Marc Topkin writes about the Rays backup catcher, Jose Lobaton. The 27-year-old is out of options, but the Rays hope he can move into the starting role eventually:

Though Lobaton has looked better over the past week, manager Joe Maddon acknowledged it wasn’t so much what they saw from Lobaton this spring — and what they didn’t see from the underwhelming competitors in camp, plus the fact that Lobaton was out of options — as what he did last season for the Bulls. In 54 games, he hit .293 with eight homers and a .410 on-base percentage (while hitting the ball exceptionally hard), threw out 31 percent of attempted base-stealers and earned a reputation as a catcher pitchers liked to throw to based on his game-calling and pitch-framing.

“He got a lot of rave reviews from everybody who saw him at Triple A last year,” Maddon said. “That had a lot to do with it.”

His 2011 AAA season was an outlier, however. For his career, Lobaton’s minor league slash line stands at .259/.348/.410. What he does best is draw walks. Even in his brief major league career he’s drawn as many walks (four) as hits. Lobaton should post a decent OPB compared to his batting average, but don’t expect a high BA or much power from the catcher.

The article implies that he’s improving his defense with mentoring from Jose Molina. If his defense is good, the Rays could afford a .230/.310/.380 slash line from Lobaton.