The consensus is that Kenji Johjima is an untradeable player.  I mostly agree, but I think there might be a few matches out there in which a bad contract swap could make sense.  One of them is with the Boston Red Sox.

The Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman briefly mentioned in an article today that Seattle has been shopping Johjima and Jeff Clement to the Red Sox.  This obviously doesn’t mean the interest is mutual, but if anything this might prove to some fans that Johjima is allowed to be traded, and isn’t protected by the Japanese ownership.

If you’ll follow the link you’ll notice that there are much better catchers available to fill the Red Sox’ vacancy, so why would they want Johjima?  He calls a bad ballgame, he struggles at blocking pitches in the dirt, he’s suddenly lost his ability to hit and his approach at the plate goes completely against Boston’s high-OBP Moneyball mentality.

But many of those other catchers will cost prospects that the Red Sox don’t want to part with.  Johjima may only cost Julio Lugo.

Lugo is signed to an ugly contract as he is guaranteed $9M for each of the next two seasons, with a $9M vesting option for 2011. When Lugo missed time with an injury this past season, prospect Jed Lowrie came up and proved he was ready for major league duty, effectively pushing Lugo out of the starting lineup for good.

The Sox would love to move Lugo, but there hasn’t been many rumors surrounding him.  As far as I can tell, he’s only been connected to the Detroit Tigers this offseason.

Trading Johjima would leave the starting catcher position in Seattle to Clement.  Rob Johnson could be the backup, opening up more playing time for prospect Adam Moore at AAA Tacoma.

Lugo could step in and become Seattle’s starting shortstop, especially if Betancourt is traded, which I think is going to happen.  Lugo is error prone at short, but is still pretty rangy and an arguably better bet than Betancourt out there.  If Jose Lopez gets moved (either to another team or another position), Lugo can step in at second base where he is a much better defender than at shortstop.  Or, he could always become Seattle’s utility man, though that would crush any future trade value.

This trade would be more about clearing out some space at the catcher position than acquiring Lugo.  Lugo doesn’t give the team much, and Johjima could be more valuable to Seattle in 2009, but this move would help Seattle look toward the future.

For Boston, they get a sometimes decent catcher who showed signs of life towards the end of 2008, and who’s dead-pull swing could possibly be helped by Fenway Park’s dimensions, in exchange for dead weight.

All said, Boston may be smarter to wait to move Lugo until the weak market for shortstops grows even weaker, but that’s not any of Seattle’s concern.

Do you think this trade could happen?  Would you want it to happen?  I’m undecided myself and just throwing this out there as a possibility.  Thoughts?