By Mike Piellucci
FOXSportsSouthwest.com
Jan. 25, 2011
The Texas Rangers appear to have killed two birds with one stone on Tuesday.
They nabbed the extra power bat they were searching for and potentially settled their Neftali Feliz debate by acquiring catcher/first baseman Mike Napoli from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for reliever Frank Francisco and cash considerations.
Napoli, 29, had spent the past five seasons with the division-rival Angels before being traded to Toronto on Friday as part of a deal that sent outfielder Vernon Wells to Los Angeles. He is known for his power, with a Angels-record 75 home runs from the catcher position. He has 92 homers overall, including three straight seasons of at least 20.
He was primarily a catcher for the bulk of his Angels tenure but started 67 games last year at first base as the team's primary starter at the position once Kendry Morales was lost for the year because of injury.
Although the team has yet to announce what role he will play in Texas, his poor defense behind the plate plus the presence of Yorvit Torrealba and Matt Treanor at catcher means that he is likely to featured more as a designated hitter/first baseman, which would be consistent with the team's rumored interest in designated hitters Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez before they signed elsewhere.
Trading Francisco, meanwhile, could signal the club's intention to keep Feliz in the bullpen rather move him to the rotation. Francisco had, by far, the most ninth-inning experience on the roster and was Texas' closer as recently as last May, which would have made him the obvious choice to take over were Feliz to develop into a starter.
Now, with Francisco off the roster, the team has only two proven right-handed setup men, Darren O'Day and Alexi Ogando, to go with unproven commodities Mark Lowe and Yoshinori Tateyama.
Anything is possible and there's always time to make another trade, but it's hard to imagine putting Feliz in the rotation, plugging in O'Day or Ogando into the ninth inning
