Toronto Blue Jays: Scouting Report On C Reese McGuire
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