Prospect Profile - Blake Swihart

(Source: Elsa/Getty Images North America)

Name: Blake Aubrey Swihart
Born: April 3, 1992
Height: 6'1" Weight: 175 lbs 
Birthplace: Bedford, Texas
High School: V. Sue Cleveland High School - Rio Rancho, New Mexico
Drafted: Boston Red Sox: 1st Round - 2011 MLB June Amateur Draft

Blake Swihart is currently listed as the #1 prospect in the Boston Red Sox organization by SoxProspects.com, and believed by many to be the starting catcher of the future for the Red Sox despite a strong performance by rookie Christian Vazquez in 2014.

The Texas native owns a career batting line of .284/.338/.431 with 22 home runs and 159 runs batted in, and has thrown out an impressive 38% of attempted base stealers (58 of  154) in 307 MiLB games.

He began the 2014 season with the AA Portland Sea Dogs, where he hit .300/.353/.487 while launching 12 homers and driving in 55 runs.

 

The 22-year old switch hitter managed to post his impressive offensive numbers all while throwing out 31 of 59 attempted base stealers (47.5%) to lead the Eastern League.
 
It was also in AA Portland where Swihart began building a rapport with Boston's top pitching prospect, Henry Owens.

That relationship would carry over to AAA Pawtucket when both were promoted later in the season:
 

Swihart would appear in 18 games for Pawtucket Red Sox to finish 2015, and owned a  .261/.282/.377 line with one long ball and 9 runs batted in.

"He's not afraid to take charge," said PawSox manager Kevin Boles. "Just the pace and tempo and watching him throw between innings, watching him bounce around. He's just a high-energy kid, and I like his athleticism behind the plate. Presents the ball very well. Showed coverage, gained ground when blocking. He does a lot of things well."

On September 5, Swihart plated the go-ahead run in the seventh inning against the Syracuse Chiefs to send the PawSox to the Governor's Cup Finals: 

"We just have fun with it," Swihart said after the big win. "It's a good group of guys, a lot of team chemistry. Being a part of the Red Sox organization, it's win, win, win."

Pawtucket would go on to defeat the Durham Bulls for the Governor's Cup trophy. 

Even with the success he's had in the early part of his career, Swihart still believes he has a long way to go.

"Overall [I need to] get a little better each year," says Swihart. "Improve on something, improve your overall game, improve how well of a teammate you are, how well of a leader I am. Just go out there and improve everywhere I can -- we'll see what happens. I've just got to go out and play like I know I can play no matter where I'm at and just focus on that at that time."

Although he feels as though he has much more to learn, Swihart has been observing Christian Vazquez's similar path to the majors very closely, and it should come as no surprise to anyone if we see Swihart in the majors sooner rather than later.