The Blue
Jays 40-man roster, once the trade is approved, will consist of 4 catchers that
arguably could all be on major league rosters. J.P. Arencibia, John Buck, and young,
highly touted prospect, Travis d’Arnaud should be starters in professional
baseball, although some might argue Travis belongs in AAA because of his injury last
year. Bobby Wilson is also on the 40-man, but he’s an above average fielding
catcher who hasn’t been able to establish his bat at the major league level.
Nevertheless, Wilson
is a legitimate back up who can catch a game per week to give the starter a rest,
without a brutal falloff. A major league club truly only needs 2 catchers, and
to be frank, a major league club would have to be completely ignorant to keep
more than 2 because of the value they hold caused by the rarity of legitimately
good catchers.
With that
being said, Alex Anthopoulos will probably take calls from many teams
interested in acquiring a major league catcher. The teams interested:
Texas Rangers:
Unlike the other possible trading partners,
the Rangers did have a better than league average catcher in 2012, but with Mike
Napoli most likely moving out of town, the Texas Rangers will be in the market
for a catcher.
The Rangers
will probably find Arencibia the most intriguing of the Blue Jays catchers, and
not because they’re looking for the best catcher from Toronto—that’d be Travis D’arnaud. If the
Rangers are at all interested in acquiring Travis from the Blue Jays, it would
cost them Jurickson Profar. Jurickson is an untouchable for Texas, so the idea of trading for D’arnaud
seems infeasible. I also don’t foresee Texas
“cheeping out” and acquiring Buck rather than Arencibia because Buck has been
terribly inconsistent, and less than lackluster since his move from Toronto after the 2010
season.
Conclusion:
The Blue
Jays would want Matt Harrison from Texas
in exchange for Arencibia, but a Holland-Arencibia swap seems more likely.
New
York Mets
The Major League
average SLG% out of the catcher position last year was .400, and the second
worst percentage from catchers on a team came from the Rays at .322. And then
there is the Mets… their catchers slugged to a TOTAL of .285, and
played to a negative WAR. With no catcher-in-waiting in the system, you have to
believe the Mets will make a call to the Alex and the Blue Jays with regards to
a catcher.
With the
position the Mets are in, not quite ready to contend, you would believe they’d
be willing to take a risk on John Buck—hoping he returns to 2010 form. Or are
the Mets tired of pitiful performance from the position and ready to make a big
statement. I don’t know if Alex is willing to part ways with D’arnaud to the
Mets, but if he is it’d take at least Zack Wheeler, and would somehow involve
Ike Davis coming back as well. Although Buck would be worth a shot, I think
that just like the Rangers, the Mets would show the most interest in Arencibia,
because you know what you’re getting: a 20 HR guy with a mid-low .200’s
batting average, and he’d come much cheaper than D’arnaud.
Conclusion:
Jonathon Niese would be considered fair value for Arencibia, but the Mets may not want
to trade away their recently signed starter. A deal could ultimately be formed
around a Davis-Arencibia swap.
Pittsburgh Pirates:
Although they have a prospect by the name of Wyatt
Mathisen they still need a catcher if they seriously want to contend, because
Mathisen is a long way away from the Majors and may never make it as a catcher,
or at all. The Pirates catchers in 2012 were not good, which was to be expected from them.
The Pirates
have been completely reluctant to trade Jameson Taillon or Gerrit Cole from day one. With that
being said, d’Arnaud is out of the question. The last thing the Pirates would
want is to acquire a catcher, only for him to perform no better than their
catchers of 2012, saying that I don’t see them being interested in Buck.
Arencibia is a different story, although Pittsburgh doesn’t match up perfectly, Pittsburgh does have one player with similar value that would upgrade a position that was
already upgraded this offseason—twice. Although the Blue Jays have already
acquired Emilio Bonifacio and Maicer Izturis this
fall, adding a legitimate starting second baseman that could be an allstar,
would not only make Toronto's bench very good, it would add depth to the line
up.
Conclusion:
With the
emergence of Brock Holt at second base, a traded based upon Neil Walker and J.P
Arencibia seems feasible.
Who do you think should be traded?Leave your comments below.
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