With the Red Sox trading for C/OF Blake Sabol from the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday, it seems likely that they are done adding at that position ahead of the 2025 season. Depending on how the first half of the season unfolds, they may consider adding again near the trade deadline, but the team will likely go into camp with Connor Wong as the starter and a battle for backup between Sabol and Carlos Narvaez.

Considering the Red Sox’ depth of infielders, both on the current roster and in the minors, it might have made more sense for the Sox to send a package built around shortstop Marcelo Mayer in exchange for Garrett Crochet, rather than catcher Kyle Teel. They even could’ve used that move as a catalyst toward adding a veteran third baseman! But, even though the White Sox seemingly already had their catcher of the future in Edgar Quero, they must have preferred Teel of the duo. Boston needed to make that deal either way, but the gain of a front-of-the-rotation starter in Crochet created the loss of the “catcher of the future”.

The team now has a significant lack of depth in the farm system. Yes, Connor Wong has four years remaining before hitting free agency, but it isn’t a sure thing that he has much of a ceiling beyond what we have seen thus far. He has only played two full seasons in the big leagues but is already entering his 29-year-old season. Wong hit .280 in 2024, but he lucked out on balls in play, and Statcast gave him a .231 expected BA. His defensive grades also regressed across the board from 2023 to 2024.

Baseball Savant | Connor Wong 2023 vs. 2024

The team chose to trade for both Carlos Narvaez and Blake Sabol as younger catchers they hope to work with, rather than attack the very weak free-agent market. Danny Jansen’s $8.5M over one year was the highest AAV of any catcher on the market this year, and just in case you forgot, Danny Jansen was just horrendous in his two months in Boston. After that, Kyle Higashioka (age 35) and Travis d’Arnaud (age 36) got the only substantial two-year deals. The remaining crew includes James McCann, Yasmani Grandal, Curt Casali, Luke Maile, Elias Diaz, and Martin Maldonado. It’s understandable why they chose this route, now that Teel is gone.

It’s doubtful that the next starting catcher is currently in the system – Nathan Hickey’s stock has taken a dive, Johanfran Garcia has potential but is a 20-year-old in low-A Salem coming off a missed season with an ACL tear, and an ETA of 2028. Brooks Brannon is also just in Low-A, and more likely to move off of catcher than not.

They could always go the “Teel Route” again in the draft and take a college catcher with the fifteenth pick in the draft, with the hope of having him ready for 2027.

In free agency, J.T. Realmuto and Mitch Garver lead a better free agent class a year from now, but they will be 35 and 36 respectively. Realmuto has something left in the tank but it’s difficult to envision the Red Sox spending up at the top of the market for any position until we see it happen.

The Red Sox have come up with a short-term plan for, at least, the first half of 2025 but they need to begin working on a plan for the long term.