Robinson Diaz??? Are you out of your f'ing mind? 

I've attempted to discern JP's line of thinking that lead to that decision, but haven't been able to just yet.

I guess maybe its because our catching situation is so "clear" for next season.

Maybe those two walks that JPA took last week convinced Riccardi that he's ready for the big time. 

Perhaps he was happy with Eric Kratz's performance in the last 10 games (5/30) or maybe he read Curtis Thigpen's stat sheet wrong and thought his .567 OPS was his slugging percentage.

In the end I came up with the fact that our GM just has an irrational love for Utility Infielders.  Lord knows we couldn't just promote Hector Luna or Russ Adams, that would destroy our depth at that position.  "Better to deal from a position that the organization is very deep in (Catching) to add to a position that the organization is relatively weak in (utility infielders)"

YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH UTILITY INFIELDERS

I thought picking Bautista up was a good move... until now.

Bautista for Diaz is ridiculous. I really thought Diaz was going to be on the big club next year.

Leaving aside the merits of trading for another utility infielder, the Jays did have a logjam at catcher.  Diaz, Jeroloman and Arencibia (plus Thigpen) would each be looking for playing time next season as either a major league backup or in AAA.  Diaz has been injured a lot in the last two seasons and that has hurt his development.  Arguably he had been passed on the depth chart by Jeroloman and Arencibia.

I had thought the Jays might bring up Diaz in September to see if he could be the backup next season but the Jays now might have to sign a backup as Jeroloman and Arencibia need more minor league time and Thigpen appears to have topped out.  Diaz would have extra value to an NL team where his versatility would be a help with double switches.

Agreed rpriske... This better be a prelude to a trade for Russell Martin or Brian McCann.

It is never a good idea to go into free agency with absolutely no internal options (even for the backup spot) at a position.  He just handed Barajas an extra 1.5 million in bargaining power.

Everything I've read indicates it's a club option.  The link below says it's at 2.5M with a .5M buyout.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/12/2009-mlb-free-a.html

Perhaps, given the significant development time lost to injury, JP just figured he had seen this song and dance before eventhough in this production, the leading man does possess a drastically different skill set. Given the reviews from Seattle and Baltimore, JP may have done well to exchange his ticket when he could....

Is there any recent precedence of a MLB team bringing up a catching prospect to learn as the backup in the majors and have him eventually succeed as the full-timer?  I just fear the Jays' track record with all their recent catching prospects (i.e. Quiroz, Thigpen, Diaz) failing just one step short of the majors.  Why can't Jeroloman or JPA be the back-up next year and force the hand by July, August or September?

Also, any thoughts on what the corresponding move to the Mench demotion might be?  Coats, Adams...SNIDER?

Paging Greg Myers. Paging Pat Borders

...Paging Ernie Whitt (LOL)

FisherCat,

Giovanni Soto comes to mind as a guy who was brought up to backup initially and then succeeded.  Brian McCann did too I believe (although he may have just been called up to be the starter).

Maybe Wayne Lydon makes sense as the move to counteract Mench?  He'd give Cito a pinch runner and in those close and late situations and a realistic defensive sub for Lind (although his D has really improved) if need be.

Schad, I actually like your scenario on paper.  Unfortunately I think the process will be more like:

Sign Sal Fasano as backup, Fasano backs up (hitting .093) until July, Jerolman comes up and backs up from July on (playing sparingly because we're "in a pennant race"), Arencibia gets called up in September, Jerolman gets passed over.

Another thought W/R/T the Mench transaction...

With the Jays' losing 2 of 3 to the Sox, might they finally be realizing that it's time to play for 2009 instead of the slim hopes that are 2008?

Which begs the question might it be "FREE TRAVIS SNIDER" time?  I don't necessarily agree with it if this is the move, but it would make for a fun 5 weeks!

Think about it, you'd be letting Snider face Tampa, Boston, NYY, Twins, ChiSox and NONE of those teams are going to be trotting out AAA / AAAA type lineups like you might normally see in September.

If we're going to rush him to the majors I think I might prefer him to face AAAA lineups rather than teams in a pennant race.  I have no interest in destroying his confidence.

If we're going to rush him to the majors I think I might prefer him to face AAAA lineups rather than teams in a pennant race.  I have no interest in destroying his confidence.

Judging from many of the recent articles regarding what he's been dealt with in his personal life over the last 2 years, I doubt that 0 for 4 w/4 K's against a Josh Beckett / Mike Mussina / Scott Kazmir are going to phase him much.

