Red Sox catcher headed to IL with fractured pinky finger

The Red Sox are going to be without starting catcher Connor Wong for a while Wong suffered a small fracture on his left pinky finger during the first inning of Monday s - loss to the Toronto Blue Jays The injury occurred after Wong was hit on the glove by a George Springer swing allowing the Blue Jays outfielder to reach on catcher s interference Wong remained in the contest for one more batter but was replaced by Carlos Narvaez when the Blue Jays came up to bat again in the top of the second The Red Sox initially released he d suffered a left hand contusion but following the tournament manager Alex Cora revealed the injury was more serious He has a small fracture in the pinky area so he s moving to the IL Cora declared How long we don t know late swing got him good so we re going to have to make a move The bulk fractures usually take at least six weeks to heal but given that the injury occurred on Wong s catching hand there may be additional recovery needed beyond what would typically be considered standard Wong mentioned following the challenge he has not been given any timetable for a return but that he knew right away it d taken a bad hit It swelled up and was numb Wong explained Obviously I was able to catch the ball afterwards so I was hopeful but it was just kind of numb Cora commented the club hadn t yet determined who would come up to replace Wong but the logical option would be Blake Sabol who is as of now in Triple-A and is the only other catcher on the Red Sox -man roster Another candidate would be Seby Zavala who has appeared in MLB games over five big league seasons Regardless of who fills the void on the roster the bulk of the catching responsibility will likely fall to rookie Carlos Narvaez who made the gang out of camp as Wong s backup and who has gotten off to a terrific start Narvaez is for with a OPS through his first five games this season and following the championship the -year-old announced he feels for Wong and wants to do whatever he can to help the club in his absence Nobody wants that Connor is a very significant piece for us Narvaez disclosed Hopefully Connor will get well soon but in the meantime he s out and I m going to try to take accountability to help the crew win every encounter