The Red Sox could trade from their considerable catching depth, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal writes. Blake Swihart projects as their starter, while Christian Vazquez has looked good defensively after having Tommy John surgery last year. There’s also veteran Ryan Hanigan, as well as Sandy Leon, who MacPherson notes isn’t on the 40-man roster but is “being paid commensurate with a front-line depth option.” At some point, MacPherson suggests, youngsters Swihart and Vazquez will likely be the Red Sox’ top two catchers. That would imply that Hanigan could be a candidate to be dealt, with the Astros and Rangers as potential trade partners. Hanigan hit a decent .247/.337/.328 last year, has a reputation as a good defender and framer, and is only owed $3.7MM in 2016, so he could be an attractive target for teams in need of catching help. Here’s more from the American League.
- The Rangers have announced that they’ve optioned high-profile youngsters Joey Gallo, Jurickson Profar and Nomar Mazara to Triple-A Round Rock. Gallo has wowed minor-league fans with his power and hit 29 home runs between three levels in 2015, but he struck out in over 40% of his plate appearances in the big leagues and at nearly as high a rate at Triple-A. Profar was ranked the No. 1 prospect in the game by Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus prior to the 2013 season, but he missed all of 2014 and most of 2015 with shoulder issues and has only recently begun playing shortstop again. Mazara, an outfielder, batted .296/.366/.443 in a 2015 season split between Double-A Frisco and Round Rock. Via MLB.com, he ranks as the Rangers’ third-best prospect, with Gallo ranking first.
- Tyler Kepner of the New York Times’ profile on new Angels GM Billy Eppler describes Eppler’s earlier days as assistant GM of the Yankees. In particular, Kepner gives Eppler credit for many of the Yankees’ smaller but effective moves, like their 2014 stretch-drive trade for Brandon McCarthy and their 2008 offseason deal for Nick Swisher, neither of which cost the Yankees much. “I think you demonstrate that to the people interviewing you, like, ’There’s other moves that the Yankees make,'” says Eppler, who had previously interviewed for the Padres’ and Mariners’ GM jobs, as well as interviewing for the Angels job when it previously went to Jerry Dipoto. “It’s not just the $150 million guys and nothing else. There are other moves; they just don’t grab the attention in New York.”
I think this is where bigpapi4ever comes in and makes one of his legendary trade proposals that would go something like this: Hanigan for Correa, Altuve, Springer, Reed
Throw in Robbie Ross Jr. with Hanigan and you may be talking Giancarlo Stanton.
At least bigpapi4ever now has a reason to post about “his Sox”. I cant wait for the comments on how foolish that would be for his sox to trade either future HOF catcher and they should trade Leon or Hanigan for an ace to help out that rotation
Perhaps a Hanigan / Sale straight up trade? With the new Sox/Sale negative press today maybe Dombrowski swoops in and gives the WS the building block they need in HOF catcher Hanigan.
Great post Charlie, excellent work!
Unless a team was willing to give me a top prospect for Vazquez now I would hold on to him until he rebuilds his value. It’s likely that a contender will have a C suffer a long term injury this year and when that happens my Sox should pounce and trade Christian for that top prospect. Vazquez is already a superior defender behind the plate, if his bat progresses as I think he could be a legitimate top starting C. Of course with Swihart my Sox already have their perennial all star back stop for years to come, Vazquez is just a small step down. Once Vazquez is completely healthy I could see him netting a prospect like Dillon Tate, Francis Martes, Carson Fulmer, etc. It’ll probably have to be a pitcher in return, Sox are already loaded with young position players and position player prospects.
“Of course with Swihart my Sox already have their perennial all star back stop for years to come”
Yes, because that’s guaranteed to happen. Serious question for you, would you trade Swihart for Trout or Kershaw?
Of course I’d trade Swihart for the best player and the best pitcher in he game, duh.
What other players would the Angels and Dodgers have to throw in the deal…haha
Having a conversation with yourself?
You can have Holt from my Red Sox, but it’ll have to be a three way, because I want trout and kershaw for him or anyone from my team…
What if…the Red Sox work out a multi-team trade that somehow nets Tate, Martes, Fulmer
Interesting opinion, however I would argue that Fulmer’a value is far higher than that of Vasquez. I would also prefer moving Swihart to a different position and let his bat further develop and then use Vasquez as the primary backstop. Moving him would be tough given the depth at nearly all the corner positions. Perhaps a trade of Castillo would free up some space.
