Red Sox's Chaim Bloom Explains How He Plans To Address Catcher Position

Bloom did not seem overly confident in his current group of catchers

Scott Neville | Oct 6, 2022

Red Sox's Chaim Bloom Explains How He Plans To Address Catcher Position /

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Boston Red Sox

It's fair to say that Boston got more than expected from their catching combination of Reese McGuire and Connor Wong to close out the season, but Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom does not appear content with the duo.

When asked how he views the catching situation, Bloom had an interesting response.

"I think both of these guys showed well," Bloom told reporters in reference to McGuire and Wong, as seen on NESN's broadcast Thursday. "Which is good for them, good for us. We didn't want to be in the position we were in, in the end, but we tried to make the most of that position in terms of giving them opportunities. Both for their growth and benefit and also for ours.

"I think they definitely raise the floor of what we have. Now that said, this is one of the areas that I fully expect we're going to explore additions. It's nice to know we have at least two guys that are familiar with how we do things, that showed a lot of good things but we owe it to ourselves and everybody who cares about this team to look to get better, and catcher is certainly not going to be an exception to that."

Both players shined behind the plate, which was expected, but their offensive potential was somewhat of a shock.

McGuire was fantastic for Boston. He posted a .337 average with nine extra-base hits including three home runs, 12 RBIs and a .877 OPS in 36 games since coming over from the Chicago White Sox one day before the Major League Baseball trade deadline.

The 27-year-old also nabbed five of 12 attempted base stealers in limited action.

Wong did not have nearly as strong of an offensive campaign at the MLB level, but absolutely dominated with Triple-A Worcester in the second half of the season, showing a previously unproven offensive ceiling.

In his last 16 games prior to being called up, Wong hit .368 with nine home runs and 22 RBIs to go along with a 1.249 OPS. That home run outburst out-tallied the eight he hit in 2021 across 50 games at the same level.

Still, Bloom is going to have his eyes peeled in the open market for a potential upgrade. McGuire did more than enough to earn a spot as the backup at the very least, but Wong has yet to prove himself at the big league level, in albeit a short sample size.

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Published Oct 6, 2022

SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu