A look at J.P. Arencibia after a month in the minors

The Texas Rangers optioned catcher  J.P. Arencibia to the Round Rock Express (AAA) back on May 20, almost a month ago.   While he was with the Texas Rangers he struggled at the plate since day one.  During the month of April he had a horrible batting line of .086/.158/.143/.301.  At one point his batting average was the absolute worst in all of baseball, including the minors.

You might ask why he was so bad.  Basically, Arencibia thinks of himself as a power hitter.  He loves to swing away and hit the long ball.  Sometimes it works out well for him and sometimes it doesn’t.  Last season he had 21 home runs with the Toronto Blue Jays.  But, last season with the Blue Jays he only batted .194 and his on-base percentaage wasn’t much better at .227.

The Rangers hitting coach Dave Magadan was working hard with Arencibia to address his issues at the plate.  Things were on the rise and for the month of May he was batting .205 and had an on-base percentage of .214.

But, his progress wasn’t quick enough for Jon Daniels.  Which is pretty understandable for a team that is still trying to contend for a playoff spot.

Now J.P. Arencibia is back in the minors trying to work things.  For the month of May, which was about a half month, Arencibia hit very well at .295.  That’s pretty impressive considering the struggles he had in the majors.

May was very good to him, but the month of June hasn’t been.  He’s only batting .218 for the month and only .225 over his last 10-games.   Although he’s not tearing up the ball right now, he is still an asset to the Texas Rangers.  He’s an excellent catcher and he is able to hit the ball hard.   So far in the minors he’s recorded 3 doubles, 5 home runs and 16 RBI.

Arencibia does have a lot of solid competition at Round Rock now going against Brett Nicholas and current Rangers Robinson Chrinsos and Chris Gimenez.  If Arencibia is going to be called up again he’ll need find what he had in May again at the plate.  There is no doubt he is working hard to get back and if he continues to do so he eventually will.