Connor Wong's Offensive Woes and How to Replace His Roster Spot

3 hours ago, Alex Mayes said:

Connor Wong is having the worst season of his career, by a lot. He’s an offensive blackhole and he lost his starting spot after fracturing his pinky on a catcher’s interference call early in the season. He’s been usurped by a rookie who likely will make the All-Star team and should be in the running for the AL Rookie of the Year award. Things couldn’t have possibly gone worse for Wong this season, who was looking to rebound from a down second half in 2024. He adapted his catching approach to become a better defensive catcher, upgrading both his framing abilities and his ability to throw out runners on stolen base attempts. And, in both respects, he has improved — he’s in the 72nd percentile in caught stealing above average and the 75th percentile in framing. Both of those numbers are drastic improvements from last season where he was in the 66th percentile for caught stealing above average and the ninth percentile for framing. What’s concerning, though, his his almost historical offensive downturn. 

So far in 2025, Wong is slashing .157/.259/.157. He currently only has one RBI on the season and that didn’t happen until June 23. His strikeout total doubles his walk total (18 Ks to nine walks), a 20 wRC+, and -0.1 WAR. He has been given 81 plate appearances this year, rewarding the Red Sox with just 11 singles. That’s it. No doubles, no triples, no home runs. Eleven singles. When he’s in the lineup, he’s an automatic out more than anyone else in the lineup. He’s tied for first on the team for grounding into double plays with five. The player he’s tied with is his rookie replacement Carlos Narvaez, but you should be able to excuse some of that for a rookie. Wong has been in the league since 2021. He should understand how to play big league ball at this point. Since he’s at less than 100 plate appearances, he’s not a qualified hitter on the team, but if you look at his Baseball Savant MLB Percentile Rankings, they tell a terrible story. He’s ice cold in every offensive facet of the game, except walks. He’s chasing over 30% of the time, rarely barreling balls, and his average exit velocity means hardly anything gets out of the infield.

His at-bats are hard to watch, but it’s harder to watch his reactions after he makes an out. He has been seen slamming his helmet and looking more and more frustrated with each out. That’s understandable. While he’s never lit the league on fire, he’s been an okay offensive catcher who needed to grow on the defensive side of the ball to stake his claim to the starting position. He’s finally figured things out on defense, but his offense has taken a huge hit. That begs the question, what should the Red Sox do with the backup catcher position?

There’s a few options on the table to rectify the situation. The first, and easiest, is to keep Wong rostered and cross your fingers that he figures it out at some point this season. Though it's the easiest, this is the worst option on the table. He's simply not going to be the "catcher of the future", and his profile has too many holes on both sides of the ball to fix with just more repetitions.

The next option would be to send Wong to Triple-A Worcester to get starting reps behind the dish in hopes that fixes his offensive issues. The issue here is there is no other catcher on the 40-man roster at the moment, so the Red Sox would either have to add someone like Blake Sabol back to the 40-man and call him up, which is far from ideal, or trade for a backup catcher. Which brings us to option number three, and the option I think the Red Sox are looking the most at. It makes the most sense for the Red Sox to trade for a veteran catcher that can slot into the back up role and then designate Wong for assignment.

The Red Sox were interested in bringing in Sean Murphy in a deal for Rafael Devers, and they should revisit that conversation for Murphy straight up. The Braves are dealing with injuries that are likely going to keep them out of contention in the National League this season, and Murphy is an aging catcher who is beginning his own offensive downturn. That being said, he’s still a catcher who could split time with Narvaez behind the dish and you’d be confident he could contribute in some way, especially as a mentor to the rookie backstop.

If the goal for the Red Sox is to make a postseason push, bringing in a veteran like Murphy is the clear path forward. Wong isn’t going to fix his problems this year and likely won’t be on the roster come 2026 at this rate. Narvaez has been incredible this season, but he’s going to become worn out as the season drags on. While this shouldn’t impact his defensive abilities, it would mean his offense would take a huge hit. Bringing in a veteran like Murphy to platoon the catcher role a bit makes perfect sense. The Red Sox could follow the plan the Mariners are currently using for Cal Raleigh. When he needs a break from catching, he’s slotted in at DH. Narvaez could do the same on the days that Murphy — or really, any veteran catcher on the market — is behind the dish. 

It’s unfortunate that Wong's development has come to this, especially considering the trade that brought him to Boston, but we’re here and it’s time to upgrade his position. It won’t be difficult — not many backup catchers are playing worse baseball than Wong is — so any deal to bring in a strong glove and even semi-competent bat would be a net positive. If the front office truly believes that they can compete this year, a trade for someone like Murphy or a catcher of a similar ilk would go a long way toward proving that.

 

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If you can't hit, you don't belong in the majors. If you can't hit and your below average defensively, your taking up space that someone else should begiven a chance to fill. Its the harsh reality of professional baseball. The Sox have more than one of those players on the active roster.

To be fair, Connor Wong was part of the duping of Bloom by Friedman.  Wong wasn't good in college, the Dodgers drafted him in the third round in 2017 further documenting Friedman wasn't that great at drafting.  His one big draftee was Buehler!!! how ironic that he was his best pick ever!!!  Anyway, Wong wasn't good in the lower minors and then just like Jeter Downs he got promoted to the Tulsa AA team at nearly the same time.  Just like Jeter Downs he jumped his hitting from .245 at Hi-A to .349 at AA.  Jeter Downs jumped from near prospect #200 on the pipeline to 44 when he hit .333 in Tulsa in just 12 games.  Wong spent more time there but his meteoric rise in average was similar to Downs and perfect timing for overstating the skills of two players in the Mookie deal.  I remember insisting on websites that Wong as the 5th or 6th catcher on the LAD depth chart was a wasted player in the deal just like Downs and even Verdugo since he had severe back issues when he was young.  The Mookie deal was a joke, and Friedman sold his apprentice Bloom a bill of goods not a quality trade.

When Wong arrived in Boston in 2021, he went to AAA, and he had a mediocre season but he got 13 at bats late in 2021 with the Red Sox so the expectations were high because he hit over .300 in the very limited time in Sep 2021.  In 2022, he started again in AAA for 81 games and hit a respectable .288 so they brought him up and he hit .188 in 27 games as I expected he would.  With Vazquez gone he was the back-up catcher in 2023.  He hit .235 stole 8 bases and did nothing to suggest he was a MLB catcher.  His peak appeared to be BACK-UP CATCHER.  Then, in 2024, out of nowhere, he started hitting.  He had a career year for no apparent reason, and everyone said he's our catcher of the future except I pointed out that he had never been this good in college or the minors so it was probably a career year, and he would regress back to his normal in 2025.  He did exactly that, but Cora loves the guy so he's getting chances he didn't deserve.  It's time to cut him loose and find someone else at catcher.  The scary part is Narvaez is having a year similar to Wong's in 2024.  It looks like he too is having a career year and based on his history there is no reason to expect him to not regress in 2026.  That's why trading for a catcher or TWO would make lots of sense.  Someone with an established history of being good.  Or maybe trade for Teel!! hahaha 

Let's hope Narvaez isn't a one hit wonder like Wong!!!

We can call the dodgers and send them buehler and mussett and they send us dalton rushing!!