Adding Another Catcher

The Bucs pulled off a trade today to acquire catcher Chris Snyder and a minor league infielder, for DJ Carassco, Ryan Church, and Bobby Crosby. The D-Backs will be sending along $3 million to the Bucs to help in balancing the contract.

This trade makes a good deal of sense for the Bucs as they get rid of a few players that were not doing anything, Church and Crosby, in making a deal for a player that will help them with a problem position in catcher. Snyder is not going to light the world on fire with his bat, but is passable. It is more important the work he does behind the plate, something that Doumit has always struggled with.

The part of the trade that has got me thinking though is all the domino effects from the deal. Coming up to replace Church and Crosby are Jeff Clement and Argenis Diaz. I would not expect either to play all that much, which is not surprising with Diaz, but this could signal a change in thinking of what Clement is. He may now be seen as a bench player and no longer a part of the lineup. Another question is would Clement have even gotten the call if Steve Pearce were available?

Also confusing is the news that Doumit is going to mainly play outfield. We all saw earlier this year the disaster that was the first base experiment, so there is not a ton of hope with the this news. Making matters perhaps even worse is that Doumit will more than likely play RF at PNC, where Lastings Milledge resides. Even with the adventures that Lastings provides in the outfield, they would probably pale to what Doumit would do. In addition, who should be playing more daily, Doumit or Milledge?

Perhaps the final piece of the puzzle, is that next season the Bucs will be committed to almost $11 million between Doumit and Snyder. I don't think that the team will want to head into the season next year with that type of money being spent on those two. My guess is that the club would ideally only want one of them here next season, how that will happen remains to be seen.