Texas Rangers: J.P. Arencibia season virtually over

The Texas Rangers recently called up Ryan Rua from the Round Rock Express to play first base.  That means J.P. Arencibia probably won’t play much for the remainder for the season.

Arencibia was already basically removed from catching duties once he was recalled from triple-A Round Rock back in July.  He did show a spark of offense with 5 home runs and 16 RBI for the month.  But, when the calendar flipped to August the old J.P. Arencibia returned.

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It’s been constant battle between him, Jim Adduci and Mike Carp for the lowest batting average on the team.  None of them can seem to come close to breaking the Mendoza line.  And now with one of the Texas Rangers top prospects being called up to play first base, it doesn’t leave a spot for the Rangers to have J.P. Arencibia on the field or in the lineup.

Arencibia seems to have seen the writing on the wall.  He recently commented about Ryan Rua.

"“It’s obvious what they want to do,” Arencibia said. “I get it. They want to look at young guys and see what they can do. I have been around enough. When I came back from Triple-A playing every day, my numbers were there.” (T.R. Sullivan – MLB.com)"

He could get a few spots to start at DH, but that seems unlikely also it doesn’t seem to make much sense to give him a chance to pinch hit.  It’s been another tough season for Arencibia.

He’s only batting .170 the season over 52 games/171 at-bats.  He has managed to show flashes of power with 8 home runs and 7 doubles and that does include the Rangers first grand slam of the season.  But, despite the work he’s put in with the hitting coach Dave Magadan and in triple-A it hasn’t seemed to help his plate discpline.  He’s only walked 8 times this season and has an on-base percentage of .230.  Which is actually an improvement over his .227 on-base percentage he had last year with the Blue Jays.

If you’re wondering if J.P. Arencibia will return next season the answer is probably no.  It seems very unlikely the Texas Rangers will sign him.  Sometimes a team can manage to find a player that is poised to breakout, but it didn’t happen with J.P. Arencibia.