The quote posted didn't say he wasn't ready. It said his throwing was a tick down.
I'm with you. Has everyone forgotten what a good feeling it was having Vasquez behind the plate? Swihart did an admirable job in a really tight spot last year, and showed improvement through the season, but let's not pretend he's ever looked completely ready behind the plate, or that his second half wasn't fueled by the upper reaches BABiP.
I don't understand either how everyone is forgetting this. The Vaz v Swihart discussion of fit will always be fascinating, but Vaz was MLB ready prior to TJ and being in Pawtucket was a "rehab" assignment. It was well accepted everywhere that Swihart wasn't close to defensively ready when called up last year and it's I think only barely arguable that his catching can only improve at the MLB level.
Yeah, if Swihart goes down before Monday (and stays down) the team gets another year of control. That's potentially valuable in trade equity or to the team down the line. Obviously it's not so valuable that extended sucking by Vazquez or an injury or something should keep Swihart down, but it's not ridiculous to keep your options open for at least a little while.
Where I find it a "panic" move is in the fact that they broke camp with Swihart at all if the desire was to move Vazquez into the starting role ASAP. My assumption was that Vazquez began the year on the DL and in Pawtucket because there were concerns that he (and specifically his arm) wasn't ready to handle the rigors of full time play. I'm not sure 12 days is enough time to decide that he's now ready.
It was also in a Nick Cafardo
Not sure your scenario doesn't match mine. They were concerned about his arm to ensure he was ready for the rigors of full time play so they put Vaz on the DL like any responsible team and kept the kid up to warm his seat until ready.
I would assume DD and the team have better iNsight to his readiness than you and I.
I fully understand the reason they started him on the DL and in Pawtucket...I had no problem with it at the time. What I'm not seeing is how a 10 day stint in Pawtucket was enough to alleviate their concerns. That short a "rehab" indicates to me that either the 10 day period wasn't necessary and he could have/should have been on the MLB roster from the start (he was playing in spring training so it's not as though he needed to play to get timing down or something) or they grew impatient and are rushing him back for whatever reason.
11 days, or just short of a 15-day DL stint. That could very easily be enough time to see what they wanted to see, coupled nicely with Swihart's service time.
It seems pretty clear to me that they wanted to make sure he could handle the rigors of playing several days in a row. He played five straight days, taking him to the 12th. They evaluate him on the 13th, the major league staff discusses it on the 14th, and the next major league game is on the 15th and he's here. It's not really that complicated.
Exactly, he also had that minor setback in spring training which made it difficult to break camp. So in AAA, not only did they get to see him catch several days in a row, but the full 9 innings several days in a row. While it doesn't seem like he was in Pawtucket long, that stretch was more important than spring training where catchers rarely catch a full game.
Until the end of the season, or whenever we trade him and it becomes the destination team's problem. It's not entirely likely, but if things are relatively close otherwise then it's not a horrible idea to keep that option available at least for a little while.
And Tito.
Basically, yeah. I'm trying to figure out b-ref's service time accounting; if I did my math right, he had 156 days of service time coming into this season and has used 11ish this year. So he's at 167ish.
I agree and don't presume to know. Just my thoughts on where the "panic" narrative is coming from.
Absolutely reasonable. He built up a bit slower than the rest of the team during spring training and was really only getting to full speed by the end of it. Not that the organization owes anyone an explanation, but the Boston media is bloodthirsty (they're 4-4 and somehow it's already the end of the world) and getting out in front of this one may have saved them some grief.
Exactly. Said the same thing in the framing thread. The plan was not to have Swihart up last year but injuries to CV and RH made it necessary. The sox are just getting him back on his original development plan.
Exactly. Why does he need to learn LF? What has he demonstrated behind the plate that is so poor that they would think to possibly move him to another position?
This is the same FO that just kept Rusney Castillo in the majors for two weeks for no reason and wants Swihart to start playing LF in AAA.
