The Red Sox announced Thursday that they’ve signed catcher Connor Wong to a one-year contract for the 2026 season, thereby avoiding arbitration. He’ll be paid $1.375MM next year, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo reports. Ari Alexander of 7News adds that Wong would earn $25K for reaching each of 250, 300 and 350 plate appearances, bringing his maximum earnings to $1.45MM.
Wong, 29, had a breakout 2024 showing at the plate when he hit .280/.333/.425 with 13 homers in a career-high 487 plate appearances. He wasn’t able to replicate that production in 2025, however, and wound up posting a career-worst .190/.262/.238 slash (39 wRC+). That came in a smaller sample of 188 turns at the plate. As Wong struggled, he also lost his grip on the starting job to rookie Carlos Narvaez, who’ll head into 2026 atop Boston’s depth chart behind the dish.
Though Wong’s bat cratered this past season, he did make some notable improvements in his framing and blocking — at least in the eyes of Statcast. He’s still not a plus defender, but those gains and the promise he showed at the plate in 2024 will be enough to keep him with the Sox as a backup to Narvaez. Wong also has a minor league option remaining, so if the Sox want to bring in some additional catching help for the MLB roster, they could option Wong without needing to place him on waivers.
This was Wong’s first offseason of arbitration eligibility. He’s under club control through the 2028 season, though that’ll only come into play if he’s able to bounce back in 2026. If last year’s struggles persist into next season, Wong’s hold on his roster spot will be tenuous.
The sox decided this was the wong time to be stingy.
Just yesterday I read he was a non-tender candidate!
I guess they are still trying to salvage something from the Mookie trade. LOL
@Fever Pitch Guy
He’s close to it but he has an option and a tiny salary. Another poor few months and he’s probably down to the minors or off the team completely.
York – Thank you for trying to make me feel better, I appreciate it!
Let’s hope Narvy stays healthy.
Ha, came here to say this exact thing.
Will Verdugo even play this year? And Downs…? Witness Protection Program
He was, they probably got him cheaper this way than through arbitration. Free agency and the trade market doesn’t really offer much in the way of upgrades. The Sox were never going to go after Realmuto and Victor Caratini will likely look for a place he can start, or at least play frequently like he did in Houston. And both would be substantially more expensive.
Wong started hitting at the end of the season so I’m guessing the thumb injury lingered a bit throughout. Hopefully he gets back to his 2024 self
They salvaged by not having to pay that albatross contract for a mediocre hitter through 2032
RickEO,
Yeah, that 137 OPS+ since he joined LA is quite mediocre…
I’m assuming you’re just looking at 2025, which certainly was a down year at the plate. He still had 4.9 bWAR.
Teams sign top-flight free agents to long contracts knowing the first several years will be great, the next few okay, and the last few may be rough.
That’s the cost of doing business. And Boston can afford it. The alternative is to trade your best players (Betts, Devers) instead of paying them, like the Pirates and Marlins do. Is that the model the Red Sox should follow?
No, he was never a non-tender candidate. People who don’t understand the team may have listed him as such but considering the Sox only have 2 catchers on the 40-man roster and no one really a viable option in the upper minors he was certainly getting tendered a contract.
ken – Careful, Tony may be reading ….. ;O)
mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/2025-non-tender-candida…
Great agent
I thought they’d non-tender him, but I suppose it’s cheap roster depth. Hope they get Narvaez a better backup though.
They DFA/trade useful relievers yet keep this guy on the roster. Yikes.
I agree jettisoning Bernardino and Murphy was a bit puzzling. Catcher is a problem position league wide, keeping Wong in the fold is probably better than adding another Blake Sabol
But we know what Wong is at this point. I’d rather roll the dice with someone else at this point.
Rsox – too many more important things to do…….
The Sox now have four lefties in Sandoval, Tolle, Harrison and Early where (hopefully) there are only two open rotation spots. I could easily see Tolle as a close-down option for a year in the ‘pen
Yeah.
As opposed to who else they have to catch? Narvaez can’t play every game.
Plenty of FA catchers to roll the dice on that have some upside, unlike Wong.
Danny Jansen, Victor Caratini, JT Realmuto, Christian Vazquez, are the only ones with a WAR of more than 1.
Only Caratini and Realmuto have one more than 2.
They don’t need a starter. They need a backup.
Something better than Wongs -0.6 bWAR and 42 OPS+ in 63 games.
>:(
Wow
Reasonable enough. I have a feeling he’ll bounce back a bit in 2026. After an almost impossibly bad first half, he actually had some decent games toward the end of the season. And if not, to AAA he goes (assuming one of these catchers they’ve acquired recently is better).
The lack of catching depth has been and remains a concern for 2026.
The team has lots of bigger issues that need to be addressed. A little continuity behind the plate seems worth the small amount of money. if we get the same production from Narvaez over 115-120 games Wong is serviceable as a backup.
Wong is just place sitting anyway.. I liked the trade to pick up Heyman
The only reason he’s still around is to justify the Betts trade
We are 5 years later on that. There is nothing to justify anymore
Bringing Wong back makes a lot of sense. He was obviously hurt last season and it affected not only his batting average but his power as well. I think it took him over 3 months to get his first extra base hit?
Wong knows the pitching staff well, does a decent job framing and blocking behind the plate and has the talent to be a regular .240 – .265 hitter when he’s right.
The Sox’ best catching prospect is The Password’s little brother (#31 in their system) and they just traded some of their bullpen excess for 2 catching prospects as well. Somewhere in this mix, they will find a long term backup and/or future starter behind the plate. Until then, Wong can hold down the fort as their #2 behind the surprising Narvaez. Narvy was fantastic last season. Let’s hope he continues to grow and get even better.
So much for all those who comment that the Yankees never develop players…..say thank you Red Sox for your starting catcher…..
It’s a challenge to play baseball injured and it’s equally as difficult to stay healthy as a catcher. 29 isn’t that old but catchers have to be thought of like the running backs of baseball versus other positions so he certainly isn’t young anymore.
Anyway, easy decision to make he’s a quality catcher when healthy and it’s peanuts in terms of money. You need like 2-3 of these guys in your organization to make it through a season or two.
I keep on wondering that if they could only add another Wong to the equation, things could turn out right.
Anyone who keeps wondering why the Red Sox did this is wrong about Wong.