Why would Tampa dump Jaso?
Well, Lueke is not worthless. A dozen months ago, Lueke was being hailed as the savior to the 2011 Mariner bullpen. Tampa didn't DFA Jaso. They traded him for a young bullpen arm with a TON of upside.
Additionally, Tampa has a switch-hitting guy named Lobaton who had a .922 OPS in 60 AAA games during 2011 and threw out 31% of baserunners in Durham. In fact, Lobaton and Chirinos had brief (14 and 19) game tryouts in 2011. Tampa has a number of young catcher options and since they didn't pick up Shoppach's contract, they may be looking to spend money there.
The real key that I see is that they are doing what Atlanta used to do so well. They'd run talent up to the majors, cherry-pick the guys they were willing to spend money on, and trade away the rest (while still having value) to keep the pipeline going.
Tampa's top 2 relievers in 2011 were both age 35. As good as the Rays have done developing starters, they have been light on developing quality bullpen arms from within.
Lueke "could" turn into Brandon League. Jaso isn't going to turn into Victor Martinez.
But, I would say the single most difficult moves that "winning" organizations have to make is on making the call between prospects and opting who to trade away to keep the development pipeline flowing. The typical reality is after developing enough talent to actually win, most organizations (with resources) will pay to retain "too much" of their home grown talent and end up stopping production of new talent AND eventually aging out.
Lueke for Jaso is an unspectacular win-win trade ... assuming Seattle believes it has adequate prospect depth for the bullpen and Tampa believes it has adequate prospect depth for backstop.
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I don't say that John Jaso is a plus catcher. But if the question is, Does John Jaso handle pitchers better than Chris Gimenez and Ryan Doumit do? Then the answer seems to be a resounding YES.
Platooning with Miguel Olivo, catching maybe 60-80 games in a season, John Jaso ought to be a reliable "average-mediocre" behind the plate. And that's saying a lot.
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Q. Why would the Rays dump him?
A. To listen to the fans ... the org is oriented to the bottom half of the inning. They like to stop runs.
Familiarity breeds contempt, and they evidently got tired of bat-first catcher, got tired of watching the SB's. They decided to zig against the hitting catchers' zag.
Nothing to take too seriously. The Red Sox and Yankees have preferred bat-first catchers all along. The Rays got tired of it. That's them.
Probably the M's got tired of Olivo's .135 OBP. Two years from now, they'll get tired of something else (hopefully: watching playoff baseball). We're all human. :- )
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Q. Which pitchers should Jaso catch?
A. We can't say with certainty from here. But obviously Felix and Pineda speak Latin, with Miguel Olivo.
Jaso was the personal catcher of David Price, and that carries 85 kinds of street cred when he works with James Paxton. Maybe with Danny Hultzen also.
Vargas is an unknown. If Jaso did well as the personal catcher of 3-pitch, low-K Jeremy Hellickson, you could assume that Jaso would be comfortable with Vargas.
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Q. Can Eric Wedge get a quick feel for this?
A. Hard to say. SSI didn't like the fact that Wedge gave Gimenez so many starts in 2011, despite Josh Bard being available. But that's a complex situation and Gimenez was a Wedge Loyalist in the clubhouse.
So, I dunno. Wait and see. Eric Wedge has some reeaaaaallllllll managing to do, as he deploys Olivo and Jaso game to game. A season can pivot around invisible battles like this one.
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Comments
... that Tampa might otherwise have been fine with Jaso, but saw a chance to pick up an arm they are in love with.
Not at all farfetched; Lueke has frequently been discussed as future closer or elite setup man.
And we certainly hope there's substance to it :- )
A "veteran presence" he is.
Help with the bat he is not.
Looks like they have two other guys in the org they like just as much as Jaso (see linked blogpost). (They don't look nearly as impressive to me, but maybe that's just me.)