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The 6-11 Boston Red Sox are suffering a little bit of a championship hangover. While a slow start in April isn’t a huge deal, having a -32 run differential is not great. The number one reason why the Red Sox have struggled is from having poor pitching. Marcus Walden leads the team in wins and he was just sent down to AAA. No starter has more than one win. The biggest reason why the pitching has struggled starts and ends with Blake Swihart. Well, we have some good news. Swihart has been designated for assignment.

Sandy Leon is coming back which means the road to repeat is back on. Designating Swihart to bring back Leon is 100 percent the right call.

Thank you for listening to me Dave pic.twitter.com/2sPQAbVSAI
— Trey Daubert (@treydaubert) April 16, 2019

To answer brain dead, Bill Simmons. Leon was the 7th best pitch framer in baseball last year creating more strikes. Vazquez is 12th which is why I like him too. Swihart in 203 career games is a -6.6 fielding runs above average. Keeping Blake at the start was the dumb decision. pic.twitter.com/nLYmafVUQe
— Trey Daubert (@treydaubert) April 16, 2019

If you have a brain, you know that you can’t put a price tag on the veteran defensive laden catcher. They are priceless and mean a hell of a lot more than the average fan has been led to believe. When the Red Sox have won World Series titles, it came at the hands of Jason Varitek, David Ross, and Sandy Leon. All three terrific leaders and highly rated defensive catchers. It’s game calling, pitch framing, and pitch sequence. Pitching and defense comes before offense. If you can’t pitch, you can’t win. Leon will automatically solve a lot of pitching struggles just by being behind the plate.

Still don’t believe me? Leon started 89 games last year. He led all catchers in catcher ERA – 3.29. He also caught 9 shutouts and the Red Sox went 55-23 in games he caught a year ago.

Let’s also stop pretending like Swihart is this all world hitter. He’s hitting just .231 in 12 games this year. Since 2017, he’s never hit better than that. So stop with the, oh well you can’t give up on such a good hitter. Swihart is a bad defender. End of story. You can’t have a bad defender behind the plate. It’s not a recipe for success.

What Should The Red Sox Do With Blake Swihart?

Mark my words, the Red Sox pitching staff will improve. Save this article, the price of a defensive catcher can’t be replaced. Bringing Sandy Leon back will save the Red Sox season. Chris Sale gets his Doug Mirabelli back. This is the mark of what makes a good general manager. Recognize your mistake early, admit you were wrong, and fix it. Thank you for listening to me, Dave Dombrowski.

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