Over the last year, I’ve been vocal on these webpages about how the Red Sox have handled their catcher situation, since whatever their way was has been nothing short of a calamity. Their top catching prospect, Blake Swihart, was moved off the position to left field, only to break an ankle running into a wall out there. Christian Vazquez came back, did good things until midseason, when he lost playing time to Bryan Holaday – Bryan Holaday! – and was all but relegated to the third catcher down the stretch. Sandy Leon came in as depth in 2015, came up in June of 2016 and set the world on fire for three months until fizzling out in September. Ryan Hanigan, who you’ve probably forgotten all about, became Vazquez with far less upside and far more age, and had his option declined in November. I’d rather not talk about Bryan Holaday for a third time this paragraph, but I had to round it out with something and he was the last notable catcher left.

The 2017 outlook for the catcher position is only slightly less complicated. Swihart, Leon, and Vazquez comprise the depth chart for the Red Sox, though not necessarily in that order. While Dave Dombrowski and John Farrell seem okay with having Blake Swihart fight for a job on the 25-man roster, they’ve also said that Leon will be coming into spring training as the starting catcher. That’s not an issue, since he’s earned it, and he’s also out of options, which makes things simpler.

That leaves the backup catcher job, which should be a competition, until you realize that Vazquez is also out of options. So Swihart is now playing just to get the reps in, which is totally fine. He needs all the time he can get, and he’ll probably work behind the plate in Pawtucket for a few months this summer as well. However, he might force the Red Sox’s hand later on, and it won’t be pretty.

To get a good grasp of what might happen, we’ll have to assess each catcher individually. It’s not going to be an actual scouting breakdown with 20-80 grades, but you’ll know where each of them stand after this.

Christian Vazquez is the catcher with the least possible variance. You know what you’re getting here. A lot of solid defense, not a lot of hitting. However, I will never pass up a chance to post his moonshot off Dellin Betances, because oh my lord is this satisfying to watch. The swing, the sound, everything.

Vazquez’s defense has looked better this spring, and his arm has been much better since last year, where it fell from incredible to merely goodish. That’ll happen after Tommy John surgery. Despite the rust, his framing is still fantastic and he’ll always be a positive behind the plate. Vazquez is looking more like his old self, but you’ll be wishing for his bat to do something before long.

Blake Swihart has been a victim of asset mismanagement. He wasn’t really lighting it up last year, but after being moved to left field and the constant yo-yo from Boston to Pawtucket and back, it’s not hard to see why he wasn’t really crushing it before breaking his ankle. Swihart’s defense has always been a work in progress, and he showed a little improvement in 2016. He’s got the most offensive potential in this group, and it’s not close on that front. Odds are he gets his reps in Pawtucket for the majority of the season, but if he smacks around Triple-A pitching enough, we’ll see him in Boston sooner than you think.

Everyone’s wondering if Sandy Leon will hit again, even though the answer seems obvious when the man produced a .392 BABIP last year while swinging at more pitches out of the zone and making less contact overall. PECOTA doesn’t really like his chances either, giving him a .240/.313/.356 slash. He’s a decent defender, and has a good arm, but his overall defense is decent at best. He’s not as good a framer as Vazquez, and if Vazquez’s arm is at full strength once again, his arm will be second-best as well.

If Leon starts hitting again, everybody will be stuck where they are. However, in the likely case that he doesn’t, Swihart has a good shot to seize a spot on the 25-man roster before long. Showing any life with the bat will be reason enough to bring him up, and a hot couple months in Pawtucket could see the end of Leon’s tenure in Boston. Plenty of teams would be willing to nab him as a backup if he gets designated for assignment.

I don’t like saying that Leon will be the odd man out here, since he just gave us the most unexpected and entertaining 1.7 WARP season we’ve ever seen, but that’s where we’re headed. Vazquez is all but entrenched in a backup spot and could be a starter in a pinch, but a recovered Swihart and his potential growth should take priority over Leon if Leon cannot be anything more than replacement level.

It’s a tough situation made worse due to a lack of options with Leon and Vazquez. It might not be pretty in 2017 when it comes to personnel behind home plate, but if the season ends with Swihart and Vazquez as the catching tandem, the Red Sox will be more than alright. Just don’t stick any of them in the outfield again. My heart – and their ankles – won’t be able to take it.

