He may no longer be viewed as the top catching prospect in the Red Sox’ farm system, but the 2023 season was still a productive one for Nathan Hickey.

Hickey, Boston’s fifth-round selection in the 2021 amateur draft, came into 2023 ranked by Baseball America as the No. 15 prospect in the organization after producing a .936 OPS in 75 games between Low-A Salem and High-A Greenville the year prior. The Florida product returned to Greenville for the start of his second full professional season last spring but his stay there was short-lived.

In just 18 games with the Drive, Hickey batted a stout .294/.402/.588 with six doubles, one triple, four home runs, nine RBIs, 13 runs scored, 12 walks, and 20 strikeouts over 82 plate appearances. The left-handed hitting 24-year-old then received a promotion to Double-A Portland alongside infielder Chase Meidroth in early May.

Though his production dipped somewhat, Hickey still slashed .258/.352/.474 with 18 doubles, 15 homers, 56 runs driven in, 49 runs scored, three stolen bases, 40 walks, and 91 strikeouts in 80 games (335 plate appearances) for the Sea Dogs. Among the 75 hitters who made at least 300 trips to the plate in the Eastern League last year, Hickey ranked 29th in walk rate (11.9 percent), 20th in batting average, 23rd in on-base percentage, 10th in slugging percentage, ninth in OPS (.826), 10th in isolated power (.216), 32nd in line-drive rate (19.9 percent), 28th in swinging-strike rate (11.1 percent), and seventh in wRC+ (127), per FanGraphs.

On the heels of earning Eastern League All-Star honors, Hickey headed out west with a contingent of eight other Red Sox prospects to play in the Arizona Fall League. The lone catcher in that group, Hickey appeared in 16 games for the Glendale Desert Dogs, going 10-for-55 (.182) with one double, one RBI, five runs scored, 15 walks, and 24 strikeouts. He finished in a two-way tie for the team lead in walks while putting up the fourth-highest on-base percentage.

Defensively, Hickey saw the majority of his playing time at all three of his stops last year come at catcher. Between Greenville and Portland, the 5-foot-11, 210-pound backstop logged 646 innings behind the plate, but only managed to throw out 10 of 139 potential base stealers while allowing seven passed balls and committing 12 errors. In the AFL, he gunned down three of 21 would-be base stealers while splitting reps with the Mets’ Kevin Parada and the Twins’ Andrew Cossetti.

To that end, it remains to be seen if Hickey will be able to stick behind the plate moving forward. The questions regarding his future position became even more prevalent after the Red Sox selected Kyle Teel, who has quickly emerged as one of baseball’s top catching prospects, with the 14th overall pick in the 2023 draft.

Brian Abraham, Boston’s director of player development, was asked about that in a conversation with The Athletic’s Chad Jennings earlier this month. Abraham acknowledged that: “We definitely have had some conversations with Nathan, before even Kyle Teel was here, about seeing him elsewhere.”

Hickey, a native of Jacksonville, grew up as an infielder. Before assuming full-time catching responsibilities at Florida, he also played a little first and third base in his time with the Gators. The Red Sox, according to Abraham, still plan on having Hickey catch “quite a bit” this upcoming season, but first base — and possibly other positions — are on the table as well.

“Being athletic behind the plate will allow him to be athletic at another position, whether that’s first base or elsewhere,” Abraham told Jennings. “And really, the bat is his driver. The bat is what’s going to allow him to have success in the big leagues. So, for us, it’s imperative to find the place for him with the ability he has to impact the baseball.”

Hickey, for his part, has embraced “the challenge of his position and plays with an edge to prove doubters wrong,” per his Baseball America scouting report from last February. He was also able to work with Sea Dogs manager Chad Epperson, who previously served as Boston’s catching coordinator for 12 years, after being promoted to Portland.

“I want to improve on being able to keep strikes strikes and just be able to gain some strikes,” Hickey told MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith back in August. “And I want to be able to control the pitching staff, which I feel like this year compared to last year, I’ve done a lot better job this year of being able to control the starters and the relievers and the new guys coming in. Just being able to be more all-around as a catcher rather than just be good at one thing.”

Hickey, who — like Teel — participated in the Red Sox’ recent rookie development program, is projected by SoxProspects.com to return to Portland for the start of the 2024 campaign. As he explained to Smith, Hickey would prefer to catch long-term, but he understand that the decision is not necessarily be in his control.

“If they were like, ‘Hey, we’re going to put you at second,’ I would 100 percent try to be the best second baseman that I could be,” Hickey said. “It’s more I want to catch in Boston because Boston is top tier of baseball — of any org in MLB. I want to be able to just help the team win but I want to be able to catch in Boston.”

(Picture of Nathan Hickey: Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)