Blake Swihart was optioned to Triple A and in his place is the returning Christian Vazquez. Remember, Vazquez was the starting catcher at the end of 2014 and only lost his job due to injury. His cannon arm is healed and Sox pitchers such as Buchholz and Kelly remember his game calling from 2014. Swihart isn't much of a game manager and his defense has been shoddy so far, not to mention he isn't lighting it up at the plate. Swihart did a heck of a job last year down the stretch, but he's going through a sophomore slump that Bogaerts went through in 2014. He's young, so he'll have time to come back.
Also sent down was Rusney Castillo. Dombrowski and Farrell both said he needs at-bats and with Holt, Bradley and Betts contrbuting, those at-bats would be hard to come by. Chris Young is going to be their platoon guy so Castillo is the odd man out. He's yet to live up to his 72 million dollar contract but that can be chalked up to a bevy of Ben Cherrington mistakes. Still, if you're a Gulf Coast Red Sox or Pawtucket Red Sox fan, Castillo helping both win their league titles in 2014 was fun...but not worth 72 million dollars.
In their places are Josh Rutledge, Vazquez and 23 year old Marco Hernandez. Hernandez was picked up in a trade with the Chicago Cubs at the end of the 2014 season. Who knows how long Rutledge and Hernandez will last but Vazquez looks like he's here to stay. Vazquez will nullify half of the Tampa Bay Rays offense by himself. We'll see how this turns out.
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