The life of a catcher isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Just ask Red Sox backstop Reese McGuire.
McGuire, who entered Saturday night’s loss to the Milwaukee Brewers as the backup to Connor Wong, found himself in the ball game as a pinch hitter and eventually behind the dish to catch the final few innings. Things went… poorly.
Not only did McGuire finish 0-for-2 from the plate, but took a beating from behind it. In the seventh inning, the 28-year-old took a foul ball straight off his throwing hand, causing a slight panic for those in Boston. In replacing Wong, an early exit from McGuire would have forced the Red Sox into scrambling for an emergency catcher.
Luckily, that wasn’t the case, and McGuire is just fine.
“It’s a little bruised,” McGuire said of his hand postgame, as seen on NESN’s Red Sox coverage. “Just got some X-rays back, they all came back negative. That’s really good news. I had a smile on my face because it was kind of throbbing, but I’m going to go ice right after this and be ready for tomorrow.”
It looks as though the Red Sox won’t be forced into making any roster moves, which is a blessing in disguise. If McGuire went down, Boston would likely need to add another catcher to it’s active roster. The issue? The Red Sox only have McGuire and Wong on the 40-man, which means calling up the likes of Jorge Alfaro, Caleb Hamilton or Ronaldo Hernandez would require a subsequent roster move.
Though he might not need too much time off, it is possible McGuire could be given a couple of days to recover. That isn’t too big of an issue, though Red Sox manager Alex Cora did admit he has “no idea” who his emergency catcher would be should Boston need one.
He must not be familiar with the catching work of Jason Varitek and Kenley Jansen.
