Arizona Diamondbacks acquire Blake Swihart

The club just announced that they have acquired Blake Swihart and international bonus pool money for the 2018-19 signing period from the Boston Red Sox for, in exchange for outfielder Marcus Wilson. It’s a re-union of the player with our front office, since GM Mike Hazen and other members of the team would be already familiar with Swihart, a first-round pick (26th overall) by the Red Sox in 2011. He reached the majors in 2015, and has appeared in a total of 203 games since, hitting .255/.314/.365 for an OPS of .679 (OPS+ of 82). The player turned 27 earlier this month. He’ll be arbitration eligible for the first time next season, and is under team control through the end of 2022.

Of course, he’s a catcher. Though Swihart does offer rather more positional flexibility - John Ryan Murphy’s pitching notwithstanding! As well as behind the plate, Blake has started at first, third, left and right-field. So, I guess, if you’re going to have a third catcher, having one who can fill in elsewhere too, perhaps makes a bit more sense. While this move did not require any changes to the D-backs’ 40-man roster, which sits at 40, it does not appear, according to Roster Resource, that Swihart has any minor-league options left. So it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Maybe the team is going to roll with FOUR catchers on the roster going forward. That would be some epic level trolling, right there...