October 9: The Red Sox announced this morning that Narvaez underwent a successful left knee meniscectomy and that the procedure was performed by Dr. Eric Berkson at Mass General Brigham Healthcare Center (Waltham).
October 6: Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez will undergo a “cleanup” procedure on the meniscus in his left knee, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow announced Monday at his end-of-season press conference (link via Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Herald). He’s expected to be ready for spring training.
Narvaez played through much of the second half with pain in his knee. He missed four straight games in early August due to the injury. Narvaez’s splits from the season generally reflect that the catcher was playing at less than 100 percent down the stretch. From Opening Day through July 9, he slashed .280/.354/.453 in 274 turns at the plate. From that point through season’s end, Narvaez turned in a lowly .181/.229/.369 batting line. His strikeout rate climbed in each of the season’s final three months and reached a boiling point by mid-September; Narvaez fanned in a bit more than 23% of his plate appearances through the season’s first three months but went down on strikes in 13 of his final 44 plate appearances (29.5%).
Even with the ugly finish to the season, Narvaez’s overall 2025 campaign was a roaring success. Acquired from the archrival Yankees in exchange for pitching prospect Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, Narvaez broke camp as the backup in Boston but quickly laid claim to the starting catching job. He finished out the year with a roughly league-average batting line of .241/.306/.419 (97 wRC+) and swatted 15 home runs in his first big league season. Narvaez also graded out as a plus defender, thwarting 28% of stolen-base attempts against him while delivering above-average grades for pitch framing and blocking balls in the dirt (via Statcast).
Narvaez’s ascension dovetailed with regression from former starter Connor Wong. Assuming all goes well with Narvaez’s knee procedure, he’s the favorite to head into spring training as the Red Sox’ starting catcher next season. Boston has an additional five full seasons of club control remaining, and Narvaez won’t even be eligible for arbitration until after the 2027 season.
Carlos will definitely be ready by Spring Training. Recovery time for meniscus surgery is about 4-6 weeks. I had it done and was back playing golf in 4 weeks…surgeon wasn’t happy, though. lol
If all goes well, ERC will be striking out Carlos next October. Hopefully, next summer will be better.
Nah, 3 years maybe
ERC probably needs a good 18 months from now before moving to mlb at the earliest. You never know, but, he’s still really young and they were pretty aggressive promoting him through the minors this season. Sometimes being too aggressive can ruin a pitcher, better off staying the course with him and let him learn more in AAA.
Have not been following ERC, has he looked that good in the minors? Even if he does end up as a solid starter, we needed a catcher and now have one set for the foreseeable future. Carlos should be able to build on a successful first year assuming the surgery goes as planned.
He had a good showing in high a and aa ball. They bumped him to aaa for the final start of his season and he got rocked, facing much older competition.
Lots of reasons to say that single game was an outlier, but, the jump from aaa to the show is much harder than levels in the minors.
You’ve also got to remember, nobody has a book on him yet, so as he jumped levels, think shades of KC. He was great at all his minor league stops and even the first but of MLB time, but, it quickly came apparent he would’ve been served better by some more time in the minors.
ERC could be the pitching equivalent, except, when a pitcher loses it it’s much harder to get back on track, all the more reason for caution.
Yankees hope that will happen soon, because otherwise it was a brutal trade for them. Carlos is going to be Boston’s catcher for years, all for short money.
It was a good trade for both teams. Narvaez was never going to get a shot with the NYY. NYY are/were deep at catcher.
playing catcher looks painful enough of the knees. Doing so with with an injured knee sounds brutal.
I know this is weird, and please don’t take it the wrong way, but I always look forward to watching Bruce Bochy walk to the mound for a pitching change. He’s been walking like that for 20 years and it’s not pretty.
In fact, I think he was the guy that spearheaded the rule change that a reliever must face a minimum of three batters lol !!
Love Bochy and watched him since his SD days and it is painful to watch him walk to the mound.
You might be onto something there ha ha.
