{"id":545697,"date":"2026-03-19T01:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/545697\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T01:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:00:08","slug":"red-sox-insider-gives-clear-update-on-backup-catcher-competiton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/545697\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Insider Gives Clear Update On Backup Catcher Competiton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Sox Insider Gives Clear Update On Backup Catcher Competiton<\/a> originally appeared on NESN<\/a>. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Boston Red Sox<\/a> are starting to think about which 26 players will make the team\u2019s Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n

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Ahead of the final roster cuts, there are only a handful of roster spots up for grabs or position battles. One position battle that has been an intriguing one is the backup catcher, as\u00a0Carlos Narv\u00e1ez will be the starter.<\/p>\n

Connor Wong served as the backup last season, but in camp, Boston has Matt Thaiss, Mickey Gasper, and Jason Delay all competing for the spot. Yet, Red Sox insider Ian Browne of MLB.com believes the job<\/a> is Wong\u2019s to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cConnor Wong gave the Red Sox an unexpected amount of offense in 2024,\u201d Browne wrote in an article published on Wednesday. \u201cLast season was the opposite. Injuries to his left and right hands left him unable to get anything going offensively.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThough Wong is 2-for-26 so far in Spring Training, he still projects as the leading candidate to be Carlos Narv\u00e1ez\u2019s backup. Matt Thaiss, Mickey Gasper, and Jason Delay have all made good impressions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong has spent the last five seasons in Boston as he\u2019s served as one-half of a catching tandem. Last season, however, Wong dealt with injuries as he was held to just 63 games and hit just .190 with zero home runs and seven RBIs.<\/p>\n

Despite the difficult year, Red Sox manager Alex Cora has plenty of praise for the veteran catcher.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe’ll see where we\u2019re at,\u201d Cora said about the backup catcher job. \u201cBut I really like Connor. He’s a good player. He’s good in the clubhouse. He knows this pitching staff. I like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boston opens its 2026 MLB season on March 26 on the road against the Cincinnati Reds.<\/p>\n

More MLB:\u00a0Red Sox Reportedly Renegotiated Contract With Reliever After Issue In Physical<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Sox Insider Gives Clear Update On Backup Catcher Competiton originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[212738,49,48,13302,3983,76178,212739,212736,28161,212737,462,1491,82],"class_list":["post-545697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-backup-catcher","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carlos-narvaez","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-connor-wong","tag-ian-browne","tag-jason-delay","tag-matt-thaiss","tag-mickey-gasper","tag-mlb","tag-red-sox","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}