An interesting piece of news came out today from Twins beat writer Mike Berardino.
Brian Dozier casually mentioned today that Ryan Doumit is "not catching anymore" after "talking it over with his family." Aug. concussion.
— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) January 26, 2014
If this is true, it probably came as a news to the Braves. From comments at the time, it sounded like the Braves at least had plans on using Doumit behind the plate, even though defensively he is the worst in baseball. As mentioned in the tweet, Doumit suffered a concussion last August, which is likely the main drivers for his decision. However, as DOB reported, there was really no indication he did not want to catch anymore.
At least 1 other Twins writer spoke to Doumit's agent a week before trade to #Braves and was told Doumit was still interested in catching.
— David O'Brien (@ajcbraves) January 26, 2014
Obviously health comes first, especially with the increased awareness for concussions in recent year. You just have to wonder what Twins GM Terry Ryan knew prior to the trade in December. Really hard to draw a solid conclusion of the news right now until more answers come out. Stay tuned.
UPDATE (6PM):
Told by Ryan Doumit's agent that #Twins' Dozier's comment about new #Braves C/OF/1B not intending to catch anymore was not true.
— David O'Brien (@ajcbraves) January 26, 2014
Well, there it is - a misunderstanding somewhere in the pipeline. Hopefully the difference between Ryan Doumit "catching" and "not catching" isn't that big of a gap anyways.