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BOSTON -- When Ryan Hanigan was a senior at Andover High, he played on a Massachusetts high school all-star team with Rick Asadoorian, a Worcester native and star at Northbridge High. Asadoorian, the hot prospect at the time, was drafted in the first round by the Red Sox in 1999. Hanigan wasn't drafted. He wasn't drafted out of Rollins (Fla.) College, either. He played in the Cape Cod League, but the hometown Sox showed no interest. The Cincinnati Reds did, and signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2002. In 2006, coincidentally, he and Asadoorian were teammates again, on Cincinnati's Double-A team in Chattanooga. A year later, Hanigan was in the big leagues. And on Saturday afternoon, after being traded twice in the span of 24 hours, he was on a media conference call with Boston Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington, being introduced as the team's newest catcher.  Hanigan is 34 now, but maybe that makes coming home even more special. His family, he said, was "ecstatic." His cellphone? "Going nuts."
"I grew up here -- my parents, my sister all still live here," Hanigan said Saturday. "A bunch of nieces and nephews in the area. I grew up watching the Red Sox, you can't around here not. That's the team, we're die-hard growing up. All my nieces and nephews were a little bit jaded throughout the years wearing Cincinnati and Tampa Bay uniforms, and now they're pumped they can rock the Red Sox stuff with pride. I'm looking forward to it. It's a prideful thing for me to be in the area to play for this team and it's a great opportunity." Cherington said the Sox had inquired about Hanigan last winter but did not match up with the Reds, who traded him to the Rays while the Sox signed A.J. Pierzynski. This offseason, the Sox were still negotiating with David Ross to return as backup catcher to Christian Vazquez until the past couple of days, when new Padres GM A.J. Preller called and said San Diego was about to acquire Hanigan and asked whether the Sox would be interested. Preller had been talking off and on with the Sox for third baseman Will Middlebrooks, and in Hanigan, he now had the piece that Cherington would take in exchange. Ross, meanwhile, came to terms on a two-year, $5 million deal with the Cubs. "When we think about Vazquez being one catcher and who that second catcher would be, what criteria would we be looking for, we feel like Ryan checks just about all the boxes," Cherington said. "Very good defender, game-caller, really well respected, gives a tough at-bat, certainly capable of playing a lot, has played a lot in certain seasons. "It wouldn't have mattered to us, the fact that he is from the area, but obviously that's a nice bonus. Once we had a chance to get Ryan, it just came together fairly quickly." Hanigan, who shared catching duties in Cincinnati, where he served as personal catcher first to Bronson Arroyo and then to ace Johnny Cueto, was expected to assume the majority of the catching load for the Rays last season. But for the second straight season, he served two stints on the DL, hamstring and oblique injuries limiting him to just 84 games for Tampa Bay. He posted a .218/.318/.324/.642 slash line, well below his career numbers of .256/.353/.341/.694. Hanigan said he has taken steps in his training to try and prevent injuries, and did not sound like a man who plans to come to spring training conceding the top spot to Vazquez. Given his outstanding reputation defensively, which includes throwing out runners at 38 percent while excelling at pitch blocking and framing, it's conceivable that he and Vazquez could wind up splitting the catching down the middle. It shouldn't be ruled out that whichever catcher hits might get the majority of playing time. Hanigan is signed through 2016 with an option for 2017, hardly the norm for a straight backup. "For me, from where I'm coming from, I want to play as much as I can, obviously," Hanigan said. "I have a lot of confidence in my game and what I can bring. Like I said, I'm happy to be a part of this team. I just want to win. Whatever role that is for me, it's all good. "I'm definitely looking forward to working with you guys, with the staff and getting to know these pitchers and trying to take it to the next level with them all and know them all a little bit better. That's my job and I take a lot of pride in that. You have to be healthy on the field as often as possible to be able to really do that job to the best of your abilities. I've spent a lot of time this winter trying to get myself to where I can be the guy that I want to be and catch as many games as I did, say, in 2012 or 2011 or whatever, and get to where I can really get rolling."
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