Boston Red Sox and their confounding catcher conundrum

There have been plenty of struggles for the Boston Red Sox so far in 2019, the position of catcher among them.

The great experiment by the Boston Red Sox of keeping three unproductive catchers on the roster was mercifully ended on Tuesday by designating Blake Swihart for assignment.

Trouble is, the two catchers who remain aren’t exactly providing much to salivate over.

Swihart, the former first-round pick, had been the odd catcher out since 2017 when this three-headed platoon began. Swihart was lucky to even appear behind the plate as Christian Vazquez and Sandy Leon got the lion’s share of the load.

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A new direction was on the table when Leon was sent to waivers at the end of spring training. And with no takers, the veteran catcher accepted a minor league assignment with Pawtucket.

Except then Boston Red Sox still failed to give Swihart much of an opportunity. Defensively, he was always going to be behind Vazquez. In his limited time there the last two seasons, Swihart had thrown out 26 percent of base runners in 2018 and was only 1 of 5 in 2019.

Swihart’s had the better bat, but he was never really consistent after his first season in 2015, where he had 31 RBI and an OPS of .712 while appearing in 84 games.

A gruesome ankle injury derailed his progress and he was later used in the field and as a DH even more, hitting .229 in 2018 in 82 games.

Vazquez and Swihart are both younger than Leon. Personally, I would have liked the Red Sox continue with the first two.

Swihart’s potential never came to fruition with the Red Sox. Hopefully, a fresh start somewhere will at least give him the at-bats needed to maybe get on track and resurrect his career.

Vazquez and Leon: the skinny

For the time being, in Vazquez and Leon, the Boston Red Sox have handed over the catching duties to the two players who have primarily held the position the past three seasons.

Entering Wednesday’s game against the New York Yankees, Vazquez was batting .195. He had two home runs (hitting his third in Wednesday’s loss) and held a .233 OBP

Even his acumen behind the plate, for which Vazquez was always valued over Swihart, has taken a downturn over the years. Back in 2017, he threw out 42 percent of runners who attempted to steal against him. That fell to 37 percent last season and sits at only 25 percent in 2019.

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Leon, who had a great early start to his Boston career, has not found much success since then. He looked like he was going to be a central piece back in 2016, when he hit .310, had an OPS of .845, and even legged out two triples while playing 78 games.

Since then, Leon dropped to a .225 batting average in 2017 and .177 in 2018. His OPS fell over 300 points between 2016 and 2018, dropping to .511.

Leon didn’t find a newfound success at Pawtucket, either, picking up 3 hits in 25 at-bats.

Swihart wasn’t going to be the long term answer at catcher, something the Red Sox have been looking for since Jarrod Saltalamacchia left after the 2013 season. Vazquez has had his moments and is strong defensively but his numbers at the plate have fallen since 2017 as well.

Barring a hot streak from Leon or Vazquez returning to a 2017 form where he hit nearly .300 in limited appearances, catcher is going to be an offensive black hole.

Next. Mitch Moreland is king of Fenway…for a night. dark

It’s simply a lot harder to hide when the rest of the lineup is struggling just as much.

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