McAdam: Source - Red Sox seeking starting pitching help as they shop catchers

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Last month, Dave Dombrowski predicted the Red Sox would move one of their three catchers before the start of the regular season, but with the opener just a little more than six weeks away, their trade market remains largely undefined.

Aside from failing to find the proper trade partner, there's uncertainty about which of the trio the Sox will end up dealing.

"I had heard earlier in the winter they were open to trading any of the three,'' one scout said Tuesday.

Others, however, seem convinced that the Red Sox do not want to trade Sandy Leon -- both because of how popular he is with a number of Red Sox veteran pitchers and because he has more value to the Sox than he would on the open market.

That leaves Blake Swihart and Christian Vazquez as the most likely candidates to be dealt. Swihart, the least established of the three, might make the most sense, but other evidence points to Vazquez as perhaps the odd man out. The Arizona Diamondbacks are one team known to have shown a definite interest in Vazquez.

"I can tell you that they would move Vazquez for the right return,'' said an executive with another club who has talked to the Red Sox this winter. "That's the sense that I got.''

Vazquez had a hugely disappointing season after signing a three-year contract extension last spring, regressing offensively while sometimes showing a lack of focus behind the plate, especially in the first half. He rebounded some later in the year and in the postseason, but was still inconsistent.

The fact that Vazquez is signed for the next three years at $13.55 million might make it easier to move him, since the acquiring team would get a catcher at a fixed cost and at reasonable dollars.

Swihart, by contrast, offers athleticism, versatility and perhaps a higher offensive upside. But he's started just 100 games behind the plate in the big leagues and while he showed improvement in 2018, there's still some uncertainty about projecting him as a major league catcher.

A major league source said Dombrowski has let it be known the Sox are seeking young starting pitching in return for either Vazquez or Swihart. The goal would be to get a younger, controllable back-end starter who could provide depth at a time when the Red Sox face some potential big losses to free agency after next season.

Both Chris Sale and Rick Porcello are in the final years of their contracts and while the Red Sox have some promising pitching in their minor league system -- led by Jay Groome (currently recovering from Tommy John surgery last May) and Tanner Houck -- the expectation is that there's little that will be ready to help at the big league level by 2020.

As such, Dombrowski is seeking someone who could help fill out a rotation that would be led by veterans David Price, Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez should the team be unable -- or unwilling -- to retain Sale and Porcello.

The problem with Arizona is the Diamondbacks would appear to lack a young starter to match up with the Sox. Other teams with obvious catching needs (Baltimore, for one) are similarly poorly positioned to make a deal.

"For whatever reason,'' said the executive, "there's not a lot of demand for catching right now.''

While many teams may covet an elite backstop like the recently traded J.T. Realmuto, the lack of top catchers in the game has many teams convinced that they can get by with they have. Or, at the very least, that there are few catchers for whom they would sacrifice major league starting pitching.