A rookie catcher who earns the nickname "The Captain" kind of has to be considered a fan favorite, doesn't he?
At this time last season, Carlos Narváez was a relative unknown to Red Sox Nation. He'd come over in a trade with the New York Yankees on the same day as the Garrett Crochet blockbuster. He was the unquestioned No. 2 catcher behind Connor Wong. But he not only took over that starting job in due time, he spent every day building up more credibility with the fan base.
Heading into year two with the club, Narváez seems to have the innate ability to say just what Red Sox fans want to hear. The latest example? That came on Saturday, when the 27-year-old said he never wanted to leave the city of Boston.
"The only thing I may say is I would love to be a Red Sox forever,” Narváez said, per Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Herald. “I would like to retire with this team. We haven’t talked about it, hopefully that will come in the future.
"That’s something that I’m not paying attention to right now. Of course, I would love it, but we’ve got different goals this year, and I think this year is going to be very important for us, for everybody.
Not that Narváez is getting ahead of himself by any means, but there's still plenty left for him to prove this year. He fought through a knee injury that he cleaned up with surgery at the end of the year. He had one great offensive month in May, and tailed off fairly hard in the second half. He ended the season with 2.6 bWAR and exactly a 100 OPS+.
But Narváez is exactly the kind of personality Red Sox fans gravitate to. He's an underdog, a guy the Yankees didn't particularly want to keep around, and he's demonstrating high-level leadership qualities for someone who just completed his rookie season.