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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