As they raced to a record-setting 108-win season and a subsequent World Series title, the 2018 Red Sox were an offensive juggernaut.
They were first in runs scored, hits, doubles, total bases, batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage and OPS and ninth in homers.
They had Silver Slugger winners all over the diamond and boasted of having the AL MVP.
The one area where they didn't get much production, however, was at catcher. Collectively, the three Red Sox catchers posted a paltry .533 OPS; by way of comparison, the league average at the position was .677. As a trio, Red Sox receivers batted only .194. The Arizona Diamondbacks were the only other major league team to get a sub-.200 batting average out of their catchers.
It's a given that catchers stress defense first, a philosophy that is endorsed by the organization. But there were times last season when the Red Sox didn't get competitive at-bats from their catchers. For a stretch, they were almost like pitchers at the plate, resulting in automatic outs.
That needs to change.
"I think catching is an area where we can improve the most offensively next year,'' Red Sox hitting instructor Tim Hyers told BostonSportsJournal.com. "And they have it in them.''
Except for brief stretched, that wasn't on display last year. Sandy Leon had a .177/.232./279 slash line. Christian Vazquez was .207/.257/.283 while Blake Swihart was .229/.285/.328.
Certainly, that leaves plenty of room for upgrades.
Keeping in mind that Dave Dombrowski is on record as expecting that one of the three catchers will be traded before Opening Day, we asked Hyers to break down the three.
CHRISTIAN VAZQUEZ
Vazquez hinted at a breakout season in 2017, hitting .290 with a respectable .735 OPS. It was enough to convince the Sox to sign him to a multi-year extension toward the end of spring training. But when the season got underway, Vazquez looked little like the hitter he had been the year before. He rallied some in June, before missing almost two months with a broken finger. He was somewhat better in the postseason.
"I think Christian just needs to continue what he did in the playoff run,'' said Hyers. "He really gained some confidence and found his groove. Mechanically, I think he needs to work on just staying with his legs. I think he just got a little heavy in his body, jumping out with his lower half and that hindered him with his pitch selection. I think in the playoffs, he settled down, staying with back hip and used his legs and use the whole field.
"I think at the beginning, he was trying to do too much and got the body involved. The message to him is: stay within yourself, and keep doing what he did in the playoffs."
SANDY LEON
It's easy to forget now, but Leon actually had a pretty strong first half of the season at the plate. But starting in early July, with Vazquez sidelined and Leon's workload increased, he fell off in a big way. From July 2 until the end of the season, he hit only .117 and struck out in nearly a third of his at-bats.
"When Christian got hurt,'' Hyers said, "Sandy put a lot of pressure on himself. As a coach, just observing, he never said that. But he's a team player who wants to help the team. Maybe he put too much pressure because he felt he had to do more than he was capable of doing and dug himself a hole. With hitters, when things start to spiral down, it's difficult to get out of that.
"I just saw his pitch selection go downhill. The pitches he was swinging at were out of the zone and usually, that's the sign of a hitter trying to force the action instead of staying within himself. I think he's got to settle in on who he is a hitter and seeing the baseball.''
BLAKE SWIHART
If Leon suffered from overwork, Swihart's problem was the opposite -- not getting enough at-bats to keep his swing sharp. And that challenge was made more difficult by the fact that Swihart is a switch-hitter, meaning he has to maintain two separate swings -- in addition to preparing pitchers, catching bullpens and going over opposing scouting reports. He had a .748 OPS from the left side, but just .319 from the right side.
"He needs work on his righthanded swing,'' said Hyers. "I think that got away from him last year. I know that's something he spoke to me (last week) about, something he's really worked on and tried to make a few adjustments righthanded. His swing got longer and he was really around the baseball. In his defense, there weren't really a lot of consistent ABs to help him find that groove righthanded. He's got to help us there and make some adjustments.
"From the left side, we want to make sure that he doesn't get over-aggressive early in the count. He's a fearless guy. I love that competitive nature, but he needs to pick his spots to be aggressive early in the count and not just settle for an average strike. (We want him to) be aggressive with a pitch he can drive, get a pitch he's looking for. He has such good hands lefty and at times, he feels like he can everything. That's a good feeling to have, but not when you're going after pitches that you can't drive.''
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