Vazquez is just a small step down from Swihart? No Vazquez is a major step down. He’s a backup defense-first catcher at best. He’s worth someone like Jake Marisnick or Michael Feliz
Catcher, like ss, is a defense first position. Swihart is a good framer as well so yes its a big step down, but vazquez is certainly a starting catcher at the mlb level. 12 catchers were better than league average hitters last year with at least 250 pa’s which isnt even a half season. One of those was kyle schwarber, so he doesnt really count. A.j pierzynski was one, and he is bad defensively and framing so he has to hit to be anything. So that leaves the top tier starters. 10/30, now he might not he a top tier catcher but thru defense and framing in combo with how much he walks he will likely provide similar value to the mid tier starters. I would lay 5:1 odds on a bet he starts at least 4 yrs as an ml catcher barring career ending injury.
Vazquez has the defensive reputation to be a fairly valuable prospect, but calling him a starting caliber catcher now is a stretch. He wasn’t anywhere close to a league average offensive player in 2014. He was bad with the bat, even for a catcher. Out of 40 catchers with 200+ PA in 2014, his 70 wRC+ ranked 36th. Last year there were 45 catchers with 200+ PA and 38 of them had a wRC+ better than 70.
Vazquez has some value as a prospect, but some here are severely overrating him and his value. Hank Conger has rated as a very good pitch framer who has been a league average bat in 2 of the last 3 seasons and the Rays picked him up for cash considerations this offseason. All glove, no bat catchers make decent back ups, but aren’t the type of starters that contending teams like to run out there regularly.
Where do you get that Swihart is a good pitch framer? Last year, stat corner rated his framing at -1.8 runs and BP rated it at 0.5 runs.
Please.. Someone should check CS%, not to mention the fact Boston “thinks” his bat might improve some, which they never got to find out with his entire 2015 campaign wrecked with the UCL replacement surgery.
CS% in the +50% range at the MLB level? Have to go back over 40 years to find that, except for Vazquez in his half season, reason being his off the charts 1.6-1.7 second pop times and cannon arm, then add his superb ball blocking and pitch framing. He learns to hit much better at all and he’s more than just a little valuable, or backup catcher.
Also, I applaud your continued commenting in light of all the shit you’re getting. Hell yeah, sometimes you get annoying and it irritates me a little bit that you always refer to them as “my Sox” (unless, of course, you’re really John Henry). I think that you’re a passionate baseball fan who loves his team, even if that does cause you to sometimes overestimate how good some players are. In this day and age, baseball truly does need more fans like you.
Swihart sucks. He’ll only ever make allstar games because of homer red sox voters.
Why is it every writer for Boston papers think they can trade a back up player or a minor league player for a good quality player. It used to be the yanks were the most over rated club by writers but now its Boston far ahead of all other teams. Boston GM has refused in the past to trade any quality player in a trade. So don’t expect they will obtain anyone that is of quality back.
Dave Dombrowski is in his first year running the Red Sox. What they’ve done the last few years isn’t an indicator. Look at the Kimbrel trade.
Yeah they traded 4 players which included 2 pretty high end prospects. Don’t worry they have the great frank wren helping out Dave too. What a nightmare of a front office
Its amazing Frank Wren gets to be in a front office.
I forgot about the Kimbrel trade but I laugh when they get offers for Bradley Jr and pass on it hoping for a ace in return. Just like last year they have been over rated by the media in the players they have. Their starting core is very weak after Price.
We all await for you know who to comment
Regarding Hanigan, I’m not so sure he’s a good option much,.. He’s 35 years old and was ranked 28th in wRC+ last year for Catchers, and 32nd in WAR for catchers (0.6). But I guess for a Backup catcher role, he isn’t a bad fill.
And I can see he commented already
It’s sad that the comments are now about him instead of from him
No kidding. You would think they could at least wait for him to comment before starting in. Instead it’s a thread full of “we wait for you know who”
My take: Defense is more important from a catcher than is offense. Trade Swihart now at his peak value with some other combination of prospects to get a #2 starter from a team out of contention. Use vazquez behind the plate to cut down runners and earn a gold globe. Hannigan is a more than servicable backup. Trade Leon for a bottle of sunscreen.
Better be a pretty dang good pitcher if we’re gonna trade Swihart. I’d only move him for someone like Degrom, Gerrit Cole, Sale, etc.
You would be crazy to trade Swihart for any of those pitchers unless they were attached to a package with a couple of Top 15 prospects.
It would have to be. Swihart would just headline the return package.
Wait so are you saying the Red Sox would have to get more back if they were to move swihart for one of those pitchers?
There it is again. A Boston player is worth 4x the value of any other team’s players. SMH. So Swilhart who hit .274 with a little power is worth a top ace starter. Just like Bradley Jr a 4th outfielder on most teams is worth a front line starter.
You’re going to hurt their feelings. Its not unique to Red Sox Nation but this Boston Media Hype Prospect Rating has been going on for years. A significant quantity of their “hot” prospects have turned out to be duds but that does not deter either the Globe or the RSN from continuing to drink the “great farm system” koolaid.
Smh, and there it is.
Sarcasm, my friend.
I think he was referring to bigpapi4ever’s post, not yours.