I just don't get this whole thing.  Bautista is of little use to the Jays given that they are not making the playoffs and that they already have a pack of middle infeilders.  What happens if Hill and Rolen come back healthy next year? Scooter and Mighty Joe are likely the backups, with MacDonald still around and hopefully some reasonable facsimilie of a full time SS too.  If Hill or Rolen don't come back, they better have someone better (or with more potential) than Bautista as the replacement.

So they give up Diaz for a rental when they don't need a rental.

Why not see if Diaz can turn it around?  JP could then see if he can help the big club or at least trade him when he is worth a little more.  Diaz looks like he will never hit for much power, but he seems like he can hit close to .300.  For a backup catcher this would be a useful feature.  Maybe a poor man's Jason Kendall?

Odds are that Diaz will never be a useful big leaguer.  I guess I would have given JP the benefit of the doubt early on in his tenure about this move, but I can't now.

Schad, I actually like your scenario on paper.  Unfortunately I think the process will be more like:

Sign Sal Fasano as backup, Fasano backs up (hitting .093) until July, Jerolman comes up and backs up from July on (playing sparingly because we're "in a pennant race"), Arencibia gets called up in September, Jerolman gets passed over.

No doubt that you're right. If I thought that signing a cheap vet was designed to allow our quasi-prospects to develop, I'd be all for it. Unfortunately, JP seems to have a fetish for paying $1-3m for replacement-level near-retirees, so my scenario probably grades out between pipe dream and acid flashback on the reality scale.

“Barajas has quite the reverse platoon split going on this year (and he's neutral over the course of his career), so Jeroloman should receive all of the at-bats against lefties and be spoon-fed lesser righties.”

Jeroloman bats left though correct?

Since Barajas has a career neutral split, and is likely to revert to it, wouldn’t allowing to Jeroloman adjust to the majors with more favorable match ups make more sense?

(Though I will say that I don’t recall his AA splits, and that he seems to be having some hard times against righties in AAA. > maybe MILB has his bat listed the wrong way?)

“Personally, I would much rather have Bautista than Joe Inglett anyways.”

Maybe because he can play SS. But I’ll take Joe and his pretty OBP at 2b over this new guy any day. Joe’s stats remind me a bit of Frank Cat – though they look a lot nicer from 2b than LF… and having Lind assume the formers spot is a nice touch. I would be very happy with Joe being the lead off hitter for us next year. (With a healthy Hill playing SS and batting further down the line up, maybe even 8th before the Catcher; Which would look a lot closer to what I expect a play off contending Major League batting order to look like.)

QUESTION:

Is there any chance that Hill gets put back to SS?

It seems like a better use of the organizations assets. I called Jays Talk a loong time ago, when Adams was in AAA and Hill in AA, stating my preference that Hill be left at SS, and Adams move off. Hill by all accounts was totally sufficient at SS, but when he cracked the line up, Adams was up, and so hill moved off and was successful. I thought it was short sighted decision at the time, and disagree with it more so now that we have a couple decent 2baggers, and not much at SS except for Jackson in the low minors.

Of course, two mitigating circumstance are his injury, and the possibility that JP et al felt that Hill was always destined for 2b.

I would like to believe the former to be true, however, I had the sense at the time the decisions was made that it was based more on the small MLB sample of Hills work, and not the larger  MiLB sample which was also available.

(Sorry about the big text!)

There are no clues in the Syracuse game tonight.  The Chiefs have only ten players on their roster, with the tenth being Chris Demons who was called up from Auburn.  All nine AAA regulars are in the lineup tonight so if one of them is being called up ot won't be until after the game tonight.

Brett Cecil, Scott Richmond, Davis and Ricky Romero are all still on the roster.

While I really like Inglett, losing him next year isn't something I'm going to lose sleep over.  He's been a good fill in, but having Scutaro and Bautista as the backup infielders is fine by me for next year (remember, Eck won't be back).

Trying to get into the mind of JP is an arduous task. At first glance, this Diaz for Bautista swaps seems as though he may be overpaying. Personally, I feel Diaz's greatest value is as a prospect (not a major leaguer) and that our best chance to get value for him was last offseason when there was talk of Diaz or Thigpen being added into the Rios-Lincecum trade. Of course, Jeroloman and JPA were less established prospects and it would have been risky. I have to believe Barajas' option will be picked up (JP said as much on WWJP). JPA is probably going to be up around the middle of next year and the 2010 catchers will more likely than not be JPA and Jeroloman. I'm guessing they'll bring in someone like Fasano on a minor league deal to battle with Thigpen for the backup job until JPA, or even Jeroloman, is ready. At best, Diaz probably was looking like a utility player for us.

