Connor Wong Is Popping and Blocking

An increase in stolen bases wasn’t the primary aim of MLB’s offseason rule changes, but it was expected to be a happy side effect of new timing rules and bigger bases. Baseball fans will argue about just about anything, but stolen bases enjoy near-universal popularity. They’re exciting to watch, and they reward athleticism and initiative. The only drawback: They’re risky. And the new rules would mitigate that risk.

Over the first weekend of the season, the Orioles brought forth a new golden age of basestealing in the span of two days. In 10 attempts, they stole 10 bases off the Red Sox, and they did so without coming particularly close to getting thrown out.

“We just knew we needed to do a better job with the run game after that series,” Red Sox catcher Connor Wong says. “You can’t let guys run all over you and get into scoring position all the time.”

Wong wasn’t behind the plate for the Orioles’ track meet; his platoon partner, Reese McGuire, allowed all 10 steals. (And “allowed” is a bit harsh; the Orioles were so dialed in that McGuire only had a close play on one or two of those stolen bases.) Wong took over behind the plate for the rubber match of that series; McGuire bats left-handed, Wong right-handed, and lefty Cole Irvin was Baltimore’s starter that Sunday. The Orioles didn’t attempt to run on Wong.

Whether that was a strategic decision, a matter of opportunity, or just the result of everyone’s legs being worn out from running all day Thursday and Saturday, it was probably wise. There isn’t a ton of major league data on Wong, who’s caught just 360 major league innings in his entire career, but what little there is suggests he’s very good at controlling the running game.

Wong leads the league in caught-stealing rate, nabbing eight of 16 would-be thieves. The league is catching just 21%, and McGuire — still weighed down by that awful opening weekend — is 1-for-21. Wong is third in Baseball Savant’s Caught Stealing Above Average metric, and his average pop time to second base, 1.88 seconds, is third in baseball. The only catcher who’s more than 0.01 seconds faster is J.T. Realmuto, widely regarded as the best thrower in baseball and one of the best defensive catchers overall.

It’s unsurprising, then, that Wong was a bit blasé when I asked him about life as a catcher under the new timing rules.

“The bases are, what, six inches [closer]?” he says. “It’s fractions of a second.” To be precise, at top sprint speed even the slowest runner in baseball covers six inches in a little over 0.02 seconds. Wong’s pop time is more than 0.02 seconds better than all but five catchers in the league this season, so he makes that deficit back up with ease.

“I think the biggest advantage for baserunners is if you get to two disengagements,” he says. “That’s almost a jailbreak for them. But we really haven’t gotten there much as a staff, so I think the pitchers are doing a really good job of holding on to those [disengagements] and also mixing their times.”

Some of the best catchers in baseball, like Realmuto and Adley Rutschman, are big and imposing — the kind of guys who look like they live on a leg press machine. Wong is sturdily built and obviously athletic, but smaller; his listed height of 6-foot-1 is, um, generous. Nevertheless, he throws nearly as hard to second base as anyone out there, the result not only of arm strength but also fine-tuned mechanics.

Getting his footwork right and having a clean transfer is of paramount importance, he says. “And from there you just let it eat and trust the throw,” he says.

Another reason Wong has had to work on his footwork: He’s only been catching regularly since his sophomore year of college. In another life, he could’ve been one of those nimble middle infielders dining out on unsuspecting catchers. He stole 26 bases on 30 attempts in 63 games in his junior year at the University of Houston, his first full season behind the plate, after playing shortstop as a freshman and splitting time between catcher and outfield as a sophomore.

Wong has made the occasional foray into the infield throughout his pro career, but for the most part, he’s caught full-time. He had two-and-a-half professional seasons under his belt when the Dodgers, the team that drafted him in the third round in 2017, included him in the Mookie Betts trade. (At the time, he was the least-known of the five players involved, though the longer he keeps producing, the better chance he has of passing Jeter Downs in notoriety.) Even so, Wong still says he’s refining his technique at the position.

“I’m still trying to learn something new every day and still working on the craft of receiving and blocking,” he says. “By blocking, I mean controlling the baseball. It’s one thing to just get in front of it and keep it in front of you. But the closer you keep it to you, the less chance of [runners] advancing.”

And Wong is right that he has work to do. While his throwing numbers are elite, his blocking and framing stats are pedestrian, though again, it’s very early in the season.

Still, what started out as a platoon with McGuire has led to Wong getting more starts against right-handed pitching. The Red Sox have faced 13 left-handed starters so far this year; Wong has started 11 of those games, McGuire two. Against righties, McGuire has started 12 times, Wong 11. That includes three of Boston’s past four games against right-handed starters, and seven of the past 11.

Wong says he’s getting more comfortable at the plate, and he’s made a breakthrough. He had been overthinking what it meant to be a good hitter; now he’s just trying to hit the ball hard.

“One thing I tried to do was hit the ball the other way, but I ended up forcing some bat manipulation to do that, instead of just letting it fly,” he says. “When you’re manipulating, you’re not getting off your best swing. Just let it happen, and wherever the ball goes, it goes.”

Catcher is a demanding position these days; just ask the Cardinals. If Wong can realize his potential to be an asset on both sides of the ball, the Red Sox will be much better off in the long run.