Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports
The Red Sox may never entirely live down the 2020 trade of Mookie Betts, but four years and change later, Boston’s last man standing from that deal is enjoying a breakout. Catcher Connor Wong just reeled off a 17-game hitting streak that spanned four weeks, and even made a case for a spot on the AL All-Star team, though he fell short on that front.
The 28-year-old Wong began his streak with a single off White Sox right-hander Jake Woodford on June 6, and added another single off Tim Hill later in the game. Despite taking a three-day paternity leave from June 24–27, he started 16 of Boston’s next 23 games, sprinkling in four other two-hit games. With his single off Trevor Rogers last Tuesday, Wong extended his streak to 17 games, the longest by any Red Sox player this season and tied for the seventh-longest of any player this year; Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto is one of three other players who also had a 17-gamer.
The longest hitting streak ever for a catcher is 34 games, set by the Padres’ Benito Santiago in 1987. The closest any catcher has come to approaching Santiago in the last decade was in 2019, when the Mets’ Wilson Ramos went 23 games; all of the other hitting streaks by catchers of at least 20 games happened in 2003 or earlier. Wong didn’t make it that far. His streak finally ended on July 4 against the Marlins, though to be fair, he didn’t enter the game until the 10th inning, when he pinch-hit for Reese McGuire and struck out against Andrew Nardi. He got another chance in the 11th with the Red Sox having taken a 4-2 lead, but struck out again, this time versus Calvin Faucher.
Even with an 0-for-11 slide since the streak ended, Wong is hitting .310/.365/.441 (124 wRC+) with seven home runs across 252 plate appearances. He’s short of qualifying for the batting title by 24 PA, but among hitters in either league with at least 240 PA, only eight have a higher batting average. Within that same group, Wong’s OBP is good enough for 26th, and among players whose primary position is catcher, his wRC+ is fifth behind the Dodgers’ Will Smith (136), the Brewers’ William Contreras, the Orioles’ Adley Rutschman, and the Twins’ Ryan Jeffers (all with 128).
Rutschman was voted the starting catcher for the AL in next week’s All-Star Game, while Contreras will start for the NL; both have about 50% more plate appearances than Wong, not to mention better defensive numbers (we’ll get to those), but that’s pretty impressive company. It’s also miles beyond anything Wong had done before in parts of three seasons at the major league level, and probably beyond anything the Dodgers envisioned when they drafted him in the third round in 2017 out of the University of Houston.
After coming to the Red Sox along with Alex Verdugo and Jeter Downs in the reconfigured exchange for Betts, David Price, and cash in February 2020 — a year that he spent at Boston’s alternate training site and on the taxi squad without playing a competitive game — Wong played six games in the majors in ’21, and then 27 in ’22, spending the balance of those two seasons at Triple-A Worcester. Last year, in his first full season in the majors, he hit .235/.288/.385 (80 wRC+) with nine homers and eight steals over 403 PA. He entered this year as the owner of a career 77 wRC+ in 473 PA, with a daunting 33.2% strikeout rate.
The biggest change for the 2024 edition of Wong is that he’s cut his strikeout rate to 19.8%; his 13.4-point drop from last year is within an eyelash of largest in the majors: Largest Decreases in Strikeout Rate, 2023–24 Minimum 300 plate appearances in 2023 and 150 in ’24. Wong is making much more contact, and he’s getting a bit lucky once he does (which I’ll get to). His improvement owes to changes in both mechanics and approach. As Red Sox hitting coach Pete Fatse explained to the Boston Globe’s Julian McWilliams last month, “One, there’s an emphasis on being as direct as possible with his swing path, which has led to more zone contact… Two, he’s balancing a more aggressive approach within his game plan… Being prepared to swing from pitch one in the area he is looking.”
Compared to last season, Wong has closed his stance (though lately his front foot has been drifting a little more outisde), bent his knees a bit more, and raised his hands, with his bat less upright at the start of his swing. You can see the comparison in the video compilation below; the first two of these doubles were hit last year, the second two are from this season, all at Fenway Park, which should aid as a visual reference point:
At Scout Girl Report, Andrea Arcadipane has a more detailed visual breakdown highlighting other changes, including Wong’s elimination of a toe tap and better weight distribution on his front foot.
While Wong’s overall swing rate has barely budge… (text continues)