Lol. Yeah because those teams are going to trade their aces for a catcher who is a work in progress (-9 DRS last year and 16 passed balls in just 83 games)
Swihart was catching almost all of Stephen Wright’s innings last year. Any catcher who is dealing with a knuckleball is going to have a bunch of passed balls). Knock Swihart defensively if you like but it will be difficult to do unless every team starts carrying a knuckleballer.
In checking the game logs, 10 of Swihart’s passed balls came with Wright pitching. That leaves 6 non-knuckleball passed balls for the season. Anyone have an average number of passed balls with which to evaluate Swihart’s defense?
Well Swihart was also behind the plate with 43 wild pitches thrown (Sixth most in baseball), and Steven Wright only threw 2 wild pitches all year. Yes WP is mainly on the pitchers but when a catcher allows that many wild pitches, it may show they have an inability to block balls in the dirt.
Swihart also played in far fewer games than the catchers ahead of him (and far fewer than catchers behind him, with the exception of Lucroy)
Well John Ryan Murphy played in only 65 games last season and he had 7 passed balls. The yankees were able to trade Murphy for Future Hall of Famer Aaron Hicks.
HOFer for a Serial Killer. A must trade!
Josh Thole, RA Dickey’s catcher, had 4 passed balls in 15 starts.
Swihart would be part of a big package for any of those guys. Swihart could not get you a front of the rotation guy by himself. Not even close.
So glad to see my Sox getting so much love on MLBTR. Forget the fact that we have been in last 3 of the last 4 years, we are a dynasty in the making. I would never trade anybody on this team for other teams inferior players. To even suggest that a backup a catcher is not worth a top prospect is foolish.
Just this weekend in another post about the Rangers’ catching situation, MLBTR made the assumption that the salary of a Lucroy or Norris was significantly prohibitive to the club in acquiring them. Now, for a backup in Hanigan whose cost is similar, he’s seen as a logical target. (Head-scratching…)
From what I’ve heard it was the asking prices for Lucroy and Norris that halted any discussions of a trade. Texas would have been willing to take on their contracts, but not at the expense of also having to trade one of their top prospects in return (which was most likely the asking price).
I would only trade Hanigan for Babe Ruth or Cy Young, the guy is a legit HOF’er. Also, Hanley is gonna win a gold glove at first this year, he’ll be better than Loug Gehrig ever was. Finally, I have a confession, it was I who brought Josh Beckett and John Lackey fried chicken a couple years ago, in exchange I received a freshly-used Clay Bucholz jock-strap.
Mazara is no longer the #2 prospect in Rangers system as everyone had predicted Brinson passed him in the latest mlb.com prospect rankings.
FYI its totally asinine to argue about 1 spot on a prospect list. Grow up.
Ha. We agree again. Plenty of people have Mazara ahead of Brinson. Stating one way or the other as fact shows you don’t really have a grasp on prospecting (not you)
He cited MLB.com rankings just the wrong year it isn’t an argument what he is ranked on their list its a fact stupid kid.
“Stupid kid”
You can’t make up how far this place has fallen. It appears they don’t really care, either.
#2 and #3 are future stars for Texas, regardless.
And you look dumb again
They’re both studs. Mazara is all about the bat. Brinson is the entire package. Offense, defense, size, speed, power.
Personally I dont understand why Gallo is ranked number 1. I guess just because he gets more publicity and has had a cup of coffee at the big league level.
Texas has so many good position player prospects but the pitching is lacking, waiting on them to trade from the surplus to get another Hamels-type SP.
Lacking at the big league level or minors? I’d say the big league pitching is pretty salty. The bullpen is loaded and Darvish/Hamels isn’t a bad 1,2 punch. Holland and Perez just need stay healthy. Lewis is the old veteran innings eater. Not a bad rotation.
The lower levels of the system are loaded with stud pitchers but not anything thats close to being of assistance. Chi Chi is a back of rotation type innings eater that should pitch in AAA all year if all goes well.
Most of the high end pitchers they’ve drafted in recent years were college pitchers, Tate, Lemon, Matuella so they should filter up to the top of the system pretty quickly
Eppler is going to be a great GM. I was so impressed in an interview I saw when he stated that the Angels were known for playing solid fundamental baseball up to 2009, but that ended (very probably due to 2 stat-minded GM’s). Eppler says he has a great working relationship with Scioscia, and is working with him to migrate the teams roster to a point where the Angels can again play strong fundamental baseball (which the Yankees have done for years yet it is seldom noted). I also liked his emphasis on bringing in contact hitters. Am tired of watching guys playing for teams that worship at the alter of OBP and pitch counts, resulting in such a high percentage of PA’s resulting in either a walk or a strikeout that watching their games is similar to watching a 9-10 year-old little league game. Those teams seldom win anything important, but their owners make money so they don’t care.
Is that you, Goose?