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Let me preface this by saying, I truly loooooove Captain Jack.
Everyone else, (including the Doc), is confused by this move, because to a man, everyone discussing this is talking "as if" this is a move separate from all other moves.  The lone exception being Doc's half-hearted hope/dream that this is precursor to an A-Gone deal in mid-season.  (What I don't get at all is why anyone would think, if your plan is to go after A-Gone, why wouldn't you play Carp as the place-keeper, anyway?)
The problem here is everyone is focused on the 1B side of the equation.  You want a simple explanation of the whole thing?  There is only ONE question being asked with each move.  How can I improve the team?  The question is not, (and never has been), "How can I win this year?" or "How do I land a big bat?"  or "How can I not look like an idiot?"  The question that Jack asks with each move is -- "How can I improve the team?"  It really is THAT simple.
Bill Hall was a right-handed, crash and burn, whose ONLY value at all was his multi-position defensive capacity.  His brief stint of decency ended in 2006, and since then he's been running an eye ratio of 1:5 (and getting worse).  The day the Ms signed Figgins, Bill Hall's value to the club dropped to negative 10,000.  He was a 40-man roster spot getting WAAAAY too much money, for a guy no longer even qualified to claim AAAA status.  He was less valuable to the Ms than Silva.
If this works, Jack trades a guy who'll be lucky to post a .650 OPS again before he's out of the game, for a 26-year-old never-quite-was Mark Grace wannabe.  It doesn't change anything about the Carp situation, really.  Everyone, (especially the beat writers), ASSUMES that Kotchman will just be handed the 1B job as the entitled vet.  Is there ANYTHING that has happened in the past year that supports that view?
I believe Kotchman will have to BATTLE Carp for that 1B slot -- and that bringing in the good glove 1B to push Carp "defensively" is an excellent move.  Carp will have to prove his defense against Kotchman.  Meanwhile, Kotchman will have to prove his offense against Carp. 
People rail about the uselessness of the Cedeno/Olson for Heilman trade.  They miss the point that Jack was *CORRECT*, even though the results didn't pan out.  Jack wanted an MI who could potentially replace Yuni -- because he had little faith in Yuni.  He also wanted to stack up LOTS of young arms in the minors, because he understands that in an average year, EVERY team will have to dip down and find a couple of young arms to fill in. 
If he just holds onto Heilman, yeah you've got a disgruntled vet in the pen who wants to start, and still have nobody to step in for Yuni.  Well, Yuni DID fail.  And the club DID need additional starters, (including and beyond Olson).  But Cedeno and Olson both had something Heilman didn't -- the uncertainty of upside youth.  They had the POSSIBILITY of stepping up and surprising.  Even though both failed -- the truth is that Yuni did fail, and it wasn't until August that the club was convinced that they had an arm worth bringing up from the farm that wasn't brought in by Z.
I'm one of Carp's biggest fans - but I love this move, because it IMPROVES THE TEAM.  Kotchman is a VASTLY superior MLB player today than Bill Hall.  It's not even remotely close.  And if people would stop obsessing about winning "this year" they'd start to understand that Jack is looking 3 moves ahead.  He got Bill Hall because AT THE TIME, Hall provided something the club didn't have.  But, getting Figgins improved the team and made Hall superfluous. 
Swapping Hall for Kotchman improves the team.  And maybe Z turns around and trade Carp for something else that helps the team.  Or maybe they battle for a job in ST.  Or maybe Carp faces righties and Kotchman faces lefties, (since Kotchman doesn't have much of a split).  Everyone is making assumptions about playing time that I just don't see as a slam-dunk.  But, picking up 20-somethings who have posted .840 OPS figures already, but then been pegged as journeyman is EXACTLY how one gets cheap "surprise" finds off the discard pile.  No, he's not Branyan -- but he's much younger, and 'might' be ready to actually work his tail off to EARN a full-time gig.