Conventional wisdom is that Mes will be the Reds catcher next year with Hanigan as the 2nd catcher. Ramon will either 1) play out the year with the Reds if the team stays in contention or 2) could be dealt this year if the Reds fall back. Even though Mes is tearing up AAA folks think 'well we can't exactly trade Ramon now. even if we could get value for him he is too important to the 2011 team'. ok. how about this one? there are several teams (SF & PIttsburgh for example) that are a bit desperate for a catcher. the Reds could trade Hanigan instead of Ramon. lets assume that the trade is a decent one and we get value back that can help. Mes gets called up now and takes Hanigan's place. The super 2 deadline has likely passed so thats not a concern. The team gets an improvement (Mes > Hanigan) but gets to keep Ramon's veteran prescence for the 2011 pennant race. After the season the team can decide what to do about the 2nd catcher for 2012. If Mes looks like he is ready to play 130 games then they can get a cheap backup. If Mes seems to need a bit more help maybe they resign Ramon on the cheap. The downside to this scenario is that if Mes struggles then we lose Hanigan for 2012. I say its time to take a little more risk, think outside the box, do something a bit less super duper ultra conservative. Trading Hanigan could be a win win. A win in that we could get a nice return in the trade due to certain teams really needing help & a 2nd win in that Mes is likely better than Hanigan right now.