BOSTON — In the eyes of many, Connor Wong entered the 2024 season as a placeholder. The 28-year-old was coming off a first full big league season in which he didn’t do much at the plate and seemed, along with Reese McGuire, to be simply keeping the seat warm at the catching position for the Red Sox until top prospect Kyle Teel was ready. Wong’s season even got off to an inauspicious start when the hot-hitting McGuire started seven of Boston’s first 11 games behind the plate.
Since then, just about everything about Wong’s performance has been brilliant. He has emerged as perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the first half of the season for the Red Sox and is squarely in the mix for his first career All-Star nod next month. After his second homer in as many days Sunday extended his hitting streak to 13 games, Wong is now hitting .330 with seven homers, 29 RBIs and an .870 OPS in 57 games so far this season; even before Sunday’s performance he ranked second in the majors in batting average (min. 200 plate appearances) and led MLB catchers in average while ranking third in OPS (min. 100 PA). All the while, the ascendant Teel, who is likely just weeks away from a promotion to Triple-A, has been, at least in theory, breathing down Wong’s neck.
