Blake Swihart's Future in Boston

My god... Angry angry angry

Just because get feel Vasquez is a better fit for this team doesn't mean Swithart isn't a major league caliber catcher right now. Does he have a lot to improve on? Yea he does. Does he have a ton of room for growth? Yup. Do I think he's a below average major league hitter over the course of season with regular ABs right now? No I don't. I don't mind him playing left field to get more ABs if it doesn't detract from his catching. Major league offense has changed. Take a look at the left fielders around baseball. This isn't 10 years ago. It's hardly a stretch to think he can hit enough to play there.

The question becomes is that the best use of the asset? Right now, I don't think it matters he's still catching and they aren't trading him. Just increasing their depth. Right now if an outfielder goes down who's the Pawtucket call up? Castillo... They are just building depth options

Will Red Sox pitchers ever trust swihart again behind the plate after a rough April this year?

It's great that swihart is learning left field, but if he had any future at catcher, he needs innings at Pawtucket behind the plate.

You can blame a lot of things on Farrell, but to blame him for CV being his everyday catcher? What would you do? Swihart is getting chances in LF, IMO, to improve his versatility with the Red Sox. If they wanted to trade him, they would keep him at catcher. He'll never be a full time LF, no doubt. But imagine a supersub position for him at backup catcher, OF, 1B. That's what I see in his future here. If they wanted to trade him he'd be gone by now, not in LF.

I think that the idea that Swihart's value is down across the rest of the league is at least over-stated among some here. If he were to be used in a trade, he could still be a very valuable trade chip. The closest comparison I can think of is the trade between Washington and Oakland for Gio Gonzalez with Derek Norris and AJ Cole as the center pieces. At that time, Norris' value as a prospect had taken a fairly significant hit, and Cole was somewhere in the 90-100 range across most decent publications. That got Washington a 26 year old Gonzalez coming off two very good seasons with, as best as I can tell 2 years of control left - possibly three depending on how his service time appearing in 10 games in 2008 was calculated.

In today's game, something like Swihart and Owens as the "Norris and Cole" pieces doesn't get you a guy like Dallas Keuchel or Corey Kluber, but it should get someone similar in value to guys like Danny Salazar, Drew Smyly or Jake Odorizzi (these are examples of value, I'm not saying actual players).

It's hard to find a similar trade because frankly good teams that have elite catching prospects just don't trade them that often, but then again, they also don't move that player to LF if his bat can't handle that position (I like Swihart a lot, but he's not Schwarber).

Ultimately, while I don't "want" to trade Swihart right now, if he could be used in a package to acquire the type of pitcher mentioned above - or better - I'd do it. If he can't, there is no chance you trade him.

Swihart has caught Wright a bunch in both the majors and the minors, but it hasn't always done well (to be fair, Hanigan has had troubles as well, and it seems like somewhat of an inevitability): nesn.com/2015/07/blake-swihart-victimized-by-just-one-of-those-days-in-red-soxs-loss/

Not inevitable if one of them is in AAA learning left field and the other one is in the Red Sox rotation.

I don't mind him being the primary back-up catcher in Boston next year. He gives some insurance in case CV goes down with an injury. We've all seen primary catchers go down with serious injuries (Yadier/Posey) & they had to throw a significant downgrade back there & basically punting their season. Not sure if that safety blanket is worth not having a Danny Salazar type instead.

Defensively he can play LF or even 1B as he is extremely athletic. He is not Conforto or Schwarber who can do damage with the bat. I just don't see him @ even a platoon bat at those positions. I'm in the boat as he will be an above average bat @ catcher & that is about it.

Swihart's catching skills are unlikely to improve while he's playing left field. His offense is deficient for left field, as well. They are diminishing his value with this experiment.

fWAR bases defense on UZR, but UZR doesn't do catchers. What does fWAR use instead? It's a mystery.

They had Swihart at 0.0 runs fielding in 2015, whereas DRS had him at -9, or -14 per 120 games.

It's worth noting that CV's tough defensive game in Toronto was a day game after a night game, and that he wouldn't have caught them both ordinarily, let alone coming off the TJ surgery, unless Hanigan had been sick. Why Swihart didn't catch one of those games is a good question.

The Swihart situation to me is complicated. Look at his historic passed ball and WP numbers and they are real bad. A lot of that is probably catching S. Wright but if they considered Vazquez as the starter it was probably unacceptable for Swihart to catch Wright any more defensively. Particularly when we have sinkerballs like Porcello on staff. So something had to be done if the back up catcher was going to be the guy catching Wright. They also saw the LF situation and the fact that Swihart is a young, very athletic player who could clearly develop into a good defensive outfielder. And they didn't know what they had in Bradley going into this year and Holt was the starter in LF so is it really that much of a surprise that they decided to give Swihart some development time in LF?

Jesus, the guy is just barely 24 years old and some people think he will never hit well enough to play the OF when he is probably at least average defensively out there? When he hit 300 over the last half of last year and has historically finished strong most of his years in the minors even as a catcher? The guy seems to be capable of making adjustments and keeping himself healthy. Swihart keeps getting better as a player. Isn't that clear by now after watching his development? He's still only 24 years old.

I think Swihart is a diamond in the rough still. I'm all for him adding some positional flexibility by giving him some PT in LF. He is a long term project and all the savants insisting that Vazquez blew him away as a player could well end up wrong before all this is through. Remove Wright from the equation and maybe Swihart is acceptable defensively at catcher eventually. I don't think it is pitch calling and pitch framing as much as it is passed balls and wild pitches allowed. He doesn't block pitches well. That's the biggest problem. But lots of catchers come up with that problem at first especially with Swihart having to catch Wright both some last year and this year ( I'm assuming, I haven't looked it up ).

I wouldn't trade Swihart. I'd actually make him the starter and Vazquez the back up and trade Hannigan, who still has value. Vasquez will never hit well enough to be the starter and his pitch framing is probably over rated. And I have no doubt lots of teams would consider Swihart a blue chip guy to trade for. This is what would make this team better. Win baby win.