Connor Wong Is Above-Average Offensively But Struggling Mightily Defensively

I like to watch the opponent's broadcasts of Red Sox games for a few reasons. First, if anyone besides Lou Merloni is in the booth, I find Dave O’Brien insufferable. Second, it is nice to get a fresh perspective on the hometown nine. Opposition booths are generally pretty complimentary to Boston, both the city and the team, which is nice to hear. But watching the Diamondbacks series this past weekend, a new talking point emerged: Connor Wong is not very good behind the plate. This sentiment was echoed by the Blue Jays broadcasters in the next series as well.

In his first full-time season, Connor Wong had a 1.92 pop time and was tied for fourth in the league in caught stealing, with five above average. According to Baseball Savant, both his pop time and arm strength were above average. Rightfully, he was lauded for his ability to control the running game, which, with the new rules, was considered more important than ever.

Other aspects of Wong’s defense game looked like they could use improvement, though. According to Baseball Savant, he was worth -5 catcher framing runs, which put him 51st among 63 qualified catchers. More alarming was his blocking, which Baseball Savant put him at -7 blocks above average.

Still, his 2.2 Baseball-Reference WAR had him tied with Triston Casas for the seventh most valuable member of the 2023 Red Sox.

In Offensive WAR, Wong has already doubled his production from last season, according to Baseball-Reference. That part of his game has undoubtedly improved, and he has become a top-ten catcher in baseball in that respect.

Defensively, things have begun to slip a bit. His pop time is down to 1.96, which is still good, but his caught stealing above average is now -1, six less than last year. That puts him in the bottom half of catchers. Worse still, he has -7 catcher framing runs and -13 blocks above average. Those both rank second worst in baseball.

While it could be easy to think that Wong might be more suitable for an infield position where he can use his arm strength, there might be some reasons to pause that notion. The newly acquired Danny Jansen is tied atop the Blocks Above Average leaderboard. Still, since arriving at the Red Sox, his rate BAA/game is down from 0.21 to .03. It is obviously a small sample size but a trend worth watching as it may say something about Connor Wong’s ability compared to the rest of the league.

I think there is reason to believe that the Red Sox's “fewer fastballs, more breaking balls” pitching philosophy is having a demonstrative effect on the catchers’ defensive numbers as a whole. It feels logical that if the ball is moving more, it might be hard to catch it cleanly, thus making a slip in caught stealing or framing make some sense. If you are facing more blocking attempts, then there are more chances to miss blocks.

This is the first year with pitching coach Andrew Bailey and Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow instituting the emphasis on breaking pitches. Maybe after an adjustment period, Wong can make adapt to better block pitches and reclaim his control of the running game. There is no need to ask him to hang up the shin guards and chest protector. Still, with the American League East not getting any easier in the coming years, the Fenway faithful need consistently solid performances out of its premium defensive positions.