Still, Swihart understood the implications. Vazquez’s absence may hasten the time frame for him to reach the big leagues.

“I love the guy to death. It’s horrible,” said Swihart. “Right before I left spring training, I went and gave him a big hug, told him I’d see him soon. He’s a competitor and he’s going to come back probably better than he was before.”

Blake Swihart’s stomach sank when he learned that Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez would miss the 2015 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Swihart has already demonstrated maturity in how he approaches his career. He recognized that there was little to be gained last offseason by paying heed if his name crept into trade rumors, and in similar fashion, he tuned out the noise about whether he might be a consideration for the big leagues with Vazquez out.


“That’s ultimately [the front office’s] decision,” Swihart said. “I didn’t really know what was going to happen. I just went about my business like I normally do and stayed focused.”

Swihart, a switch-hitter, is off to a strong start in Pawtucket, hitting .304 through 11 games and making hard contact more frequently than he did during his 18-game stint in Triple A last season.

“Last year, when I came up, I was more worried about learning the new pitching staff rather than hitting,” said Swihart. “I didn’t care what I did hitting.”

That focus was sensible, given that Swihart’s defensive development likely will dictate his timetable for graduating to regular big league playing time.

Sox catching coordinator Chad Epperson said Swihart — who had a very limited catching background in high school — is now in the advanced stages of his minor league apprenticeship. Swihart’s focus is on “attention to detail and the small things,” said Epperson, as he tries to progress in his game-calling.


The Sox used to wait until Triple A to introduce game-calling to their catchers. Now, the team starts to incorporate that element in a player’s first full season, so Swihart represents one of the first Sox catchers to navigate the entire minor league system with game-calling on his plate.

“Game-calling is important. I don’t think it’s something we need to wait for,” said Epperson. “We’re not waiting to Triple A to check it off.”

Perhaps because of that approach, Epperson sees Swihart as nearing big league readiness. The improvements he’s made even since his promotion to Pawtucket at the end of last season are evident.

“He’s more advanced than he was last September right now,” said Epperson. “I think that the organization would feel comfortable with him behind the plate. I think we’re not in a position where we have to do that right now. I think it’s more important for us to have him [in Triple A], continuing to get his reps.

“We’re not talking about a kid who caught all through high school and came through [the minors]. It’s still new to him and he’s still learning new things. I think second year in big league camp, coming back [to Pawtucket] after getting a little taste of Triple A last year, only makes his résumé stronger for when he does [go up].”

High praise for lefty

It finally happened. In his eighth start since the Red Sox acquired him from the Orioles at last year’s trade deadline, lefthander Eduardo Rodriguez finally gave up more than one earned run, permitting three runs (two earned) in six innings last Saturday for Pawtucket.


Still, one AL evaluator came away from that game impressed after seeing a plus fastball in the mid-’90s, a changeup that could generate swings and misses, and a slider that shows the action to be an above-average pitch once Rodriguez sharpens his command. The evaluator raved about Rodriguez’s mound presence, saying that scouting chatter during the outing compared Rodriguez’s demeanor to that of elite big league lefthanders.

PawSox catcher Humberto Quintero, who has played with star pitchers such as Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, Felix Hernandez, Roger Clemens, and Roy Oswalt, cited a former Red Sox rival as a point of comparison for Rodriguez.

“Andy Pettitte, but the only thing is, Andy Pettitte threw, like, 90,” said Quintero, who caught Pettitte in Houston a decade ago. “[Rodriguez] throws kind of like him, where the ball moves a lot, and he’s got a good changeup and good slider. He’s really good. He’s going to do well.”

Quintero feels that Rodriguez could enjoy immediate success in the big leagues.

“He’s getting very close. He has to work on his command a little bit, but right now, he could pitch in the big leagues,” said Quintero. “He’s ready, I think.”

No rush on Moncada

Red Sox farm director Ben Crockett said there is “no specific plan” as to when Cuban signee Yoan Moncada will leave extended spring training in Fort Myers to join Single A Greenville.


Crockett said Moncada was a bit more than a month behind other players in starting his spring training, and so it’s taken time for him “to get in the rhythm of his at-bats.”

Moncada is making progress on that front, after having been somewhat passive while reacclimating to the strike zone. The Sox feel that he’s performed well in extended spring, but for now think he can keep benefiting from the routine of being in Fort Myers (without long road trips) and the team’s cultural education programs that will help him acclimate to life in the States.

Tweaks paying off

A year ago, in two levels of Single A, Pat Light averaged 5.2 strikeouts per nine innings. This year, after a move to the bullpen, he’s more than doubled that rate to 11.0 with Double A Portland. Crockett said that Light’s fastball velocity has been largely the same as it was as a starter — around 94 m.p.h., topping out at 97-98 — but the pitch “is playing very differently than it did previously.” That improvement is a product of some mechanical tweaks he’s made to improve his direction to the plate and generate some deception, as well as the reintroduction of a splitter that Light used as an out pitch in college. The result has been a spike in Light’s swing-and-miss rate, and the early signs of a potential impact reliever . . . Righthander Ty Buttrey is 1-0 with a 3.18 ERA through three starts with Greenville, and the 22-year-old has 15 strikeouts against just one walk in 17 innings. Numerous team officials have said Buttrey’s stuff has been the best they’ve ever seen it, creating the possibility of an early-season promotion to high A Salem . . . Lefthander Trey Ball became the second Salem pitcher this season to throw six no-hit innings. Crockett said Ball’s changeup and curveball have made considerable progress from this time a year ago, when the 2013 first-rounder struggled through the first half of his first full pro season.


Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him on twitter at @alexspeier.