Dissapointing Deuce

I really dislike J.P. Arencibia.

I didn’t always feel this way.  Heck, even as recently as Spring Training I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  But then he whined about getting an Opening Day start (which was a clusterf*ck), started striking out at prodigious pace and generally looked lazy behind the dish.  I had hoped this would be his break-out year, but I was wrong.

It has become clear he is a detriment to the team.  Not because his defence is suspect, not because he doesn’t take a walk.  Not because he strikes out too much and not because he is “not smooth” behind the plate.  Not because he clearly has some “me first” issues and not because he just mouthed off about certain Toronto media personalities.  It is not just any one of these things; it is all of these things combined.  The total package is not much of a package*.

As for the media brew ha-ha, I think my brother- in-law tweeted it best.

Nice to see J.P. Arencibia stepping up and contributing idiotic comments while Bret Lawrie is injured and unable to. Team player. #BlueJays

So what to do?  Changing catchers mid-year is not a recipe for success. It is probably the hardest transition for a team to make.  Selling low on Arencibia is also a bad move, although sadly,  I am not at all certain this is his true low point. 

It might be different if we had a prospect knocking at the door, but for better or worse, the Jays made the trade for Dickey and now the good ship D’Arnaud has sailed.  In any event, I’m not so certain D’Arnaud will find consistent success at the major league level.  He is an injury risk and catching in the big leagues is really, really hard.  The Mets also have a history of screwing things up.

Unfortunately I think you have to stay the course with J.P., work in some more at-bats for Thole and re-evaluate your options in the off-season.  Jump on it if something better comes along before then, but that is likely not going to happen.  Who knows, maybe A.J. Jiminez will continue to rake in the minors and you give him a shot as a September call-up.

In the meantime, J.P. can only hope his partner in stupidity returns soon so that the media attention will shift to 'stupid things Brett says'.....hmmmmmm....what a great idea for a game show....

*btw, google imaging "small package" showed me some really unsettling results