{"id":123693,"date":"2026-06-11T16:40:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T20:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=123693"},"modified":"2026-06-11T19:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T23:18:09","slug":"breaking-down-the-red-soxs-catcher-situation-who-should-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/06\/11\/breaking-down-the-red-soxs-catcher-situation-who-should-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Down The Red Sox’s Catcher Situation: Who Should Start?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past couple of weeks, there has been some talk about the catcher position around the Red Sox organization. Some positions like first and right field seem to have players locked into the positions for the entire season. For the Sox, catcher is not one of those. <\/span><\/p>\n

The starter at the beginning of the season was <\/span>Carlos Narvaez<\/span><\/a>, but since <\/span>Roman Anthony<\/span><\/a>\u2019s injury, <\/span>Mickey Gasper<\/span><\/a> has seemed to be the guy, playing in 24 of the 35 games since being called up (despite only ten of those being the actual catcher). Then there\u2019s <\/span>Connor Wong<\/span><\/a>, who was beginning to be listed in trade rumors a couple weeks ago. Regardless of who is playing there, Boston has a crowded catcher room. So how does this get solved? What should happen to each catcher?<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting Catcher: Mickey Gasper<\/b><\/h2>\n

As mentioned, Narvaez was the one who started out at catcher on Opening Day. But as of recent, especially with a management change who oversaw Gasper* in Triple-A Worcester, he\u2019s been getting a lot of playing time since <\/span>being called up<\/span><\/a>. Despite having a fielding percentage of 1.000, he is probably not seen as the best defensive catcher on the team. He\u2019s 2-9 on the year for runners caught stealing. But he\u2019s on the team for his offense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s not the biggest power guy, despite almost getting a couple in Tampa Bay earlier this week. But he is hitting and getting on base. Although he\u2019s really struggled in the past week or two (as seen in <\/span>these splits<\/span><\/a>), he\u2019s still hitting .273, which is the best of the three catchers. His on base percentage is also good at .321. There\u2019s no real reason for him to not be on this team, but it\u2019s not clear if he should be the full time starter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Verdict: Keep as backup, use as starter for certain pitchers<\/b><\/p>\n

For example, <\/span>Brayan Bello<\/span><\/a> wanted Wong as his catcher, so every fifth day, Wong started. It seems for the most part, <\/span>Payton Tolle<\/span><\/a> works well with Gasper, or at least that\u2019s what manager <\/span>Chad Tracy<\/span><\/a> thinks, as he managed both in Worcester. Maybe an arrangement such as that could work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

*= According to ESPN\u2019s depth chart, Gasper is the starter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Backup Catcher: Carlos Narvaez<\/b><\/h2>\n

Per Jen McCaffrey of the Athletic<\/span><\/a> (subscription required), Narvaez\u2019s cut in playing time came out of nowhere. Obviously with the Anthony injury, in addition to how Gasper performed with the Red Sox the last time he was called up, no one expected him to even be called up, let alone have this resurgence. Due to the suddenness of it all, it\u2019s understandable to perhaps draw comparisons to the <\/span>Rafael Devers<\/span><\/a> situation<\/span><\/a> in the 2024 offseason\/2025 season (although to a much lesser extent). Narvaez also seemed to be passive-aggressive towards the reduced playing time but says he\u2019s “going to be there for whenever the team needs [him]\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

He\u2019s more known for his glove and while he did have a disastrous error earlier this season, this is still the guy who had 10 DRS last year and threw out an MLB-leading 32 runners last year. He was a finalist at Gold Glove in the AL at the catcher position. It\u2019s just an off year right now, especially with him batting .209. But with Gasper somewhat slipping this month (.154 batting average in June), it might be time for a change for a little bit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Verdict: Start him at catcher<\/b><\/h3>\n

With Gasper\u2019s slight decline, it\u2019s worth a shot to figure out a different alignment defensively. Plus, Gasper\u2019s been a designated hitter and played some infield during this stint, so there\u2019s ways for both of them to fit if needed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Third String: Connor Wong<\/b><\/h2>\n

The last piece remaining from the <\/span>Mookie Betts<\/span><\/a> trade<\/span><\/a>, Connor Wong has had a weird last few years in Boston. He had a solid 2024, with a slash line of .280\/.333\/.425 with 13 homers and 52 RBIs. Then due to a series of hand injuries that likely changed his swing, he struggled massively in 2025, hitting .190 on the season and not getting his first extra base hit until July 25th of that season (he was the starting catcher for the majority of that season).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Connor
Jun 5, 2026; Bronx, New York, USA; Boston Red Sox catcher Connor Wong (12) singles during the third inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This season, he was definitely on some thin ice, with his<\/span> role as backup catcher being challenged<\/span><\/a> early on in Spring Training. This season, he\u2019s been decent. He\u2019s hitting .264 with 8 extra base hits, along with six walks. However, it\u2019s a small sample size in 26 games. And with the crowded room, he has started to be <\/span>placed in trade rumors<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Verdict: Trade\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Even though Gasper is slightly older than Wong, he\u2019s being seen as the guy who splits time with Narvaez and not Wong. As Wong gets less and less playing time, the more likely he is to get traded. While he\u2019s not too big of a power guy either, he is doing much better than last year, so there should still be some value left to trade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/b><\/h2>\n

Now with Gasper being the oldest, and Narvaez only being 25 but an inconsistent bat, the Red Sox should really have catcher as a priority in the draft\/free agency. Not the major priority, but definitely something to look for. Even someone like <\/span>Ethan Salas<\/span><\/a> could be acquired at this year\u2019s trade deadline. But for now, these are the three catchers on the team and what could happen with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo: Maddy Malhotra- Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past couple of weeks, there has been some talk about the catcher position around the Red Sox organization. Some positions like first and right field seem to have players locked into the positions for the entire season. For the Sox, catcher is not one of those. The starter at the beginning of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5767,"featured_media":57478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1071],"tags":[28463,1854,28958,28596],"class_list":["post-123693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-redsox","category-mlb","tag-carlos-narvaez","tag-connor-wong","tag-mickey-gasper","tag-roman-anthony"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5767"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123693"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123724,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123693\/revisions\/123724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}