Bad News, Pirate Fans: Doumit Out With Broken Wrist

Our worst fears were realized this afternoon as it was announced that catcher Ryan Doumit will miss 8-10 weeks after having surgery on his injured right wrist.

Here's the report from the official site.

And here's a little more info from the PBC Blog.

What this means is that the tandem of Jason Jaramillo and Robinzon Diaz will share catching duties until roughly the All Star Break. Jaramillo has looked pretty decent so far this year in his limited playing time, and Diaz had a very nice Spring, at least with the bat. Neither will come close to matching Doumit's offensive capabilities, but they should both be adequate. Unfortunately, there's just not a whole lot of power in this lineup to begin with and now we're looking at the Pirates having a pretty weak bottom half of the order, with Andy LaRoche, Jack Wilson and whichever catcher occupying the 6 through 8 spots. Actually, the five spot's not too great either, with Brandon Moss or Craig Monroe sharing that.

I doubt a trade will be made for an experienced catcher, other than possibly to fill in at Indianapolis. There's no need to panic too much in this situation and there's probably not too many catchers available that are much better than Jaramillo or Diaz.

Maybe the most discouraging aspect here is that this is yet another injury for Doumit. He misses time every year with various injuries. There's no reason to think that it won't happen next year too. He's a tremendous hitter and he's improving behind the plate a bit, but it might be time for the Bucs' brass to start thinking about a new long-term option at catcher.