Did the Red Sox Just Find Their Backup Catcher in Carlos Narváez?

On Wednesday, just moments before the Rule 5 Draft was set to start at the Winter Meetings in Dallas, the whispers started. It spread around the room like wildfire, with reporters turning around and whispering to the colleagues behind them, “Crochet to Boston.” It was the story of the day, but the team wasn’t done yet. The Red Sox wouldn’t make a pick in the major league portion of the draft, but in the minor league draft, they selected four pitchers in the minor league portion:

• Hobie Harris, RHP (Mets Double A)
• Darvin Garcia, RHP (Pirates High A)
• Manuel Medina, LHP (Marlins Single A)
• Jack Anderson, RHP (Tigers Double A)

They also lost five players in the draft, two of them pitchers and three of them outfielders. That evening, the Red Sox traded minor-league pitcher Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, along with some international bonus pool space, to the Yankees in exchange for catcher Carlos Narváez. In order to make room for Narváez, the Red Sox DFA’d second baseman Enmanuel Valdez, then on Sunday, they traded Valdez to the Pirates in exchange for right-handed pitcher Joe Vogatsky.

Just to recap, since Wednesday, the Red Sox have added six pitchers (including Crochet) and a catcher. We'll get to the pitchers in a moment, but aside from Crochet, the 26-year-old Narváez is the piece who will have the biggest impact on the 2025 season. FanGraphs ranked Rodriguez-Cruz the seventh-best prospect in the top-ranked Boston organization, which is to say that the team gave up a whole lot for Narváez. The catcher made his big-league debut this season, getting into six games with the Yankees. He doesn’t have a particularly high ceiling, but he ran a solid 42.3% hard-hit rate in Triple A this season, and his arm is well-regarded. Right now, he’s back home playing for Cardenales de Lara in the Venezuelan Winter League, and he’s absolutely raking. He’s running a 1.118 OPS and batting .377 with seven doubles and five homers in just 25 games. It’s unclear whether the Red Sox envision Narváez slotting in as the backup catcher behind Connor Wong, or whether they’re still looking to sign another catcher. So far, nine free agent catchers have already signed deals, and the options left on the board aren’t particularly promising. Narváez may not be the most inspiring pickup, but he certainly looks like a reasonable backup option.

As for the pitchers, obviously, Crochet is in a different category than the other five pitchers, only two of whom have advanced past Single A and none of whom ran an ERA below 4.50 this season. These are lottery tickets, and it would be surprising to see any of them do more than make an appearance in Boston this season. The 31-year-old Harris, who had a cup of coffee with the Nationals in 2023, is the only one of those five pitchers who has ever appeared on one of FanGraphs’ top prospect lists, and it was all the way back in 2021. However, it’s exciting to see the Red Sox targeting pitchers. Because, as a group, they were so unsuccessful this season, it’s safe to say that Boston wasn’t just scouting the stat line. They’re looking for traits they like and hoping that they can shape these young pitchers. The Red Sox are attempting to build one of the best pitching development systems in baseball, and they’re going out and looking for players whose upside they might be able to unlock. Harris and Garcia ran particularly gnarly walk rates this season, but Baseball American named Garcia’s changeup the best in the Pittsburgh farm system. Medina ran an enormous strikeout rate in both the complex league and Low A this season. Perhaps the most curious pickup is Vogatsky, who went to James Madison and was Pittsburgh’s 19th round pick this year. The Blue Jays drafted him in the 14th round in 2023, but he decided to return to JMU for his senior season, going 3-2 with a 3.49 ERA over 27 relief appearances. Vogatsky didn’t appear for the Pirates at all, but in college he pitched from a nearly-sidearm delivery, his fastball sitting 90 to 93 mph. After the deal went down, Ethan Hullihen, a savant when it comes to MLB contracts and the Pirates in particular, tweeted, "I have every name of the Pirates entire organization in one file, am in it all the time. I don't know who this person is."