{"id":529232,"date":"2026-01-20T15:45:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T15:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/529232\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T15:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T15:45:15","slug":"red-sox-news-links-sox-reportedly-still-trying-to-upgrade-at-catcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/529232\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox News & Links: Sox reportedly still trying to upgrade at catcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this offseason, we were all a little surprised to hear that the Red Sox were rumored to be interested in catcher J.T. Realmuto<\/a>. He\u2019s since resigned with the Phillies, but the Sox are reportedly still interested in upgrading at catcher. While the catching position doesn\u2019t feel like a priority given Carlos Narvaez\u2019s successful rookie campaign, the team may simply see upgrading from Connor Wong as low-hanging fruit. Admittedly, though, there isn\u2019t much catching talent out there right now. (Sean McAdam, MassLive)<\/a><\/p>\n

But the catching spot should take a backseat to upgrading the infield. As of today, it looks like Marcelo Mayer is being penciled in at third. After yet another season-ending injury, Mayer recently provided an injury update: \u201cI feel good. I\u2019m pretty much doing full baseball activities like a normal ramp-up. I feel like I\u2019m in a good spot.\u201d (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)<\/a><\/p>\n

And don\u2019t forget: while nothing seems imminent, things can come together quickly. For example, the Ranger Su\u00e1rez deal was apparently negotiated over the length of a single afternoon. (Chris Cotillo, MassLive)<\/a><\/p>\n

Su\u00e1rez is one of three big acquisitions the Sox have made so far. As for on of the others, Willson Contreras, get ready to enjoy a fiery ballplayer: \u201cI play to win. I don\u2019t play to mess around. I don\u2019t play to make friends on other teams. That\u2019s the way I play, and I\u2019m going to keep showing my emotions.\u201d (Ian Browne, MLB.com)<\/a><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s going to be hard to find a decent catcher or upgrade the infield, it\u2019s not hard to sign international free agents. The international amateur signing period opened last week and the Sox have already signed 17 players, all of whom are expected to head to the player development academy in the Dominican Republic. It\u2019s quite possible, if not probable, that none of these players will ever make it to the big leagues, but here\u2019s a rundown of some of the top names, including two players who were ranked in the top-50 of international amateurs and one player out of Brazil, which is still emerging as a baseball hotbed, powered by Japanese immigration. (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)<\/a><\/p>\n

And look: we\u2019ve got new minor league coaches! Not the most exciting news in the world, but we just don\u2019t have a lot going on right now, folks. Interestingly, several of them have a history with Driveline. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this offseason, we were all a little surprised to hear that the Red Sox were rumored to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,89,15409,2543],"class_list":{"0":"post-529232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-red-sox","14":"tag-red-sox-news","15":"tag-redsox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115928204981150306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}