Boston Red Sox: Four potential catching upgrades
Last year the Boston Red Sox were probably the best team in baseball, but that doesn’t mean they were perfect. The team’s catchers struggled in 2018, and it might be time for an upgrade.
The Boston Red Sox currently have three catchers listed on their major league roster. Last year those three catchers, Christian Vazquez, Sandy Leon and Blake Swihart, combined for -1.6 WAR.
That is, to put it lightly, not good.
Things get even worse when you start to look deeper into their stats. All three players have a sub .300 OBP. Blake Swihart struck out in more than a quarter of his plate appearances. So did Leon.
Vazquez only struck out 15% of the time, but he didn’t do much commendable when he put the bat on the ball, finishing the year with a 46 OPS+. All in all, very bad.
The trio’s poor performance (obviously) didn’t drag the Red Sox down too much as they rolled along to 108 wins and a World Series title, but that doesn’t mean that the issue should be ignored. Key rivals have been acquiring talent this offseason while the Sox have sat dormant, and if they don’t do something to fortify their line-up the league’s going to catch up to them pretty fast.
Most of the big name catchers who were available this offseason have already been snatched up, so it’s not likely that the team will find their backstop of the future through a free agent signing. Still, there are a few players available who could at least serve as a temporary upgrade.
If the Red Sox would be willing to trade for a catcher there are even more options available, options with more talent and youth who could be meaningful contributors to the team in the long haul. It’s been rumored that the team wants to move some contracts to shrink payroll, and trading away a higher paid player or two for a young catcher could kill two birds with one stone.
In short, the Red Sox need a new catcher. Maybe two. Let’s take a look at some options.
J.T. Realmuto
Throughout this offseason, J.T. Realmuto has probably been the league’s most popular potential trade target not named Corey Kluber. S.I.’s Scooby Axson reports that six teams are currently engaged in Realmuto related trade talks with the Marlins.
The Red Sox aren’t one of those teams, but they should be.
Realmuto would be an amazing get for both baseball and financial reasons. Last year he slashed an impressive .277/.340/.484 with 21 HRs in 531 plate appearances for the Marlins. It’s unusual to see this type of offensive production coming from a catcher, and Realmuto, who’s only played four full major league seasons, is only at the beginning of his prime.
On top of being really good, Realmuto is relatively cheap. He’s set to make $5.9 million this year and is arbitration eligible next year, which is a steal for the type of offensive production he brings to a team.
To put into context what a steal this is let’s look at Realmuto’s 2018 numbers next to those of Yasmani Grandal, who recently signed a one year $16 million dollar deal with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Grandal slashed .241/.349/.466 in 518 plate appearances last year for the Dodgers, a line strikingly similar to Realmuto’s from last year. Realmuto can be had for less than half the cost of Grandal, so going after him is kind of a no brainer.
The one wrench in all of this is that the Marlins understand how attractive Realmuto is, and apparently are asking for a lot in return for him. Acquiring him might require giving up a young, everyday player like Xander Bogaerts or Jackie Bradley Jr., which is something the Red Sox might not be willing to do.
Travis d’Arnaud
Travis d’Arnaud is no J.T. Realmuto, but he’d still be an upgrade for the Sox.
d’Arnaud was sidelined with injuries for most of 2018, so to get a handle on what he has to offer one must look at his 2017 numbers.
In that year d’Arnaud slashed .244/.293/.443 with 16 HR in 376 plate appearances. This isn’t stellar, but it’s better than the numbers put up by Leon, Vazquez or Swihart.
Defensively d’Arnaud is about on par with Realmuto, if not a bit better, though neither are elite.
If defense at the position is something the Red Sox are really concerned about they can platoon whatever new catcher they get with Sandy Leon, who ranks near the top of the league by most defensive catching metrics.
Early on in the offseason, it seemed like the Mets were pretty eager to trade d’Arnaud but things have cooled off a bit since then. Still, they could likely be convinced to move him and he wouldn’t demand a huge return, as the addition of Wilson Ramos to the team means they can be more flexible with him.
Matt Wieters
There was a period a few years back where Matt Wieters was a perennial all-star. Those days have passed, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a one or two more quality seasons left in him.
Wieters would best fit into the role mentioned for d’Arnaud; he’s an offense-first catcher, and would best be used in tandem with the defense-minded Leon. Age would be a factor for Wieters as well; he wouldn’t be able to put in as many innings as Realmuto or d’Arnaud, but he’d still be of value.
Whether or not Wieters would be worth adding has a lot to do with how much he’d be looking to get in free agency.
The market this year has been slow all around, and the Robinson Chirinos is probably the catcher that’s been picked up closest to Wieters as far as skill and age are concerned. Chirinos signed a one year deal for $5.75 million with the Houston Astros, which is pretty much double the amount that he made last year playing for the Rangers.
A similar figure would be a pay cut for Wieters, who made $10.5 million in his last year with the Nationals, but it’s a pay cut he might have to take with how the markets going. He’d be an interesting option for the Sox if they can work a deal out, and the fact that he’d be playing for a World Series contender might help to sweeten the pot.
Willians Astudillo
Willians Astudillo is most well known for being deceptively fast and a prolific bat flipper, but don’t let that distract you from the fact that he’s also an all-around solid ballplayer.
Astudillo didn’t get called up until pretty late in the season last year, so you can’t read too far into his 2018 numbers, but he gave every indication he should be able to succeed at the big league level. There’s no guarantee that his impressive OPS+ of 138 would stay that high over 400+ plate appearances, but it’s still a good sign.
One thing that Astudillo is known for, thanks in part to the evangelization of him by Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan on Effectively Wild, is not striking out. Seriously, his strikeout rates are crazy.
In 97 plate appearances last year Astudillo struck out only three times, and in 307 plate appearances for the AAA Rochester Redwings Astudillo struck out only 14 times. Compared to the atrocious strikeout rates of Swihart and Leon this is night and day.
For some reason, the Twins don’t seem totally sold on Astudillo, and there’s no guarantee he’ll even make the team’s opening day roster. This doesn’t mean that they’d be looking to move him, but it does mean that they don’t seem him as totally indispensable.
One interesting proposition might be trading Astudillo in some sort of package to the Sox for starter Rick Porcello, who has a contract the Red Sox might be looking to unload.
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This would only be a move worth making if the Sox had a reliever or two in mind to add to their bullpen that they can’t add for salary reasons; at its face, the trade improves the Twins more than it does them.
Still, it’s worth considering. The benefit of adding Astudillo versus any other catcher mentioned on this list is that his rookie status is still intact, and he’d be under team control for years to come.
If he lives up to his potential he could be the Sox catcher of the future, and that might be worth gambling on. If nothing else, “The Tortuga” would be entertaining!
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That’s a list of four potential catching upgrades for the Boston Red Sox. Would you take these guys over the current trio, given the cost? Or are there other catchers that you would be interested in acquiring? Comment below!