MLB notes: Red Sox appear to have struck gold with Carlos Narvaez
Entering the season it looked like catcher was one of the Red Sox s biggest areas of weakness Connor Wong was the organization s only established big league backstop and with top prospect Kyle Teel gone as part of the Garrett Crochet blockbuster there didn t seem to be much depth available behind him As luck would have it the Red Sox wound up finding a diamond in the rough mere hours after dealing Teel away Carlos Narvaez was hardly Boston s most of heralded offseason acquisition but the rookie catcher has been a revelation in his first full season as a big leaguer Originally acquired from the New York Yankees in exchange for pitching prospect Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz Narvaez has been not only a legitimate MLB contributor but arguably one of the the majority productive catchers in baseball through the season s first two months Watching Narvaez play you wouldn t know that he came into the season with just six games of big league experience Related Articles Red Sox designate former Middleborough High star for assignment Red Sox lineups Marcelo Mayer to start at B in MLB debut Red Sox star infielder expected to miss substantial time with quad injury Red Sox rookie batting cleanup in first tournament of doubleheader Red Sox championship postponed rescheduled for Saturday as part of doubleheader Entering Saturday Narvaez was batting with five home runs RBI and an OPS and since April he s batted with all five of his homers and a OPS over games His Wins Above Replacement is tied for second in MLB among catchers who have played at least half of their games at the position behind only Seattle standout Cal Raleigh Defensively Narvaez has been brilliant His plus-eight defensive runs saved is tied with San Francisco s Patrick Bailey for the best mark of any catcher in baseball and is tied for the fifth-best mark in MLB across all positions Only Tampa Bay shortstop Taylor Walls plus- Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson plus- Red Sox teammate Ceddanne Rafaela plus- and Chicago second baseman Nico Hoerner plus-nine have been better according to Fangraphs So far so good He will struggle at one point hopefully he doesn t but this is a league that makes adjustments revealed Red Sox manager Alex Cora One thing that he does pretty well he has a plan and he sticks to it The other thing he has too is he can hit a line drive to right field whenever he feels like it He can stay inside and take a single and when you have that you can survive when things are not going great Though Narvaez s offense has exceeded expectations his abilities as a catcher haven t caught any of his teammates by surprise Narvaez has unfailingly been highly regarded for his defense and catching abilities dating back to his time in the Yankees minor league system where he developed a reputation as the guy everyone enjoyed working with He was the catching guy he was the guy everyone needed to throw to revealed right-hander Richard Fitts who has known Narvaez since when they were both teammates with the Yankees High-A affiliate He was receiving really well he had the mind of a big league catcher and he was picking it up with his bat then and getting going We all loved throwing to him then and I was really happy when we picked him up this offseason He does all his homework he s confident back there obviously his receiving numbers are great so half the time you re like where s that pitch And you go back at the video and it s two balls off but he makes it look so good announced right-hander Greg Weissert who also played with Narvaez in the Yankees system He s stealing pitches for you and behind in the count or whatever it is I think watching all the replays of the tournament makes you realize how multiple he s getting Upon joining the organization Narvaez made a point to get to know his new pitchers right away reporting to Fort Myers well before he was required to jumpstart that process You have to have that relationship and I think that work started in spring training Narvaez explained Get closer to them hang out with them have dinner with them build those relationships that s the largest part fundamental thing for a catcher Those efforts haven t gone unnoticed Several pitchers who hadn t previously worked with Narvaez have complimented him throughout the season and he s also drawn high praise from Jason Varitek the club s championship planning coordinator and one of the best catchers in club history Carlos is what we envisioned Varitek communicated the Herald on April An elite defender an elite receiver In a nutshell Carlos is a baseball member he added and it s a compliment to him and a compliment for this industry and Red Sox Nation He s a baseball athlete and he exudes baseball Red Sox legend praises rookie catcher Carlos Narv ez He exudes baseball This file is auto-generated function d l use strict l querySelector d addEventListener undefined typeof URL d wp d wp d wp receiveEmbedMessage d wp receiveEmbedMessage function e var t e details if t t secret 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