Tampa Bay

Six-and-a-half games out of first and 3.5 out of a wild-card spot, Tampa Bay is the team that most badly needs to do something. Luckily for them, they may be the one most capable of doing it. Mild rotation issues should sort themselves out: If Scott Kazmir proves ineffective on his return from injury, or David Price continues to walk six men per nine innings, the Rays can try out passable substitutes like Andy Sonnanstine or prospect Wade Davis, who has little left to prove in Triple-A. And as noted, the team will just have to live with DH Pat Burrell, who has at least been hitting tolerably if not well for the past three weeks. But they do have one spot where they can easily improve: catcher.

Dioner Navarro is 25 and has done far too much in his career for Tampa Bay to give up on him, but facts are facts: Of the 66 major league catchers who have at least 50 plate appearances this year, Navarro ranks 64th in OPS with a miserable .223/.254/.332 line. No team in a race with the Red Sox and Yankees can tolerate a void like that in the lineup, and the Rays shouldn’t when there are solutions at hand. Uninspiring as he may be, for instance, the New York Mets’ Brian Schneider will be worth perhaps a win more than Navarro over the rest of the season assuming each plays as he has to date. Given that the Mets just shipped out the Schneider-like outfielder Ryan Church in exchange for Jeff Francoeur, maybe the worst regular in the majors, in a move that signaled they’re tacitly giving up on the season, one would think a random live arm from the Rays’ deep system would be enough to land the reliably mediocre veteran, a free agent after this year.

I can’t think of a single one. I can’t think of many that carrying 12 has. We could throw a pinch runner on the roster if we only carried 11. Or a third catcher. Or whatever else.