The Red Sox have three catchers on their roster but none of them are great options. Sandy Leon has value for his defense and rapport with the pitching staff but he can’t hit his own weight. We’ve heard for years that Blake Swihart can hit but we’ve only seen glimpses of it. Christian Vazquez is a good defensive catcher but not as good as Leon and his bat doesn’t have the ceiling of Swihart’s.
Realmuto is an upgrade over any of them. He’s arguably the best hitter in the majors at his position, batting .277/.340/.484 with 21 home runs this season. Instead of having a catcher creating a black hole near the bottom of the lineup, Realmuto would give the Red Sox a bat worthy of slotting near the middle of the order.
His defense and pitch framing skills lag behind the level the Red Sox receive from Leon or Vazquez but Realmuto is still solid behind the plate. He has a strong throwing arm that caught 38 percent of opposing base stealers this season.
The Marlins aren’t going anywhere anytime soon so it makes sense for them to continue last year’s fire sale by dealing Realmuto. The demand will be high considering the scarcity of available catching talent which means a team may need to overpay to pry him out of Miami.
Boston could offer Vazquez, who is locked up on a reasonable deal through 2022, or try to sell Miami on the upside of Swihart, plus add one of their top-five prospects in a package for the All-Star catcher. That still may not be enough if there is a bidding war on the trade market.