/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45199776/486530291.0.jpg)
It is tuff for me to imagine that the Arizona Diamondbacks won't gosewisch one of their players for a proper starting catcher before spring training.
The Diamondbacks are in desperate need for major league catching talent right now. Since trading away Miguel Montero for a couple of pitching prospects, the D-Backs have a D-grade backstop on top of their depth charts in minor league veteran Tuffy Gosewisch. While he has a solid grade-A name, Gosewisch is a 31-year-old with 55 major-league (and 742 minor-league) games to his name and is not going to be the number one catcher for Arizona in 2015.
To that end, the D-Backs have been "working hard" to acquire a catcher, reaching out to the Cubs for Welington Castillo and the Blue Jays for Dioner Navarro, according to FOX Sports' Jon Morosi.
#DBacks also have had discussions about #Cubs catcher Welington Castillo, as @nickpiecoro noted recently. Cubs have three MLB catchers.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 12, 2015
#DBacks inquired to #BlueJays about Dioner Navarro, sources say, but talks have not advanced much beyond that. @FOXSports
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 12, 2015
The Cubs have four catchers, three of which have had significant major league experience, on their 40-man roster (Montero, Castillo, David Ross, and Rafael Lopez) as do the Jays (Russell Martin, Navarro, Josh Thole, A.J. Jimenez). The Diamondbacks have two catchers on theirs: Gosewisch and Oscar Hernandez, who played in 94 games for the Rays' class-A Midwest League club in 2014. This is a sad Google result:
Diamondbacks general manager Dave Stewart recently complained that the asking price for catchers is too high. To AZCentral's Nick Piecoro, Stewart said this:
"Without really giving up something that's going to cost us a player that we don't want to give away, we don't have a whole lot of motion yet."
With a potential Gosewisch-Hernandez combo behind the plate, one would think that the Diamondbacks would need to start thinking about giving up something more than nothing. Navarro alone will not be nearly enough to get someone like Evan Marshall (or even Brad Ziegler due to the 2016 option) but I would think a trade can be worked out for someone like Cliff Pennington (if the Jays threw in cash to match salaries) or the recovering David Hernandez.
Bluebird Banter reader erik.t wrote a FanPost looking at possible targets in Arizona so I will point you over there instead of writing too much overlap.
What I would add is that, Stewart--an assistant in Toronto during the Gord Ash era--owes the Blue Jays for that Woody Williams-Joey Hamilton trade. OK I guess things don't work that way but if he and Alex Anthopoulos pull off a decent trade for Navarro, I'll promise to stop cursing him for his time in Toronto's front office.