Red Sox positional preview: Assessing the catching situation for 2025

Red Sox positional preview: Assessing the catching situation for 2025 originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The catcher position is an under-the-radar area of concern for the Boston Red Sox heading into the 2025 MLB season.

Boston parted ways with top catching prospect Kyle Teel to acquire left-hander Garrett Crochet from the Chicago White Sox. While the blockbuster deal gave Boston a much-needed No. 1 starter, it put a giant question mark at the catcher spot for 2025 and beyond.

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With Reese McGuire departing in free agency, the Red Sox subsequently made two minor trades to bolster their catching depth, acquiring little-known backstops Carlos Narvaez from the New York Yankees and Blake Sabol from the San Francisco Giants. Neither will threaten Connor Wong for the starting gig — at least out of the gate — but they’re decent backup options until the club makes a significant splash to upgrade the position.

Here’s a full breakdown of the 2025 Red Sox’ catching situation with about three weeks until Opening Day:

Connor Wong

2024 stats: .280/.333/.425, 13 HR, 52 RBI, 34 SB (126 games)

Age: 28

Contract status: Arbitration-eligible in 2026.

Outlook for 2025: Wong enters the 2025 season as the Red Sox’ clear-cut starting catcher after the club sent top catching prospect Kyle Teel to the Chicago White Sox in the Garrett Crochet blockbuster. Coming off his best MLB season at the plate, he’ll look to improve behind it in his third full big-league campaign.

Pitch framing and blocking have been issues for Wong, who ranked near the bottom of the league in both categories last season. He’s above-average at throwing out baserunners, but his defensive metrics prompted the Red Sox to trade for a superior defensive backstop in Carlos Narvaez.

Wong’s defensive woes can be overlooked as long as he continues to produce with the bat. While he was streaky at the plate last season, he was good enough to convince the Red Sox that he deserves another season as the starter — at least until his poor defense outweighs his offensive upside.

Carlos Narvaez

2024 stats: .231/.333/.231, 0 HR, 0 RBI (six games with New York Yankees)

Age: 25

Contract status: Pre-arbitration.

Outlook for 2025: In December, the Red Sox acquired Narvaez from the Yankees in exchange for minor-league right-hander Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz and international bonus pool space. The move was made to bolster the catching depth chart following the Teel trade.

Narvaez only has six games of MLB experience under his belt, but his defense is markedly better than Wong’s. That could give him a legitimate opportunity to prove himself at the big-league level with Boston in 2025.

In Triple-A last season, Narvaez hit 11 homers and posted a .782 OPS across 96 games. While he isn’t expected to be a great big-league hitter, he isn’t a liability either at the plate. If Wong struggles mightily out of the gate, we can expect Narvaez or fellow newcomer Blake Sabol to get their fair share of MLB at-bats.

Blake Sabol

2024 stats: .313/.421/.375, 0 HR, 1 RBI (11 games with San Francisco Giants)

Age: 27

Contract status: Pre-arbitration.

Outlook for 2025: The Red Sox continued to shore up their catching depth chart with another trade in January, acquiring Sabol from the San Francisco Giants in exchange for international bonus pool space. He and Narvaez are currently in a spring training battle for the Opening Day backup catcher job.

Unlike Narvaez, Sabol has legitamite big-league experience on his résumé. He appeared in 110 games with the Giants during his rookie 2023 season and 11 games in 2024. He showed some pop with 13 homers and 10 doubles in 2023.

Sabol offers some defensive versatility as he has MLB experience in both corner outfield spots. He isn’t a great defender anywhere, however, which could give Narvaez a slight edge. Working in Sabol’s favor is that he hits left-handed, so Boston would have the option to platoon him with Wong.

It’ll be either Narvaez or Sabol backing up Wong in 2025. Whoever loses the spring training battle will catch for Triple-A Worcester alongside Seby Zavala.