Red Sox: Blake Swihart should be the everyday catcher

Blake Swihart is capitalizing on his opportunities with the Boston Red Sox lately. But he should be starting at catcher even more.

The Red Sox committed to carrying two catchers on their roster this season, unlike last year, when they placed Sandy Leon on waivers before the season started. Christian Vazquez became the starter and Blake Swihart finally had a set role as the backup catcher. But now a little over a week into the season, it’s already looking like Blake is more deserving to be the main starting catcher.

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I know it’s a very small sample size, but so far Swihart is batting .500 with a homer and 4 RBIs in 12 at-bats, while Vazquez’s batting average is .190, with a homer and just 2 RBIs in 21 at-bats. Plus, Swihart had a big home run a couple of nights ago that sparked a rally for the Sox to go on and beat the A’s.

A lot of people say that Swihart’s defense isn’t good enough to be the main catcher, however, that’s not entirely true. His defense isn’t as bad as most fans think, as his catcher’s ERA was similar to Leon’s last year, he has more defensive runs saved than Vazquez this season, and he’s thrown out more runners stealing than Vazquez this season. Plus I’d take a lot better offense from the catcher position with a little worse defense.

Blake Swihart used to be one of the top prospects in baseball, ranked the top catching prospect in the whole MLB in 2015. Everyone viewed him as the future catcher for the Red Sox until they decided to convert him into a utility player.

The Red Sox tried putting in Swihart in left field in 2016 where he got a major ankle injury which really hurt his career. After that, they put him all around the infield and outfield, but that made him spend too much time adapting to new positions so that his offense started to fall off. Plus, there was no consistency for him as he got barely any playing time last year. It’s very hard for a player not named Brock Holt to succeed when they’re constantly being moved around the diamond.

Also, Blake Swihart is still just 27 years old so he still has many years ahead of him and plenty of potentials to keep improving. He’s way too young to give up on him yet, and he’s determined to turn his career back around.

So now that Blake Swihart has a set role as a catcher again with the Red Sox, it’s his time to shine and become the player he was supposed to be. He’s already started to show that he can be a great everyday catcher, and it’s time for the Red Sox to finally give him the playing time that he deserves. If he gets consistent playing time for once, he will be great.