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.