Toronto Blue Jays: Scouting Report On C Reese McGuire

Scouting Report

Body/Basics

McGuire hits from the left side and throws from the right. He’s listed at 5’11 and 215 pounds. That looks correct, and maybe even a little on the heavy side for his actual weight, though the wear of a season can certainly do that to a catcher.

Hitting

McGuire has struggled for good reason at the plate. His swing needs a lot of work. He starts from a normal hitting crouch, but then he has a notable leg kick as he strides forward, drops his hands down, and then leads his swing with his hands, with his barrel trailing behind. This leads to excellent bat control for McGuire, and it’s notable that he doesn’t strike out much at all because of this.

His hand placement does have a number of negative issues, though. He ends up struggling to get his body in alignment to truly drive a ball, and, to that point, both extra base hits that I watched were flare hits that found a hole between two outfielders, not pitches driven hard. He has his hands released before his hips get fired within his swing, which leaves his power struggling. The bat head trails the hands, and while that gives control, it also means that McGuire struggles to drive pitches.

I really wanted to see something that was going to be a quick or “easy” fix on McGuire’s swing, but I simply cannot see it here. His swing will need a whole tear down and rebuild to work at the big league level.

Base Running/Fielding

McGuire has excellent athleticism, and he’s utilized that on the bases throughout his career thus far. He’s stolen 32 bases, including 14 in 2015, though his success rate is not exactly great. He does run well on the base paths, but his instincts stealing bases are poor, to say the least. He’ll likely be a guy who could end up with 5-10 steals per year just because he’s quick enough to get that many when a pitcher isn’t holding him.

McGuire uses his solid catcher’s build in solid legs and wide shoulders to set a very good target for his pitcher. He also moves his body late while giving a target early for his pitcher, so he’s not giving away the location of the pitch to the hitter. He sets up well with the umpire as well, framing a pitch well for his pitcher.

McGuire in the run game is really a thing of beauty. He has excellent footwork and release, and his accuracy on his throws is pinpoint. While he may not have the pure arm strength of some catchers, his quick footwork and release and his accuracy allows him to be one of the fastest from home to second that you’ll find in the minor leagues. He simply shuts down an opponent’s running game when he is behind the plate.

Video

Next: Future outlook

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Future Outlook

McGuire has a look of a certain former catcher that has become much more well-known now as a major league manager. Joe Girardi worked his way up the minors after a college career, which is a difference between he and McGuire, but the two both have very similar set up behind the plate, and they both possess less than adequate swings to be major league regulars.

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Girardi was given five seasons to be a primary catcher over his 15 year career, but he was primarily a backup in his career, averaging 85 games played over those 15 years. His hitting line of .267/.315/.350 is not out-of-bounds for what could be a possible McGuire line in his career due to his lack of walks and lack of power. Girardi also rarely struck out at the plate, striking out in just 13.3% of his major league plate appearances.

Girardi was excellent behind the plate, which is why he kept getting chances to start with various teams, as his five seasons of starting came with three different organizations. He had excellent control over the run game, throwing out nearly 1/3 of the runners who ran against him at the major league level, in spite of having a few staffs with guys who did not hold on runners well during his career.

I think McGuire really could shoot for Girardi, but I think it’s also notable that for every five guys like Girardi, one has a multi-year career like he did. McGuire is completely off the radar of many scouts I’ve talked with simply due to the poor swing and what they see as irreparable habits worn into his swing muscle memory by this point.

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McGuire will definitely need some work on his swing, but I do think he’s in the organization that could do it, if any organization could. We’re talking about an organization that took Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion and turned them from fringe players to star hitters. It would not surprise me one bit to see McGuire back at the AA level to work on his swing further, but they could put him at AAA Buffalo as well. He’ll be a step away, but with Russell Martin still signed through 2019, they have time to bring him up slowly