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Who Wants a Former Top Prospect For Free?

He batted .190/.246/.292 in AAA this year. He’s 25. He missed almost all of 2016 and only played in 53 games in AAA this year. He used to be a full-time catcher but was moved to OF in 2016. Who Am I? You guessed it, Blake Swihart. As in 2014’s #24 prospect per mlb.com.

Regardless of a rough 2 years, Swihart is still a very interesting player. For one, he’s had to deal with being constantly moved around defensively. He went from a catcher to a left fielder in 2016, where he got injured and needed season ending ankle surgery. He was moved to Left field because the Red Sox had stout defender Christian Vazquez at catcher. Swihart was athletic enough to transition to left and was a good enough hitter to move there. In 2017, he played mostly catcher, but was also playing 1st base and getting reps at 3rd base. He has consistently been graded as an average to above average catcher. He can easily get back to this stage (and even better) if he stops getting toyed with defensively.

The other thing that keeps Swihart interesting is his bat. Yes, he struggled last year, but that can be traced back to his ankle injury and a finger contusion in 2017. After missing basically a whole season, Swihart was gonna be rusty. As he started building up reps, he injured his finger and was never able to find his groove. Swihart is a smooth switch-hitter with great bat to ball skills. His power is average for a catcher. In the majors, he put up a 93 wrc+ as a 23-year-old in 2015 and followed that up with a 96 wrc+ in his season shorted 2016 season (19 games).

There’s still some upside with his glove and bat. He has no options left, so he can’t be sent back down to the minors. The Red Sox can’t afford to waste a roster spot on a 3rd string catcher (for them) and a below average back-up corner infielder. He has upside way greater than both Kevan Smith and Omar Narvaez. I’m sure he can be had for something relatively cheap. It’s basically a free look at a former top prospect. In fact, I was hoping he would be involved in the Chris Sale trade as a throw-in. The White Sox can afford to take their time with Swihart, the Red Sox cannot. Do your magic, Mr. Hahn.


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