People have high expectations of Avila because in 2011 he hit .295 with 19 home runs and 82 ribeyes. While that was overachieving he went down to .243, .227, and .218 the next three seasons.

The problem with Avila is he takes a beating worse then any catcher because of where/how he squats behind the plate. He has had a bunch of concussions and that should scare teams who might be looking at him.

I'm not for or against the idea but I do think the Tigers need a better back up plan then Holiday. Avila started 141 games in 2011 but his body won't likely allow him to play that many again or get back to his career year where he most definitely overachieved. As far as catchers go the league has very solid hitting catchers though. Even someone like Brian McCann is only a shell of his old self the past few seasons.

Too bad VMart can't catch and really shouldn't anymore since his bat is so important but if you think about it any team in the AL who can have too solid catchers that hit around .250 or more with good defense would be huge especially if they have some pop in their bat. These guys could split the load and DH some as well.