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Or DH. Right-handed first basemen are disliked for a reason, and a RH, intermediate-power 1B in Safeco is not what any doctor ordered.
If Zunino had a guaranteed major-league 1B bat AND was catching, I'd be all up over that. He's far more like a Charles Johnson hopeful to me. Which is nothing to sneeze at by any means - Johnson was a 20+ WAR player for his career - but I wouldn't let him play first. It would require him to get to all kinds of upside with the lumber, and if I think his upside is Johnson then that means taking a risk that he slots in at something like Rod Barajas if he doesn't hit that upside. I think Zunino will catch a while in the bigs, that's not it - I just don't see him as a Posey-level hitter.
CJ Cron was a C/1B, and a righty, but nobody wanted to draft him first overall (went 17th to the Angels). Comparing dead-bat numbers:
Cron 2011: .434/.517/.803, 1.5 batting eye
Zunino 2012: .323/.394/.664, .6 batting eye
Cron is trying to OPS .800 in the hitter-friendly Cal League right now. Yes, Zunino played in the harder conference, but I'm not thinking of first base as an option for Zunino, nor really DH. He's gotta catch, and he should be able to.
Just not for us, is my hope.
~G