Stock watch: J.P. Arencibia is bullish

The Texas Rangers recalled J.P. Arencibia from triple-A Round Rock in mid-July.  If you don’t remember, he was optioned down to the minors because he was having a horrible season at the plate.  Besides for his offense, he was being out played at catcher by Robinson Chirinos and Chris Gimenez.

You might ask, how bad was he before he was sent down to the minors.  Arencibia batting average hit a low mark of .067 on April 20 and didn’t improve as much as they had hoped by mid-May when it was .133.   He did manage to record 3 doubles, 1 home run and 6 RBI during that time, but only struck out 15 times over that period.

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During his time with the Round Rock Express, J.P. Arencibia finally started to show a little more plate discipline and power at the plate.  Over the 48 games/190 at-bats he had a batting line of .279/.320/.542/.862.  One thing to note, usually a OPS over .800 is very good.   He recorded 8 doubles, 14 home runs and an astounding 41 RBI in the minors.  If you want to know why he was recalled, it’s all in the numbers.  He worked very hard at the plate, and put in 19-games at first base to help with the transition.

Since he’s been called back with the Texas Rangers he has been one of the best players on the team.  Granted it is a small sample set, but he’s batting .289 for the month of Aug with 1 home run and 4 RBI.   Also, he has 20 RBI i his last 17 games since the All-star break, which is the most in the majors over that period.  He has 6 home runs since the All-star break, which is tied for the best with 5 other players.

He has managed to increase his batting average from a almost non-existent .133 to almost breaking the Mendoza line at .198 since his return.  Over his last 11 games  he has managed to record at least a hit in 8 of them.   That is a huge improvement over the month of April when he only had 3 hits over 35 at-bats.  During the last 11 games he’s batting .342 and he’s the only Texas Rangers to have 2 games with 4 or more RBI.

J.P. Arencibia is making a case to stay in the major leagues with his offense and he’s been doing well at first base.  He’s started at first 13 times so far this season and will probably split some of the time with Mike Carp.  This is all good news for the Rangers, because the need someone that can drive in runs and ignite the offense.  So far since his return, he managed to do that on multiple occasions.

He’s doing his best to ensure a spot on this team for next season.  If he is going to do that, he’ll need to continue to work on his patience at the plate.  He is still prone to swinging at bad pitches and swinging hard for the long ball.  At least right now it’s very fun to watch the Texas Rangers and J.P. Arencibia.  If he can keep this up, he’ll continue to increase his stock.