Zaun at a career’s crossroads

After spending the bulk of the first 12 years of his Major League Baseball career as a backup catcher for seven different clubs, Gregg Zaun seemed to have found a home in Toronto.

The Glendale native and St. Francis High graduate enjoyed the most productive offensive seasons of his career in his first three years there, and after the 2006 campaign signed a two-year, $7.25 million-contract, while assuming full-time, behind-the-plate duties for the Blue Jays.

Little has changed about Zaun since that point. Over the 2007 season and the first half of the 2008 campaign, the switch-hitting backstop has produced a line of offensive numbers along the lines of his career averages.

He has also continued to perform well at his position, catching a Blue Jays staff that was ranked third in the American League in team earned-run average (3.57) as of July 4 when Toronto came to town for a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

In contrast, since the past offseason, just about everything around Zaun has changed, leading to the feeling that the rug has been pulled out from under him in what had been a comfortable situation.

“I’ve said [I would like to finish my career in Toronto] in the past, but I don’t know how possible that is now,” says Zaun, who is coming off a season in which he hit .242 with 10 home runs and 52 RBIs while starting 93 games behind the plate. “I felt good about being there, I enjoy the city, I enjoy the ballpark, but every relationship has its shelf life, as well.

“I’m in a wait-and-see mode all the way around.”

Much of the uncertainty surrounding Zaun’s situation comes from an offseason move by the Blue Jays to add veteran catcher Rod Barajas to the Blue Jays roster, essentially giving Zaun competition for starts behind the plate from Opening Day.

Then the team’s struggles out of the gate led to the firing of Manager John Gibbons and three of the coaches on his staff on June 20, at which point the club had a 35-39 record and trailed the first-place Tampa Bay Rays by 10 1/2 games in the American League East Division.

Gibbons was replaced by Cito Gaston, who led Toronto to its only World Series titles in 1992-93.