Boston Red Sox: Will Blake Swihart start in the outfield in 2017?

After Blake Swihart showed some success in the outfield last season for the Boston Red Sox, can he win back his position next year?

After a disappointing end to a great 2016 season, it’s time for the Boston Red Sox to move on and think about what’s to come for 2017.

As we all can remember, the Red Sox offense was on pace to be one of the best ever in the beginning of the season. The core of young studs that is Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Xander Bogaerts, Travis Shaw, and Blake Swihart really began to solidify themselves as everyday players for the Sox.

For Swihart specifically, he realized that his calling for the Major Leagues wasn’t behind the plate calling games. In the beginning of the season when he was the starting catcher, there were way too many passed balls and it didn’t seem like pitchers worked well with him.

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That’s when the coaching staff decided to transform him into an outfielder after a series of injuries in the outfield depth chart accumulated. That decision by manager John Farrell turned into a pretty smart one.

When Swihart returned to the Sox after a month long stint in AAA he was an instant spark. Not just offensively, but defensively as well, which was surprising to some people since it was a brand new position for him.

But when Swihart was really beginning to heat up, he went down with a season-ending ankle injury in the beginning of June. When he hit the 60-day DL, he watched another young buck by the name of Andrew Benintendi take his starting job.

Which now leads us to this question, where will Blake Swihart play in 2017?

We are only a few days into the offseason for the Red Sox and there are already rumors that Bradley could be getting traded for a starting pitcher.

If those rumors end up being true, it would make most sense to have your starting outfield now be Swihart, Betts (moving back to centerfield), and Benintendi, right?