{"id":677075,"date":"2026-04-16T18:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T18:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677075\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T18:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T18:05:11","slug":"red-sox-suddenly-have-carlos-narvaez-offensive-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677075\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Suddenly Have Carlos Narv\u00e1ez Offensive Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">The Boston Red Sox need some more offense. The Red Sox have a much-needed off day on Thursday after taking down the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday, 9-5. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">Boston has started to show signs of life. The Red Sox actually scored six or more runs in four of their last five games, although they are just 3-2 over that span. The offense is starting to turn around, but Boston is still tied for 16th in the league with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/stats\/team\/runs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">77 runs scored<\/a> in 18 games played. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">For the Red Sox, one area that could use some more offensive production right now is catcher. Connor Wong has been better than expected and is slashing .368\/.400\/.526, but he has played in just seven games. Carlos Narv\u00e1ez is the team&#8217;s primary catcher, but has been struggling offensively. Narv\u00e1ez has played in 12 games and is slashing .195\/.214\/.195 and has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/teams\/BOS\/2026.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">-0.5 wins above replacement<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">That&#8217;s not going to cut it for Boston. The Red Sox need some more out of Narv\u00e1ez. He&#8217;s a consistent presence in this lineup, so of course, you want more. But Boston is lefty-heavy. Narv\u00e1ez is one of a few righties who get consistent looks. Boston needs him to help balance the lineup, or else teams can simply plan around the lefties. <\/p>\n<p>The Red Sox Need More From Carlos Narv\u00e1ez<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kpbpq95cr4kh6syf4z.jpg\" alt=\"San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. (23) scores a run against Boston Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez\" title=\"San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. (23) scores a run against Boston Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez\" width=\"5384\" height=\"3028\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"72\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Apr 4, 2026; Foxborough, Massachusetts, USA; San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. (23) scores a run against Boston Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez (75) during the ninth inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images | Eric Canha-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"76\">One thing that gets talked about a lot is how much Boston focuses on matchups. You see platoons and guys sit against tough matchups. For example, the Red Sox haven&#8217;t used Marcelo Mayer against a lot of lefties so far this season. Boston&#8217;s lineup is strategically built to maximize matchups. If you don&#8217;t get a lot of production out of Narv\u00e1ez, then all of a sudden the lineup is a more predictable and easier to pitch against. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">Narv\u00e1ez&#8217;s OPS right now is just .409. That&#8217;s not great. In comparison, he slashed .241\/.306\/.419 last season in 118 games with a .726 OPS. He also launched 15 homers and drove in 50 runs. He hasn&#8217;t hit a home run, driven in a run, or collected an extra-base hit yet in general this season for Boston in his 12 games of action.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">He&#8217;s also struck out 14 times while walking only once. It&#8217;s early enough to assume that he&#8217;s going to turn it around at some point, but Narv\u00e1ez is struggling right now offensively. Defensively, he has been awesome. He&#8217;s in the <a href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/savant-player\/carlos-narvaez-665966?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">99th percentile<\/a> in fielding run value, 100th percentile in framing and 92nd percentile in blocks above average. But the club needs more offensively. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Red Sox need some more offense. The Red Sox have a much-needed off day on Thursday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,89,2543],"class_list":{"0":"post-677075","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-redsox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116415713436500088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677075","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=677075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}