Even on packed roster, Swihart still thinking ‘C’
The Red Sox did Blake Swihart no favors last year when they sent him to spring training as a catcher even though he had almost zero chance of making the team as one.
Christian Vazquez and Sandy Leon were both out of options. Swihart wasn’t, and the decision to send him to Triple-A Pawtucket was thus simple.
This spring, it won’t be that simple. Swihart, too, is now out of options. Vazquez is coming off a career year and Leon is getting a raise to about $2 million.
The only way it makes sense for the Red Sox to keep Swihart around is if he can play other positions, but he said the team had yet to tell him of a specific position they wanted him to prepare for going into spring training.
“I look at myself as a catcher,” Swihart said Saturday at Red Sox Winter Weekend at Foxwoods Casino. “You guys know that. I want to be a catcher. I love catching. Whatever happens, happens. But going into spring training, I want to catch.”
That could be awkward, given the roster construction.
“I’m not really worried about it,” he said. “I just want to go in and do anything I can to help the team. I’m finally healthy, I feel good. It’s the first time I’ve felt good in a long time. I’m not going to be playing through anything, I’m just going to be playing the way I want to play.”
Swihart feels he’s finally over a severe ankle injury he suffered in 2016, when he crashed into the side wall in left field at Fenway Park. The surgically repaired ankle bothered him all of last year, when he hit just .190 with a .539 OPS in Pawtucket.
When the Sox made Swihart the 26th overall draft pick out of V. Sue Cleveland High School in New Mexico in 2011, then paid him a healthy signing bonus to keep him from attending the University of Texas, they saw a player athletic enough to play any position. The team was that sure of his offensive ability.
When he hit two homers at Yankee Stadium in late September 2015, then-hitting coach Chili Davis called Swihart a natural with the bat.
“When he locks in, when he plays a lot, you can tell he’s the kind of kid who can do some special things, not just from one side, but from both sides of the plate,” Davis said at the time.
It was Swihart’s questionable defense at catcher that kept him from getting more opportunities under manager John Farrell. With a new manager, is Swihart still a catcher?
It seems odd the Red Sox haven’t been more direct with their positional requests for Swihart. Last year, they were void of quality third basemen after trading Travis Shaw, yet Pablo Sandoval started the year at third until the Sox rectified that mistake. Swihart stayed in the minors, where he eventually played a little first base.
Now the Sox have an opening at second base with Dustin Pedroia coming back from knee surgery, no certain future at first base and a new third baseman in Rafael Devers, who remains unproven despite his sky-high potential.
“I’ve done what I needed to do just to be ready (at many positions),” Swihart said. “I’ve taken ground balls, fly balls. And I’ve done a lot of catching drills.”
Does he think he could still make the team as a utility man, even though he primarily sees himself as a catcher?
“That’s not up to me to decide,” he said. “I’ll play wherever I need to play.”
The Red Sox could always trade him, but they’d be giving up on a player they once saw so much in.
“I’m a better player than I’ve shown in the past,” Swihart said. “And I know what I can do and everybody, all the coaches, even you guys know what I can do because you’ve seen it. I just want to be able to prove myself — that’s it.”