narvaez be the backup…

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, notin said:

There is no one blatantly better, but Wong doesn’t shine over a lot of them either.

I could see brining him back, but I don’t think it’s such a lock.

I also think it’s possible the Sox try to upgrade at starting catcher and let Narvaez be the backup…

It may not be a lock he comes back, but it's a lock he's not non-tendered. He'll be at ST in the catching rotation. The contract isn't big enough to clear out just yet and there aren't better options like you said. 

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Say the off-season unfolds like this:

Sox re-sign Bregman and Matz.  And sign Josh Bell.  Not unrealistic.

Sox trade Duran to WS Runnerup Dodgers for C Dalton Rushing and RHP Emmet Sheehan.  Sox then send Sheehan and another (Harrison?) to MN for Joe Ryan.  (Yes this all works on BTV.)

So you have:

C: Rushing

1b: Bell

2b: Mayer (or Story)

3b: Bregman

SS: Story (or Mayer)

LF: Anthony

CF: Rafaela

RF: Abreu

DH: Yoshida ( or Casas if he is actually healthy)

BN: Narvaez, Gonzalez, Eaton

SP; Crochet, Ryan, Bello, Sandoval, Crawford

BP: Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Fitts (soxprospects has come around to agreeing with me on him here), Bernardino, Hicks, Matz, Weissert.

 

Still bringing back Wong?  Got one bench spot open…

Since Wong has one option left, maybe, but I'd probably trade him.

This looks like something Brez might do, but I would be very disappointed. We did nothing to replace Devers. We replaced Bregman with an older Bregman. We replaced Lowe with Bell. We improved at catcher. Ryan may end up giving us what Gio gave in '25. Kinda status quo, to me.

No thanks.

[notin]

12 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

It may not be a lock he comes back, but it's a lock he's not non-tendered. He'll be at ST in the catching rotation. The contract isn't big enough to clear out just yet and there aren't better options like you said. 

Unless they try to upgrade starting catcher and pushing Narvaez to a reduced backup role.

They still might keep Wong, because he has played other positions and could still be useful as a third catcher with experience at 2b, 3b and corner OF.  Not many teams carry three catchers with these 4 man benches.  Last year, only St. Louis (and thats three catchers without counting Willson Contreras) and the Cubs did that I can recall…

[notin]

15 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Since Wong has one option left, maybe, but I'd probably trade him.

This looks like something Brez might do, but I would be very disappointed. We did nothing to replace Devers. We replaced Bregman with an older Bregman. We replaced Lowe with Bell. We improved at catcher. Ryan may end up giving us what Gio gave in '25. Kinda status quo, to me.

No thanks.

Status quo on a 92 Pythagorean-win team is a bad thing?

Chances that you are disappointed come March might be well above 90%.

Also your summary isnt accurate.  Team leader in starts at 1b was Toro and at 2b was Campbell…

[mvp 78]

37 minutes ago, notin said:

Unless they try to upgrade starting catcher and pushing Narvaez to a reduced backup role.

They still might keep Wong, because he has played other positions and could still be useful as a third catcher with experience at 2b, 3b and corner OF.  Not many teams carry three catchers with these 4 man benches.  Last year, only St. Louis (and thats three catchers without counting Willson Contreras) and the Cubs did that I can recall…

His bat is too pathetic to carry as a 3rd catcher on a MLB roster. If they were stashing him in AAA it wouldn't be a problem. 

[moonslav59]

33 minutes ago, notin said:

Status quo on a 92 Pythagorean-win team is a bad thing?

Yes, it is, and it wasn't even status quo, IMO.

Expecting a returning Bregman to do as well as the 2025 Bregman plus 2 months of Devers is not equal to status quo. (Bregman+Devers= 830 PAs.)

Bell may do as well as Lowe.

Upgrading Catcher might add, but Narvaez was not a weakness, last year, and who knows if the guy you like will do better than the 2026 Wong. We could see 2025 Wong D with 2024 Wong O and do better with status quo, there.

Losing Gio and expecting Belo to repeat 2025 is a lot to ask for Joe Ryan to make up, and he showed worse and longer issues than Bello to end 2025.

I'm fine with expecting the kids to pick up some slack. I'm a believer in thinking age progression is likely, and we have far more pre-prime and early-mid prime players than post prime ones, so that may help us step up, IN SOMEAREAS,  from status quo without outside additions, but we need some high quality over an excess of decent depth.

I really believe we need to focus our resources and pinpointing 2-3 highest need areas and go for broke on 2-3, rather than continuing the spread the wealth plan of adding 5-7 promises and hoping 4-5 do well.

We can roll the dice with in-house options at one questionable slot:

1B: (Lowe) Casas/Campbell/Romy

3B: Mayer, Romy/Eaton/Sogard

2B: Mayer, Romy/DHam/Sogard

SP2: We have 9-11 number 4/5 slot pitchers.

(One might include DH)

But, we need to upgrade with some serious quality at 2-3 and stay even with the one we don't address.

Bregman is barely staying even at one. Okay, go with Mayer at 2B, but then go mega size at 1B and SP2.

Go with Mayer at 3B, but then go large at 2B (Polanco, Bichette, Castro, KMarte) and 1B (Alonso, Suarez) and SP (Ryan, Lodolo or maybe Keller.)

Mega large at 2 or large at 3 is my idea of the best plan.

Again, I seriously doubt JH & Co. move from their established trend on no large and longs. I'm not even sure they go to $45M AAV on 4-5 short deals, this winter.

The large is in doubt.

The long is likely a pipe dream.

 

[notin]

24 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

His bat is too pathetic to carry as a 3rd catcher on a MLB roster. If they were stashing him in AAA it wouldn't be a problem. 

That's a possibility, too...

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, notin said:

That's a possibility, too...

1 MiLB option remains.