Stuff: Catching, Meetings

There's your opening day catcher folks.  The Jays decided to non-tender Bobby Wilson yesterday, ultimately deciding to allow the catcher to walk in free agency.  He was taking up a spot on the 40-man, after being claimed from Anaheim a few weeks ago.

As result, the Jays have JP Arencibia, John Buck, Travis d'Arnaud and AJ Jimenez on the 40-man roster, as far as catchers go.  Only Arencibia and Buck have MLB experience, with d'Arnaud and Jimenez being 23 and 22, respectively.  Neither are going to be thrust in to a role in the majors that will hamper their development, so both are going to start the year in the minors.  d'Arnaud appears to be about ready to take over, but the Jays seem eager to have him start the year in the minors, with the hopes of making sure he's fully recovered from a season-ending leg break.

Had the Jays hung on to Wilson, trading Arencibia would have been a lot more likely, with the intention of having Buck start and Wilson back up until d'Arnaud came along, but moving Arencibia now would create another hole at the catcher position.  I doubt its incredibly hard to find a rental back-up catcher floating around (Bobby Wilson comes to mind), so if the right deal came along, Buck could certainly fake being a regular starting catcher for a month or two.  I just don't see it happening.

Of course, I'm only writing this because Ken Rosenthal reports that the Jays have had chats with the Rays (for Wade Davis) and the Mets (for Jon Niese).  Niese would represent a nice upgrade over JA Happ, but I'd be shocked if a 1-for-1 deal involving Niese and JPA would go down; it's likely that the Jays would need to part with at least a significant (i.e. top-10 prospect) to get that kind of deal done.  Niese is signed to a contract similar to what Ricky Romero signed a few years ago, and has 4 years and $25MM left on that deal, plus two club options for $10 and $11MM for 2017 and 2018.

The Jays had DFA'ed Mike's Mccoy and McDade the other day, as well as Joel Carreno and Cory Wade.  Carreno and Mccoy got through waivers, but McDade was claimed by the Indians.  Carreno and Mccoy have been outrighted to AAA Buffalo.  I'm surprised that nobody took a shot on Carreno, to be quite honest.  Wade rejected his assignment and is now a free agent.

Elsewhere, the winter meetings will begin tomorrow.  I'll be sitting here F-5'ing MLBTR all day and writing about anything I find interesting.