Red Sox To Designate Blake Swihart
By Jeff Todd | April 16, 2019 at 11:34am CDT
The Red Sox are set to designate catcher Blake Swihart for assignment, according to Evan Drellich of WEEI.com (Twitter link). The team’s plans beyond that are not known, but the struggling defending champs have obviously decided upon a change behind the dish.
Swihart wasn’t off to an inspirational start at the plate, with a .231/.310/.385 slash, but it seems likely that the move was driven primarily by the club’s broader pitching issues. The Boston staff has been among the worst in all of baseball thus far. While that reflects quite a bit more than Swihart’s performance behind the dish, it seems that the organization feels it has something to gain by switching things up.
It stands to reason that Sandy Leon will be brought back onto the MLB roster, though that’s not yet clear. He was stashed down at Triple-A after clearing waivers late in camp. Leon lacks Swihart’s abilities on offense but is lauded for his glovework and game management skills. He had teamed with Christian Vazquez to form a defensive-oriented backstop combination in recent years, but the club opted to give Swihart a run at the position to open the season after utilizing him in a utility role last year.