Blue Jays Rumors: Dioner Navarro deal to come?

During most of the offseason, a trade market for the Toronto Blue Jays and C/DH Dioner Navarro more or less failed to develop. Much more recently, however, there appears to be interest from a couple of teams in acquiring his services.

The Arizona Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers could be potential suitors. After the D-backs traded away Miguel Montero last December, it seems Tony La Russa and manager Chip Hale are not confident about starting the season with Jordan Pacheco, Tuffy Gosewisch and Oscar Hernandez as the rostered backstops. The three are hitting a combined 14-for-51 with only three extra base hits this spring between them.

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In Detroit, the Tigers would probably only use Victor Martinez at catcher in an emergency situation, if at all. Alex Avila is struggling so far this spring batting only .238. His seasonal batting average over the last four years has also consistently dropped off after hitting .295 in 2011, he mustered only .218 BA in 2014. Presumed backup Bryan Holaday is also struggling massively with a .136 spring BA. Lastly there is 24-year old James McCann who is crushing the ball this spring to the tune of a .429/.467/.500 slash line, but he has only 12 career big league at-bats to his name.

After the D-backs brought in an influx of arms this offseason — combined with the departure of Montero — they seem the more likely of the two trade partners. They’re also not going to compete with the Jays in a potential AL Wild Card race in Septmeber like the Tigers could. The Blue Jays could probably benefit from another bullpen arm or two. But even if they do depart with Navarro, the pitching staff’s gain would be the lineup’s loss.

Navarro hit .300 at Rogers Centre last year and .274 with 12 home runs and 69 RBI as a whole. He is a bit sour about losing his starting catcher gig to Russell Martin after signing with Toronto late in only 2013, but there are a lot of at-bats to be had by Navarro with the Blue Jays in 2015.

Assuming he plays like he did in 2014, 90 starts at designated hitter and another 30-40 at catcher when Martin needs a break is not far fetched. It’s not like Navarro is being relegated to a reserve role, so his general attitude towards the Blue Jays’ situation is somewhat off-putting.

The Tigers can be considered contenders before the Jays, but certainly not the D-backs right now. If Navarro cares about playing time and winning, he’s as good off in Toronto has he would be in Detroit. If he is all about logging innings, then good riddance should be the Jays’ mentality about shipping him to Arizona where he will hit in a dismal lineup and catch for a primarily inexperienced rotation.

The Blue Jays should not be desperate to trade Navarro, though. The price has to be right. From him to Justin Smoak as a regular bat in the lineup is a huge drop off. Smoak is a career .224 hitter currently hitting .156 in spring action. After that, the only real options for DH at-bats who are mildly impressing in spring training right now would be Caleb Gindl (.353-0-6), Danny Valencia (.333-1-4) or Kevin Pillar (.269-1-5). Dioner Navarro remains the best option out of all five players.

Next: Opening Day 2015: Paging Kyle Kendrick, Drew Hutchison

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