Editor’s note: The Red Sox will hold their first full-squad spring training workout Friday. NESN.com will analyze Boston’s roster in five installments (outfield, infield, catchers, bullpen, starting rotation) in the days leading up to that workout.
The Boston Red Sox have three good catchers on their roster, but one of them is going to have to start his season in the minors. And it seems the choice won’t be too difficult.
Sandy Leon, Christian Vazquez and Blake Swihart each bring a different set of skills behind the plate, and the Red Sox will have to figure out which two will provide them with the most stability through the 162-game regular season. However, Red Sox manager John Farrell admitted Sunday that there’s a good chance it comes down to minor league options, as Swihart is the only one of the three who has any left.
“We’ve got three guys that are fully healthy, that’s No. 1, particularly with what Blake went through last year and the surgery in the offseason,” Farrell told reporters, per the Boston Herald. “But with Sandy, Christian and Blake, yeah we feel really good about the core group that’s there. We’ll see how things unfold.
“But there are also things that are out of (Swihart’s) control from a contractual standpoint. That will all begin to answer itself as we get deeper into camp.”
Still, that doesn’t mean Swihart will spend his entire season in Triple-A Pawtucket. So without further ado, let’s break down what each of the Red Sox’s three catchers has to offer.
Sandy Leon
(.310/.369/.476 with seven home runs, 35 RBIs, 26 extra-base hits in 78 games in 2016)
After a surprising 2016 campaign that saw Leon bat .458 with a 1.212 OPS in his first month and a half in the big leagues from June 7 to July 16, Leon is the clear front-runner for the starting job. The 27-year-old’s defense always has been an asset — he boasted a 41 percent caught-stealing percentage and .998 fielding percentage in 2016 — but Leon’s production at the plate in 2016 (late-season slump aside) is the real potential game-changer going into spring training. Leon worked hard to improve his offense when he spent last winter playing in his native Venezuela, and if he’s able to keep that up through another season, it’ll be hard for any of Boston’s other catchers to usurp him.
Christian Vazquez
(.227/.277/.308 with one HR, 12 RBIs, 11 XBH in 57 games in 2016)
Vazquez’s defense is superior to Leon’s, but the 26-year-old must have his own offensive resurgence if he wants to compete for the starting job. Red Sox pitchers have lauded Vazquez’s pitch-framing skills in the past, and his presence behind the plate is just as commanding as Leon’s, but it would be hard for anyone to reason starting him with his weak numbers in the batter’s box. There’s also the issue that Vazquez missed the entire 2015 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, and his arm strength wasn’t back to 100 percent last season. Vazquez’s caught-stealing percentage nosedived from 52 percent in 2014 to 35 percent in 2016 — which still was comfortably above the Major League Baseball average — in nearly the same amount of games, so he has some work to do in spring training.
Blake Swihart
(.258/.365/.355 with five RBIs and three triples in 19 games in 2016)
Swihart is the odd man out here, but it’s not only because of his remaining minor league options. The 24-year-old has been the most consistent of the catching trio at the plate, but behind the dish, Swihart is average to slightly below average. He’s also entering spring training coming off an ankle injury that sidelined him for most of the 2016 season and required surgery in August. Swihart still could win a spot on the big league roster out of spring training if he’s added as an outfielder, though. The Red Sox put him out there last season, and he actually played 13 games in left field (in addition to 11 at Pawtucket) and just six as catcher in his short campaign.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
