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The Red Sox are betting on Connor Wong. This winter, the team sent top-ranked catching prospect Kyle Teel to the White Sox for brand-new ace Garrett Crochet. The thing is, Wong isn’t some type of wunderkind who was preventing a Teel debut in 2025. Despite a breakout season at the plate, Wong’s offensive statistics were somewhat misleading in 2024, and his defense was a consistent problem.
The defense needs to be the most immediate fix. Of 40 catchers to play 500 innings in 2024, Wong ranked 37th in Catching Defense Added. He was 38th in Called Strikes Above Average and Blocking Runs. He was 19th in Throwing Runs.
The real question is: Does it matter? Last year, for example, the World Series champion Dodgers had a catcher who was equally poor on defense. That catcher, Will Smith, was just one spot ahead of Wong in Catching Defense Added (CDA). That trend, however, doesn’t continue for other World Series winners. In 2023, Rangers catcher Jonah Heim was 4th in CDA. Martin Maldonado ranked 15th in 2022 for the World Champion Astros. (He did split time with Christian Vazquez after the deadline.)
For the most part, the trend continues historically. Since 2002, only two catchers who played 500 innings for a World Series team have finished below Connor Wong’s mark of 37th in the league in CDA. They are Jorge Posada and Ivan Rodriguez, two incredible hitters. Over that span, eight catchers were in the top eight in CDA, and the average finish was 16th. Don’t get me wrong; it is ridiculous to suggest that this stat can help predict if a team can win a World Series with a specific catcher. I only demonstrate the link because having a catcher as defensively deficient as Wong on a young team with major changes to the pitching staff is a serious flaw.
That being said, bad defense isn’t permanent. With the right emphasis and off-season work, it can be fixed. For Wong, that means a focus on framing and blocking. While his ability to throw runners out isn’t exactly prodigious, it’s been middle of the pack, aka. acceptable. His framing and blocking have, however, never been above league average.
Having last strapped on the tools of ignorance in Little League and never as a high school or college athlete, I won't pretend to have the answer to those problems. And I'm not implying that Wong hasn’t tried to fix them in the past. I am saying that the right type of instruction can make a substantial difference between seasons. We see defenders at all positions burst into stardom every year. The Sox's new hire of catching instructor Parker Guinn is of note in the team's quest to make Wong take a step forward in 2025. In the past, Guinn managed the Yankees Dominican Summer League team and jumped between several college teams. Instruction from him and a slew of other coaches will be important if Wong makes a defensive jump in 2025.
While I still perceive Wong’s ability behind the plate as his major fault because of the significance of a defensively savvy backstop, the offense still holds room for improvement. His .280 batting average, which ranked 10th among catchers, masks the whiff rate and strikeout percentage that ranked outside the top 25 among catchers with 200 plate appearances.
Wong’s expected batting average of .231 last season is also downright scary. The fact that his barrel percentage and exit velocity were in the bottom half of the league likely contributed. I think it’s important to ask if Wong is perceived as a viable franchise option at catcher simply because of his batting average from last year and an incredibly hot start to the season.
He was above average in wRC+ and improved some peripheral stats (see Davy Andrews' article for a more in-depth analysis). He can certainly be a consistent, above-average hitting catcher, a standard he is far closer to offensively than defensively. Wong and the Red Sox could catch lightning in a bottle if he can recreate his hot start from last year for a full season (or, honestly, just 100 games). That being said, changes need to be made. Pitch selection is one example. Among catchers with 200 plate appearances, Wong was 20th in percentage of pitches swung at that were outside of the zone. He was 41st in actually making contact with those pitches. Not being a bad ball hitter is fine. Accepting it seems to be a necessity for Wong.
An improvement in power and exit velocity is also important for Wong; despite a .425 slugging percentage, he only hit 13 home runs. Wong is speedy for a catcher and has made efforts to gain weight this offseason, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Cotillo noted that Alex Cora is impressed with how big and explosive Wong is. If the reports are true, Wong’s size could help him take a step forward on the plate.
The laundry list of things to work on for Wong is long. Not all of them can be addressed sufficiently in one offseason. The 28-year-old, four-year vet is likely on the way out of his offensive prime, and catchers wear down even faster than other position players, and the team has control over him through 2028. I don’t think the Red Sox must ask for an All-Star or a great season from Wong. The young talent about to join the team needs to ask for consistency. Wong can do that.
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