Pittsburgh Pirates 2009 Preview: Catcher

Written by: Pat Lackey on 18th March 2009

Pittsburgh Pirates 2009 Preview: Catcher | read this item

After being jerked around by the Pirates’ old front office for three injury-riddled years, Ryan Doumit won the starting catching job from Ronny Paulino in spring training last year and didn’t look back. Playing in a career high 116 games, Doumit hit .318/.357/.501 with 15 homers. Of course, therein lies the problem; even in the healthiest season of his career, Doumit only played 116 games.

Doumit’s the starting catcher again this year and he’ll hit when he’s healthy, but it’s not a good bet that he’s going to play more than 120 games. With Paulino gone, that leaves backup catching duty (and thus, a ton of playing time) to either Robinzon Diaz or Jason Jaramillo. Both players were acquired by the Pirates last year — Diaz for Jose Bautista and Jaramillo for Paulino — and they’re really pretty similar players. They’re probably career backups with middling offensive abilities and a good defensive reputation.

In the end, the two are probably fungible and will split time pretty evenly this year. Diaz’s offensive numbers in the minors are a little better, but a lot of that is tied up in a high career minor league batting average (.304) that might not transfer to the majors. Because Huntington acquired Jaramillo after he’d already traded for Diaz and Jaramillo has an exisiting relationship with manager John Russell, I’m guessing he starts the year out with Pittsburgh. In the end, though, the key to the Pirates’ catching situation is entirely tied up in how many games Doumit plays. If he stays healthy, he’s probably a borderline All Star with his bat. If not, the Pirates could have a replacement-level hitting catching most of the season.

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Topics: Jason Jaramillo, Robinzon Diaz, Ryan Doumit