Do you actually believe this? You can make the argument they should have traded him when his value was high, but do you think they are directly responsible for his failure to develop as a player? We get caught up in prospect hoopla sometimes. Swihart did end up in the top 20 on 3 lists after 1 great season but that's all it was. He falls into the category of WMB/JBJ in that the results didn't really match the hype. He was ranked higher than the other 2 but mostly because he played C. The guys best season to date is an .810 OPS during his age 22 season. He wasn't some world beater.
If Swihart is that mentally fragile that a move to the OF or being sent down in 2016 broke his spirit, he was never going to survive in the big show anyway. Plus people seem to forget his catching ability was already in question to begin with. He's not exactly Ryan Lavarnway but he isn't Vazquez either. Prospects bust all the time, sometimes even after great rookie seasons.
If anything derailed him, it was injuries. Crying about the OF experiment is stupid since players literally move to new positions all the time without a hitch. Sometimes injuries happen. I know you follow the minor league system at least in passing. I know you followed it much more closely in the past. You know how often players move positions so I hope that isn't your gripe.
No, the thing that derailed Swihart most was Farrell not giving him a real opportunity in 2016. DDski appears to have been a believer in Swihart's bat, which best explains why the position switch happened. But Farrell -- likely with the support of some starters on the pitching staff -- wouldn't play him behind the plate once Vazquez got healthy. And it's true, he wasn't as good a defensive catcher, even though his offensive potential was off the charts higher.
Comparing Swihart to JBJ is actually highly appropriate, because if DDski hadn't been hired as already a huge booster who had tried to acquire him for Detroit, JBJ would also have kept the "bust" label and probably would have gotten traded for a middle reliever, instead of continuing to develop into a 3+ WAR regular CF on an MLB team with championship aspirations. As a reminder, Farrell played Victorino as well as Craig, de Aza, and Castillo in RF over giving Bradley an extended call up from AAA.
However, Swihart didn't get the chance to catch to develop at the MLB level the way JBJ did. He was bounced after earning the starter's job with his good rookie performance in 2015, then got hurt. Now, as I feared when I first saw the ankle injury, he isn't a viable catching prospect, even if given an opportunity.
Which at root, was the problem about converting him to begin with. Not because he might, and did, get hurt; but because the whole stupid experiment took away from him developing as a catcher. Now, predictably, it's too late to salvage the potential that was exhibited when he was 23 and learning to hit at the MLB level as well as to catch.