Yea. I was assuming they want to see what Ruiz has and sending Barrera down is so he can play every day and get at bats. Spring training will decide. Ruiz has to produce to get the job.
Probably not, actually. Ruiz's offensive pedigree suggests he's likely hitting in the 5 or 6 spot next year: he hit 6th last night, which is not exactly the norm for a catcher just up from AAA. The bigger questions with him are how good a hitter is he (as in good enough to move him off catcher at least part time so he can play more than 120-ish games) and how good a catcher he is (is in, does he have to move off catcher and hope he hits enough to play elsewhere). He's hitting the cover off the ball as a 22-year-old in AAA. You don't keep such guys in the minors, because they are likely to be able to hit major league pitching quite well quite soon, even if that's not spring training.
And Barrera is going to be 27 in a couple weeks. That's not super old for a catching prospect, but it's not young either. There's not a whole lot more development in there. He's either ready now or he's not ever going to be.
A three-headed catcher makes more sense if (a) two of them are good hitters - not just good hitters for catchers and (b) they're both able to play a position that's not catcher, 1B, or DH (if you have it). Otherwise you're setting the bar too high in terms of offense for them to realistically hit it.
Barrera has MLB catcher defense. I'm not sold on Adams there yet, and I haven't seen enough of Ruiz to have any impression. If you're using three roster spots for catchers, two must be in the lineup every day, and the third guy has to actually play a lot too. I just don't see how it works: if you're having Adams catch and Ruiz play 1B (say), you've lost a position at which you should have a masher, and your backup catcher is already in the game, so no need for Barrera to be on the bench. You then switch them the next day to keep both their bats - which have to be good to justify the scenario - in the lineup every day.
Put otherwise: what is the situation where Barrera would actually play enough to justify a roster spot? It seems to be it requires that one of the other two be a nearly full-time starter at a non-catcher position, leaving Barrera with a standard backup catcher role.