The real task is to determine who will be the better super-utility player, Diaz or Bautista. Bautista is a more "developed" utility player and I think Bautista, Inglett, Scutaro and a backup catcher will be our utility players going into 2009. John Mcdonald may be a utility player for us if we cannot land a starting SS (such as JJ hardy or Khalil Greene) and JP decides to move Hill to SS and keep Inglett at 2B with the hope that either Inglett/Campbell will be our 2B for a few years. As much as I love Johnny Mac, he has no place on a true contender because he deserves to play maybe 50 or 60 games a year as a SS and a true contender should have a 140-150 game SS and, thus, JM becomes redundant. Overall, I like the idea of Inglett, Scutaro and Bautista as our 3 non-catcher (super) utility players and consider this a win at best and a marginal loss not even worthy of mention at worst.

It's pretty clear that Bautista was acquired because the team has no real depth at 3B and they know that Rolen is probably good for only 100 to 120 games a year for the next couple years.  They need a 3B with some power to replace Rolen when he needs time off for his shoulder.  Bautista is a good pick-up for those 40 games a year, and he can back up in the outfield as well.  Much as I liked Diaz last year, his injuries may be having a long-term impact on his potential ceiling, turning him from a possible major-league starter to nothing more than a likely back-up -- and the Jays have lots of depth at catcher, so he became expendable.

Aaron Hill as the 2009 shortstop is an intriguing idea.   If Hill is healthy next year, and if Inglett can maintain his production at 2B, it might be the best solution for the perennial SS dilemma.  In the past, the Jays have always seemed to dismiss the idea quite flatly, without any hint that they might consider it in the future.  But the latest Jordan Bastian story -- if it reflects official sources, as his stories often do -- might be an indication that the idea is under consideration for 2009.  Here is what Bastian wrote:

Inglett has played himself into Toronto's starting lineup and he's hoping for a similar opportunity next season. That chance very well could come, considering the Jays have discussed the possibility of shifting Hill from second base to shortstop.

I really don't like the idea of Hill swapping back over to SS.  I also recall him having a tough time there during his short audition after Adams failed.  He also stated before last season that he wanted to stay at 2B.

Also let's not forget that this guy is going to just be getting back to baseball activities in spring 09 after his concussion symptoms, so I think we want him in a 2B comfort zone rather than out of his element at SS.

To add to what John said above, Dewan's + / - system had Hill as -14 plays at SS relative to average in his 428 innings in 2006. That's really bad. Now, that's a small sample relatively speaking, but even if he were to be regressed 50% toward average, and prorated to a full season, we're talking something like 16 runs a year worse than average.

Inglett rates as a bit above average at 2B while Hill is Gold Glove calibre there.

I think people are underestimating the defensive hit involved in moving Hill to SS.

I think it's a pretty big assumption that Aaron Hill will be back to normal by next season -- just last week, Jordan Bastian wrote <i>"The Jays can only hope he will be completely recovered in time for next season."</i>.   Let's face it -- Hill sustained a very serious concussion.   Three months later, he's showing very little progress and is nowhere near returning to the game.    To me, this is a big red flag that this could be a career-altering or sadly a career-ending injury... 

History is not on Hill's side -- Corey Koskie & Mike Matheny could not recover from severe concussions...  the jury is still out on Ryan Church at this point.     I certainly hope for the best for Hill... but I think the Jays need to prepare for the worst, given the severity.  

I'm not sure what other players medical history has to do with anything.  I'm not suggesting Hill will definitely get better, as he had been out for a long time, but it is a long time til next spring.

Hill this year:  229 plate appearances, .685 OPS

Inglett this year:  291 plate appearances, .771 OPS  (almost the same as Rios)

McDonald this year:  159 plate appearances,  .572 OPS

If these numbers are repeated next year, I'd prefer to see a middle infield of Hil and Inglett, rather than McDonald and Hill.  The gains on offence would surely outweigh the decline in defence.  Moreover, even if Inglett's hitting declines a little next year, I think it's pretty certain that Hill's hitting will improve.  (All of this assumes that Hill is healthy, of course.  If he's not healthy, it's back to the drawing board on the SS problem.....)