The Jays filled their back up catcher spot by trading left handed pitcher Brad Mills to the Angels for light-hitting (there is an understatement) catcher Jeff Mathis. Mathis has a .194/.225/.259 career slash line in 426 major league games over 7 seasons. His career numbers are here.
He is a reasonable defensive catcher, but not someone we'll want to see out there very often. I hope J.P. can catch 145+ games this coming season.
Mills has had a couple of moments with the Jays, but didn't show much. I think he could be an ok starter if given time but we have enough pitching prospects that he would never get the time here. He did well in Triple-A Vegas, in 2011, 11-9 with a 4.00 ERA in 24 starts. Best he could have hoped for, in Toronto, was a long reliever or LOOGY role.
Not the big trade that we are hoping to see come out of the winter meetings but it does fill a hole. Though Brian Jeroloman could, likely, do as good of a job. Mathis had been a favorite of Mike Scioscia, for some unknown reason, and was a well though of prospect a few years back.
Update: Thinking about it for the 30 seconds that this deal is worth, the Jays could have waited on the Angels to non-tender Mathis but they would have had to remove someone from the 40-man roster to add him anyway. Mills might have been the guy to go. So instead of waiting and then potentially having to deal with other teams wanting to get Mathis after he was non-tendered, they trade the guy they would have released for him. I'd imagine some money will be coming along with Jeff.