Mickey Gasper's rise was a fun story while it lasted, but he's not really cutting it anymore. The Boston Red Sox need to go back to Carlos Narvaez as their starting catcher... or at least give him some more reps than he's been getting.
In 12 games since the start of June, Gasper is batting .190 with no home runs, three RBIs, five walks, and seven strikeouts. Interim manager Chad Tracy has also been experimenting with him batting leadoff this month, which clearly hasn't worked out.
It's not like Narvaez has been all that much better either, though. On the year, he's batting just .207 with two home runs and three RBIs (and for those who care, his -0.4 WAR is the worst of all of Boston's hitters this season... which is unfortunately saying a lot). Additionally, he's just 1-for-12 (0.083 BA) in four games in June.
However, we know what the Venezuelan native is capable of. He put together an All-Star-caliber campaign last year, and he's not only the best defensive catcher on the Red Sox -- he's one of the best defensive catchers in all of baseball.
This is a lost season anyway, and Boston might as well try to revive Narvaez's past self instead of forcing him to ride the pine the rest of the way.
The Red Sox should lean on Carlos Narvaez a little more
Boston's catcher situation isn't great. Narvaez has struggled at the plate all season, Gasper is average at best in just about every area of the game, and Connor Wong is way too inconsistent to be the team's full-time starter (But, hey, he's at least batting .266 this season. There's this guy named Mookie Betts in Los Angeles who is batting just .203 and is three years older. I can't imagine the pain of having someone like him on my team instead of Wong).
But Narvaez has the most all-around talent of those three options. This is only his second full season in the majors, so the jury is still out on whether last year or this year is the outlier. However, I'm going to take more stock in his 118 games last season than his 41 this season.
It's also going to be tough for the 27-year-old to find his rhythm again and re-establish himself as an everyday starter when he's constantly in and out of the lineup. It's not like Boston is holding back the next Mike Piazza... but we wouldn't really know if they were anyway as things are.
The answer isn't to immediately insert Narvaez back into the lineup every game, but he should at least see a little more action, especially because the other two catchers aren't blowing anybody away either.
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