Photo by Bob DeChiara/USA Today Sports Images

Usually, with catchers, you want to put your two best out there on the 25-man roster. That’s neither new nor groundbreaking advice. Unfortunately, the Red Sox seem to not want to heed that counsel. Unsurprisingly, they looked like they were on their way to having near-zero production from that position, especially early on in the season.

It seems blasphemous right now, with all the offense and whatnot, but it’s worth mentioning that the Red Sox have had some issues with managing their group of catchers. Sure, at first, that’s not that big of a deal. Some teams win in spite of problems like this, and so far, the Red Sox have done so impressively despite a position that looked doomed to fail in May.

At the beginning of the season, the two catchers the Red Sox put on the 25-man roster were Blake Swihart and Ryan Hanigan. Not a bad pairing, considering Swihart’s youth and Hanigan’s veteran-ness and decent defense. Neither of them survived the season without being substantially injured. Hanigan got hit with ankle tendinitis in August and didn’t come back until roster expansion, and Swihart, well, it hasn’t been pretty for him.

You already know the story. He starts off scuffling a bit, then the Red Sox move him to the outfield, and he hurts this ankle so bad that he’s out for the rest of the season. I’ve talked about this before earlier this year, but the question still remains: why? What was the point of making him an outfielder? There was no need to risk a blue-chip catching prospect like that, especially one you foresee as being behind the plate for you for a long, long time. That’s aggravating, to say the least.

It’s gotten to the point where you suspect the Red Sox don’t know what they have in catchers. Take Christian Vazquez, for example. He came on strong early in the season, but when his bat cooled and his defense turned out to be more disappointing than any of us expected, he was sent down on July 4th. Not the result anyone wanted, but an expected move considering the (hopefully temporary) degradation of the skillset.

Then, on August 5th, the Red Sox claim Bryan Holaday off waivers and put him on the 25-man as a reaction to Hanigan going on the disabled list. This is where things get kind of…strange. Holaday has a big arm, but that’s really it, and he’s basically been the personal catcher of Drew Pomeranz for reasons unknown. What’s the point with him, then? If he’s nothing more than a guy who goes out there every fifth day for one specific starter, wouldn’t Vazquez be a more sensible solution? He’s 1. already on your roster, 2. proven to at least be a competent defender, and 3. not a waste of resources, even if it is a seemingly small amount of them. He could also be Pomeranz’s personal catcher, for all intents and purposes. Holaday and Pomeranz had never even played together, so this isn’t like a Jon Lester and David Ross thing, where they liked being their own battery so much that they practically became a package deal. It’s really odd.

Vazquez does everything you got Holaday to do, and didn’t require a waiver claim. If the Red Sox really wanted a non-impactful bat with acceptable defense, even a early-season Vazquez would’ve done better than what we’ve seen from Holaday. It’s simply baffling that he’s still on the roster now, of all times. I get that you want catcher depth, but running three deep is good enough for most teams. You don’t need a fourth.

At this point, we can at least be happy for Sandy Leon’s miraculous step forward, because if he hadn’t, the Red Sox might’ve been stuck with the worst position in the major leagues, productively speaking. The sudden offensive explosion has masked a ton of bad decisions that led to Leon needing to be a key cog. Don’t get me wrong, I love Sandy, but you can’t deny that him being hotter than a supernova for two months made the catcher position seem a lot better than we expected it to be.

All this really makes you wonder if the Red Sox know what they’re doing with their catchers. They’ve completely mishandled their prized prospect, who is now an outfielder due to an overreaction to left field injuries, and claimed a guy who is a slightly worse version of a catcher they already have so they can play him over that very same catcher. It’s not all that understandable, even with the added benefit of hindsight. A lot of these decisions look like kneejerk reactions to temporary problems. Just because Ryan Hanigan’s going to the DL for a bit doesn’t mean you need to go get Holaday and roll him out there, though admittedly it cost little to acquire Holaday. Vazquez already does what he does, and he could use the reps.

The Red Sox’s front office has put together a great team, that much is true. But man, they cannot handle catchers at all, and that might just be the most damning thing you can say about the FO so far this year. Relative to their success, that’s acceptable. But when you lose a prospect for a year because of it, something has to change before heading into 2017.

Photo by Bob DeChiara/USA Today Sports Images