Gary – Go to a game and get there early, you’ll see Tek walking the same way. He walks like he’s 20 years older than he is.
And 30 lbs heavier…. Folks!!
I think Narvaez will be a 15-20 HR bat if he stays healthy. Definitely a nice under-the-radar pickup for the Sox
Well..you may have missed he actually hit 15 homers this year..so maybe 20+ wih a full.year assuming health?
Or, like Wong, regression coming.
I still wonder if losing the starting job got in his head and with less consistent at bats it spiraled. Wong could use a change of scenery and maybe he can build back up to the potential he showed.
Some regression would be ok. He’s one of the best defensive catchers in MLB.
Wong is not.
I think the inconsistent ABs likely kept Wong from getting on track.
He’s got the ability to be a 15-25 hr hitter over a full healthy season, probably for a good decade to come, assuming MLB doesn’t mess with the baseballs again and sticks with the current version.
Narvaez was a excellent and pleasant surprise for the Sox this year. Where ,what would the Sox have done without him. Sox must find a superior backup catcher to allow proper rest for Narvaez next season. So many catchers breakdown in last couple months of the season. Such a tough position.
CDC – Breslow deserves some credit. So far the Narvaez trade looks really good, the Wilson signing was really good, the Chapman signing was really good, the Crochet trade so far looks good, and the Roman extension so far looks good.
Sure Breslow is not perfect, he’s made a lot of mistakes. But I do like the fact he repeatedly acknowledges his mistakes, he apologizes for them, and he pledges to improve …. which is the exact opposite of what Cora does.
Stud.
The Sawx steal yet another player from the Yanks…..first its a Rule 5 pick in Garrett Whitlock, then they fleece the Yanks for Weissert, Fitts and Judice for Alex Verdugo and now a starting catcher in Narvaez for a minor league pitcher…….as the old commercial says….BRILLIANT!!!!
What will this off-season bring??
As much as the Yankees should stop trading with the Red Sox, Boston should stop trading with the Dodgers.
Fenway – are you kidding? The Dodgers saved $217 million Boston would have thrown away on Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett (washed at that point), and Adrian Gonzalez (who was released in his final year). That 2012 trade was the reason the Red Sox were able to acquire 8 free agents that lead to the 2013 WORLD SERIES championship team!!!!!
God bless the Dodgers. May they never run out of money to over pay for players in their 30s!!!!
Are you questioning Cashman’s plan to have 3 lefty catchers on the roster and give away a good righty catcher?
Teams need catching.Wong showed that he could hit.Who else out there will be better?Wong knows the pitchers.Can play a different position if asked.He can run as a pinch runner.Somebody name me a guy?McCann?I mean if Rutchman was a available,I would get him.Other than that,stay with what you have.Wong hit better at the end of the season with more at bats.
As a former catcher with bad knees, I feel for the dude. Best wishes for a great recovery.
I thought Beth Israel Deaconess was the Red Sox’s hospital
Only for pregnancies, and ‘vitamin’ shots!!
They have been coming out on top with Yankee trades, but getting fleeced and looking bad with Dodger trades…. Narvaez should be a very good catcher for years to come, he just needs to keep his glove back and avoid all the interference calls! Here is to a great offseason and 2026 break out for a young sox team!
Probably need to assess the Narvaez trade longer term. It could be both teams got what they wanted, and possible the Yankees come out ahead. Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, who the Sox traded, had a big year in the Yankee system and recently debuted on Baseball America’s global top-100 list. He’s regarded as having a high floor and likely is pitching in some capacity for the Yankees in 2026.
Win-win, imo. The Yankees had a surplus at catcher. ERC was probably as good as they could do.
Joe – agreed. ERC had a nice year for the Yankees minor league system, and he may amount to a decent pitcher, but the Red Sox are now flush with starters coming through the farm system like Tolle, Early, Perales…. so ERC was expendable. Narvaez was one of the best catchers in the MLB in 2025, and the Red Sox have zero impact catch in the farm system. Johanfran Garcia may be ok, but he was coming off a knee injury.