Sandy Leon: Lose
A career .187 hitter prior to the 2016 season, Sandy Leon broke out with a .310 average and .845 OPS over 78 games after earning the starting position. If John Farrell’s comments at the Boston Baseball Writers’ Dinner are any indication, he’ll start the year as the team’s catcher.
"What Sandy Leon did last year, I don’t know that anyone anticipated the offensive production. He was fantastic. If we were to start today, he’d go in probably as the lead guy to the position."
While he’ll begin the year behind the plate, there’s no guarantee that we’ll see him there for the duration of the season. He’s the first American League catcher to hit over .310 since Joe Mauer did it in 2008, and yet there are still many doubting his ability to hit consistently. When you dig deeper into his numbers, it’s easy to see why.
His .310 average and .845 OPS are overinflated by a torrid stretch over his first 30 games when he hit .391/.434/.620. Over the other 48, he managed to bat just .263/.333/.394. The argument that his 2016 season was a fluke is compounded by a .218 average with no home runs and just 7 runs batted in over his final 24 games. Waiting in the wings are two promising young catchers in Christian Vazquez and Blake Swihart.
Vazquez is heralded as one of the best defensive catchers in all of baseball, despite missing the entirety of 2015 and losing the starting job in 2016. Meanwhile, Swihart was ranked a top-20 prospect as recently as two years ago and is by far the most athletic of the three. If Leon can’t find the offensive touch that put him in this position last season, expect the Red Sox to make a switch sooner than later.
Next: Can Rick Porcello repeat his Cy Young season?
I’m sure there are some players or storylines that I’m leaving out. Who do you think should be included in this list? Let me know in the comment section.