Better know your Blue Jays 40-man: Juan Graterol

Juan Graterol is a 28, right-handed hitting catcher.

Juan has been a member of more teams in the last three months than many players get to in a career. Juan’s winter:

Claimed by the Reds off waivers on November 28.

Claimed by the Diamondbacks off waivers on December 23.

Claimed by the Angels off waivers on January 19.

Claimed by the Blue Jays off waivers on January 23.

I hope he gets a jersey from each of those teams.

He also played for two winter ball teams.

It looks like the wheel has stopped turning (for the moment), he’s been a Blue Jay for almost a month. At the start of spring training it looks like he is number 3 on our catcher depth chart, but there is a lot of time for that to change before opening day.

At 28, he’s been a career minor leaguer, other than 14 at bats, with the Angels, last year. In 527 games, he has a .270/.320/.335 batting line, so no power at all, he has all of 13 home runs in those 527 games,

I can’t find much information on his defense, but he’s thrown out 38% of basestealers, so he must have a decent arm. On the flip of that, he’s played a fair bit of first base. Considering his lack of power, that doesn’t seem like a vote of confidence in his defense, but I’d imagine he couldn’t have been picked up as on waivers that often if his defense wasn’t decent.

I’m thinking that by mid-season Reese McGuire and, maybe, Max Pentecost will be moving past him on the depth chart.

I guess the question is:

Does Juan get any at bats in the majors this year?

Maybe a handful. If he gets more than that, it isn’t a good sign. If Russell Martin does get hurt and is out for a good part of the season and Salty is out as well, or plays badly, and another catcher is needed, Reese or Max should get the major league experience.