News and notes from around Red Sox Nation.
Carlos Narvaez wasn’t nearly has heralded as either Garrett Crochet or Alex Bregman when he came over to the Red Sox this past offseason, but he’s had a major impact on the field so far, as his 1.3 bWAR is fifth amongst all catchers in baseball. Given his production, it’s unsurprising that he’s received the lion’s share of starts behind the plate lately, starting eight games in May compared to Connor Wong’s five. But Will Middlebrooks says that he needs to be catching five days a week. (Lauren Campbell, MassLive)
Last year it was David Hamilton who played the role of lightly-regarded rookie who exceeded expectations. That happened five years after he ruptured his Achilles tendon, just like Jayson Tatum, so Hamilton knows what the Celtics star is going through. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)
Hopefully we don’t need to talk about any more season-ending injuries for any Red Sox stars this year, including Alex Bregman, who is of to a fantastic start thanks in large part to his pre-game batting cage routine. (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)
But for now we are still talking about the season-ending injury to Triston Casas and what that means for the first base position going forward. As to the question of whether and how long it would take Rafael Devers to learn first base, some former Sox infielders have differing opinions, with Kevin Youkilis saying the position is harder than people think, while Mike Lowell says it would take Devers just two days to learn. (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)
Tonight won’t be about the corner infield, though, it will be about the pitching matchup between Garrett Crochet and Chris Sale who, oddly given their similar profiles, have not met each other. (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)