In Game Of Life, Barajas May Be a Pawn

The past few days, a major story in spring training has been the signing and eventual arrival of Rod Barajas. The past few months have been sparked by a flurry of activity in the New York Mets front office, concerning addressing the need of a catcher. They signed multiple players for that position. It began with the acquisitions of Chris Coste, who declared himself a lifelong Philadelphia Phillie and Henry Blanco on the same day. This was followed by the courting of Benjie Molina for a month or so, before he eventually decided against New York in favor of staying where he knows in San Francisco. Then they add Shawn Riggans a few months later and Barajas just days after that. All of this swarm of transactions have me missing the days of Mike Piazza, of stability in the lineup and the position. How has this franchise that has had so many great catchers get into this predicament?

For now, the biggest problem with the activity I can see, is where does Omir Santos fit? Omir Santos was a spark plug for a dying automobile last season. This is how the franchise that took a chance on him and was so pleased by his eventual output rewards him? The answers are unclear, but most likely he will not be in the majors and not grooming the other catcher I haven’t mentioned yet, Josh Thole. It is, by now, no secret that Thole is in the long term plans for the organization. The same organization that had previously stated that Santos was their man. They proclaimed him the starter for 2010 and were ready to go from there, but something happened on the way to opening day.

The Philadelphia Phillies made a huge splash in the market by trading their ace Cliff Lee for the league’s ace Roy Halladay in a multiple team deal. It has not been mentioned much thus far, so allow me to do so. Rod Barajas spent the last two season as the Toronto Blue Jays starting catcher. He caught for Roy Halladay for two years. He knows him. He knows him very well. He knows what pitches he likes to throw and in what counts. He knows the movement of those pitches. This is all useful information in a 162 game season, where 19 of those are head to head with a rival that has won the World Series and been to the last two. Baseball is a business, but it is also strategy. We always talk about the moves and reaction moves between the Yankees and the Red Sox every off season and midseason. It is the stuff of legends, but perhaps we have our own National League version brewing.

The business of baseball can be ugly at times, but is necessary. It helps keep parity. Last season, for example, when the Atlanta Braves traded for Ryan Church, Church said he would gladly divulge all information he could about his former team, the Mets to his new team, a division rival. Perhaps, although it has not been mentioned and probably won’t be, Barajas was acquired as a response move to the Phillies trading for Halladay. It could be another move in the continuing chess match between the two ball clubs, this time with Barajas being the newly acquired pawn and for the Mets, hopefully checkmate.