Red Sox (Sort Of) Trade for (Sort Of) Catcher Blake Sabol

For the third time this offseason, the Red Sox have gone bargain-hunting at the catcher position. On Wednesday, Hunter Noll of Beyond the Monster reported that the team had acquired Blake Sabol from the Giants. This wasn't a traditional trade, as the Red Sox sent San Francisco a currently undisclosed amount of international bonus pool money. In order to make room for Sabol on the 40-man roster, the team designated Chase Shugart for assignment. The Giants had already DFA’d Sabol last week, but with the Red Sox extremely thin at the catcher position, he was clearly worth parting for some bonus money that they might or might not have spent.

The international signing period opened on Wednesday, and in accordance with standard (and ethically abominable) practice, the top players had already agreed to handshake deals with teams, often years in advance. According to a recent report from Eric Longenhagen, the Red Sox are expected to make just two premier international free agent signings. They’re rumored to be committed to shortstop Dorian Soto and center fielder Harold Rivas for $1.2 million and $1 million, respectively. The Red Sox started out with a bit under $6.3 million in their pool, and though they’ll definitely sign several more players who weren’t prominent enough to make Longenhagen’s list, they clearly had some space left over.

Sabol, whom the Giants poached from the Pirates in the 2023 Rule 5 draft, is both a catcher and an outfielder, but given Boston’s glut of outfielders, it seems obvious that the team is only bringing him in for his potential behind the plate. After rental Danny Jansen became a free agent, the Red Sox went into the offseason with Connor Wong as the only catcher on the 40-man roster. In November, they signed 31-year-old career backup Seby Zavala to a minor-league deal. In December they traded away star catching prospect Kyle Teel as the centerpiece of the Garrett Crochet deal. The next day, they traded for the Yankees’ fourth-string catcher, Carlos Narváez, in exchange for the organization’s top pitching prospect, Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz.

Sabol has 382 big-league plate appearances under his belt, and he never put up a wRC+ below 115 in any of his stops during his three years in the Pittsburgh organization, though he also ran some absurd BABIP numbers. The Giants gave him a real chance in 2023, getting him into 110 games, catching roughly 60% of the time. His defense graded out poorly, and though he put up 91 wRC+, perfectly fine for a catcher, the underlying metrics were scary. He hit the ball hard enough, but whiffed and struck out more than a third of the time. Sabol spent nearly all of the 2024 season in the minors, putting up an 86 wRC+. He seems likely to battle with Narváez for the backup catcher spot.

Wong had a great 2024 season at the plate, but it was propped up by some extremely unsustainable underlying metrics. Both Wong and Sabol have worrisome defensive numbers, and both Narváez and Sabol are question marks at the plate. Zavala has never hit, but does have some solid defensive metrics to his name. Combined, Narváez, Sabol, and Zavala have fewer than 1,000 major-league PAs. With Sabol as the third catcher on the 40-man, Zavala makes sense as an emergency option, but the Red Sox are rolling with untested players who don’t project to contribute much. According to Steamer, not one of them is projected for a wRC+ above 90.

If there’s a takeaway here, it’s that the Red Sox don’t seem to be too interested in investing in the catcher position. They're going for low-cost, low-ceiling options. Maybe it’s because they didn’t like the options available in free agency and they’re waiting until next year. Maybe they believe that they can get more out of these catchers than the teams who previously employed them. Or maybe their priorities simply lie elsewhere.