On Friday the Dodgers acquired catcher Ryan Lavarnway from the Boston Red Sox, who had designated the 27-year-old Burbank, CA native for assignment earlier in the week. To make room for Lavarnway on their 40-man roster the Dodgers themselves designated two-year back-up catcher Drew Butera for assignment. Although the move isn’t earth-shattering by any means, is is definitely a bit interesting, especially after the Dodgers had tendered Butera only three days earlier.

Having been born a short 10-minutes from Dodger Stadium in Burbank, CA, Ryan Lavarnway undoubtedly grew up a Dodger fan. (Photo credit – Kelly O’Connor)

It’s impossible to argue that the Dodgers have had a glaring hole in their offensive line-up at the catcher position for a very long time. In fact, it’s a hole that dates back to May 14, 1998 – the day that the Dodgers, under the ownership of Fox Entertainment Group (which was owned by News Corp, which was owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch) traded future Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza. That trade still ranks right up there among the absolute worst in Dodgers history – right along with Pedro Martinez and Paul Konerko. Oh sure, there have been a few decent hitting Dodgers catchers since then such as Paul LoDuca and Russell Martin, but none even remotely close to Piazza.

When you start splitting hairs, it’s hard to miss the fact that Lavarnway’s career minor and major league numbers bear a strikingly resemblance to those of fellow former Red Sox catching prospect (and current Dodger) Tim Federowicz, who is currently penciled in to replace Butera as the Dodgers back-up catcher in 2015 behind recently tendered 33-year-old A.J. Ellis.

In seven minor league seasons, Lavarnway posted a slash-line of .283 / .374 / .479 for an .853 OPS. He hit a total of 92 minor league home runs while collecting 382 RBIs. In his seven minor league seasons, Federowicz, who is exactly two days older than Lavarnway, posted a much better slash-line of .328 / .383 / .555 for an excellent OPS of .983 but hit only 66 home runs with 352 RBIs. While teammates within the Red Sox organization, Federowicz was ranked higher on the organizational depth chart than Lavarnway – undoubtedly the result of Fed’s superior defensive skills and in spite the fact that Lavarnway was drafted in the sixth round of the 2008 MLB draft and Federowicz the seventh round.

The similarities between the two backstops continued when they were called up to their respective major league clubs. In 97 major league games with the Red Sox, Lavarnway has a triple slash of .201 / .249 / .315 for a dismal .565 OPS. In his near-identical 89 MLB games, FedEx has a line of .194 / .247 / .300 for an even more dismal .547 OPS. Yet again similar, they each have five MLB home runs, with Lavarnway’s 34 RBIs slightly ahead of Federowicz’s 22.

As a point of reference, Dodgers everyday catcher A.J. Ellis posted an equally awful triple-slash of .191 / .323 / .254 with a .577 OPS in 2014 and back-up catcher Drew Butera, who appeared in 61 games in 2014, a near-identical triple-slash of .188 / .267 / .288 with a .555 OPS. In the simplest of terms, the Dodgers catching corps pretty much… well… suck.

Even though Butera was unable to put up any kind of offensive numbers in his two seasons with the Dodgers, fans will always remember him for calling Josh Beckett’s no-hitter against the Phillies on May 25, 2014 at Citizens Bank Park. (Photo credit – Matt Slocum)

On the other side of the ball, Lavarnway had a caught-stealing percentage of .31% in the minors but a horrible .16% in the majors whereas Federowicz’s is a more consistent .36% and .37% respectively. In 2014, Federowicz threw out 10 of 23 would-be base stealers with the Dodgers for an outstanding .43% CS percentage (the National League average was a paltry .28%). No one attempted to steal a base against Lavarnway in the three MLB games in which he appeared in 2014.

Federowicz has already established himself as an outstanding defensive MLB catcher – especially at blocking balls in the dirt. If he can start hitting at the big league level like he did at Triple-A Albuquerque, he could very well become the Dodgers everyday catcher in 2015. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

It’s hard to believe that Ellis will not be the Dodgers starting catcher in 2014 (unless the rumors of acquiring Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal and his .225 batting average and 15 home runs in 2014 are true), but with Butera now gone and absent another off-season catching acquisition, it appears that it’s going to be a spring training shootout between Tim Federowicz and Ryan Lavarnway for the 2015 back-up catcher role – just as it has been for their entire seven-year professional careers.