Phillies: Michael Schwimer calls out Andrew Knapp

A name many Phillies fans forgot about threw his two cents into the Phillies catching situation.

Former Phillies pitcher Michael Schwimer, who hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2012, came out swinging against his former team’s backup catcher Andrew Knapp on Twitter.

Schwimer retweeted a Phillies fan account with the impressive stats of Lehigh Valley IronPigs catcher Deivy Grullon and threw Knapp, who has struggled this year, under the bus.

Schwimer, a former 14th round pick out of Virginia, appeared in just 47 games with a 4.62 ERA in Philadelphia back in 2011-12. His Twitter bio lists him as the Founder of JAMBOSpicks.com and CEO of Big League Advance LLC.

Schwimer and Knapp never played together, but it’s interesting to see a guy who hasn’t been with a big league team in years take a random swipe at a guy like Knapp who most people seem to like.

Knapp is hitting just .163 in 55 plate appearances playing behind J.T. Realmuto and he hasn’t had much success when given the opportunity to play over the last three years.

Grullon is hitting .342/.392/.587 with 11 doubles, nine home runs, and 38 RBI through 41 games with the IronPigs. The Phillies decided not to protect him in the Rule 5 Draft, meaning any team could have picked up the 23-year-old Dominican catcher.

While Grullon might be performing better than Knapp he’s better off, in my opinion, playing well in Lehigh Valley and getting consistent at-bats. The Phillies could swap him at the deadline and not have to worry about him getting rusty on the big league bench with Realmuto being (hopefully) the catcher of the future.

Philadelphia could upgrade from Knapp at the trade deadline with a veteran like Alex Avila, Francisco Cervelli, or Martin Maldonado. Bringing up Grullon just to sit and watch would be a waste of his talents considering Realmuto gets the overwhelming majority of playing time.