Those efforts shouldn't be taken as a knock against Carlos Narvaez, who turned in an impressive 2025 season that earned him a sixth-place finish in AL Rookie of the Year voting thanks to a combination of league average offense at the plate and elite defense behind it. It seems likely that Narvaez would remain the primary catcher in Boston even if they were to find another backstop to bring into the mix.
I think we've done a very good job of kind of building equity into him as far as the workload and being able to push him at certain times," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Smith. Roberts added the Dodgers went into the Rockies series planning to have Smith and Dalton Rushing split the four games at catcher. Smith was back in the lineup Tuesday and Wednesday.