2015 In Review

Prior to the 2015 season, the Boston Red Sox had set themselves up with one of the best defensive tandems behind the plate; the combination of veteran Ryan Hanigan and up-and-coming Christian Vazquez, who's knack for impeding opposing run games raised plenty of eyebrows during his short stint in 2014. But after already learning that Vazquez was headed for Tommy John Surgery and would miss the entire season, Hanigan fractured his right hand in May. With two doors closing in Red Sox nation, another opened, through it emerging Boston's likely backstop of the future from Triple-A Pawtucket.

It took a while for Blake Swihart to find his groove in the bigs, batting only .225 in May and .258 in June, but the 2011 first round draft pick stormed into the warmest month of the year and found his swing. In 58 August at-bats, Swihart posted a .373 average, with one home run and nine RBI's. Swihart began to pull the ball less, and over 44 games in the second half of the season, he batted .303, hitting four dingers, knocking in 20 ribbies, and posting a .805 OPS.

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2016 Outlook

Swihart has been named the Red Sox starting catcher in 2016, and even with Christian Vazquez expected to be healthy come midseason, it doesn't appear that his job will be in danger at any point, especially if he builds off of his 2015 second half momentum. Swihart is an above average defensive backstop but will need to improve on certain areas of his game, mainly blocking balls in the dirt, to compliment his continuously maturing offense. Vazquez is the better defensive candidate, as parts of his game have been compared to that of Yadier Molina, but there's no saying how he will bounce back from surgery, if any lingering affects will arise from being away from the game for so long. He will likely spend time in Triple-A Pawtucket before making his return to The Show.

Swihart has received some recognition of his own, from another well known catcher, especially in Fenway's neck of the woods.

"As far as what I think about Blake's year last year, it was phenomenal," Jason Varitek told reporters, according to the Boston Herald. "He's continuing to grow as a catcher. I think he does a lot of things extremely well behind the plate and will continue to advance the more and more he catches."

Great praise from a great catcher. And while Varitek is nothing but confident about Swihart's potential growth, the 23 year old remains humble about last season's late success.

"I've still got to make an impression," Swihart stated, according to New England Sports Network. "I'm still going to go out there with the same mindset to try to win the job, and I want to go out there and make an impression and let that stick with everybody."

And in making an even longer lasting impression, Swihart will also need to tweak parts of his offensive game, like limiting the strikeouts and producing more quality plate appearances. In 2015, the young catcher struck out 77 times in 288 at-bats. He did, however, bat .293 with runners in scoring position and .297 with runners on base.

There is also talk about Swihart potentially changing positions when Vazquez is ready to be recalled to the MLB, but according to Boston President of Baseball Operations, Dave Dombrowski, he will not be tested anywhere but catcher.

"Offensively, I've always had confidence," Swihart exclaimed, according to NESN. "I got more comfortable catching. I knew my offense would be there, so I wasn't too worried about it. I was still confident and I just went out there and it showed."

Conclusion

The Red Sox will likely bat Swihart eighth in their order, a spot where he hit .322 last season. Our experts at RotoBaller have him ranked 13th among fantasy catchers, and is definitely a late round draft option in deeper leagues of more than 12 teams. Swihart's hyped potential and hints of efficiency also makes him an under-the-radar number two catcher in standard mixed leagues.

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