McAdam: Blake Swihart tunes out the noise while waiting to hear about his future

LAKELAND, Fla. -- The clock is ticking, the time fast approaching: sometime before the regular season opener in Seattle, two weeks from Thursday, the Red Sox will almost certainly trade a catcher.

President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski stated that was his goal back in January. The challenges of carrying three catchers on a 25-man roster are just too great and restrictive for the Sox to do again for a second straight season.

So, to alleviate the roster crunch, one of the Sox' catchers will go: Sandy Leon, Christian Vazquez or Blake Swihart.

Given that Leon is a favorite of the veteran starters and Vazquez is signed for the next three seasons, it seems a given that Swihart will be the odd-man-out. Indeed, a baseball source said last week that the Kansas City Royals had expressed an interest in obtaining Swihart before signing free agent Martin Maldonado.

Swihart's relative lack of catching experience at the major league level could make it difficult for the Sox to rely on as a backup, and while his offensive ceiling is greater than the other two catching candidates.

For now, Swihart goes about his business. On Wednesday, the switch-hitter swatted doubles from both sides of the plate and he entered play Thursday with a robus .414 (7-for-17). He's focused on his at-bats, his catching responsibilities and ignoring all the rest.

"I'm trying not to even think about (the trade talk),'' said Swihart. "I'm just going out, playing the game when I'm in the lineup. I'm still here, so my focus is still here.''

In the era of social media, where rumors and speculation run rampant and are easily found online, that can be more difficult than it seems. But Swihart has learned to block out such talk, even if the possibility of being sent elsewhere is, by definition, always there.

"You try not to think about it,'' he conceded. "You don't dwell on it. At the end of the day, I'm still here. I'm focused on what I have to do. Whatever happens, happens. For now, we're in the situation we're in, so I just focus on that and control what I can control.''

Until his fate his determined, Swihart is intent no making the most of his playing opportunities, knowing that every start is a chance to prove his worth -- either to the Red Sox or to a team which might be interested in dealing for him.

The three catchers have bonded since the start of last year, pushing and helping one another to get better. But the likelihood that a trade could send one of them packing in the next two weeks isn't directly referenced.

"We're close and we always have been,'' Swihart said. "We support each other and we understand how baseball works. We just go out there and we're still brothers at the end of the day.''

Ironically, though he's the least experienced of the three, Swihart has a longer tenure than Leon, having been drafted out of high school in the first round of the 2011 draft. Having not caught much until his junior year of high school, Swihart needed additional development time to learn the position, especially given the responsibilities that come with catching.

The Red Sox are the only organization that Swihart has ever known and it would be hard for him to leave, especially in the middle of what has already been a trying spring following the death of his brother earlier this month.

Given his long association with the Sox, the specter of being part of another organization is completely foreign.

"That's a hard question that I don't have an answer to, because I've never been anywhere else,'' he said. "This is all I've known and I don't know what it would be like if it were to happen. So I'm not going to think about it right now. If I do experience, I'll have an answer for you then. But right now, I don't.''

The lone bright spot to a deal, he acknowledges, would be the promise of more playing time. If he's one of two catchers elsewhere, he'll have more time in the lineup.

"At the end of the day, I want to play,'' he said. "That's what every player wants to do. If a team wants to trade for you, that meant they want you. If a team doesn't want to trade you, it means they want you. Either way, you feel pretty wanted.

Until there's a resolution, he'll continue to avoid sites like MLBTradeRumors.com, where speculation could only ramp up his anxiety.

"I don't look at any of that,'' he said with a smile. "I'm sure my parents look at stuff like that, but they know enough not to talk to me about any of that. I've made that clear in the past. I've been in every trade rumor since the day I was drafted, so that doesn't even bother me anymore.

"It's nonsense to worry about it and think about it when you can't control it. All you can control is how you play. There's no reason to go online and stress myself out about nothing. I'd rather be in the moment and be there for my teammates.''

For now, at least.