J.P. Arencibia Takes Shots at the Blue Jays?
J.P. Arencibia may be long gone from the Toronto Blue Jays roster, but it appears he isn’t quite finished stirring things up and causing controversy in Blue Jays Land.
I’m not sure how this managed to completely slip by weeks after the fact, but upon trying to find a video of a hilariously bad strikeout Arencibia had during Spring Training last week, I came across this video below.
In it he describes what it’s like being in the Texas Rangers organization, and in doing so, perhaps takes a few shots at his former team, the Toronto Blue Jays.
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A brief transcript of a couple of money quotes from the clip:
“There’s not a lot of riff-raff going on except for baseball stuff. It’s cool, it’s refreshing to be part of something that is really baseball emphasized.
I think it comes from the top, and you see the way Wash goes about his business. I think that energy is throughout the clubhouse …
Elvis, Beltre, you have these guys who are leaders and have been around for a while, they make it easy. It’s not like you come in here and you’re walking on egg shells.”
The funny thing is this isn’t the first time we’ve heard from current or former Blue Jays about “walking on egg shells” around other players or reported distention and cliques in the Toronto clubhouse.
There’s no telling whether J.P. Arencibia was referring to the Blue Jays specifically, but it certainly seems like he was comparing and contrasting the differences between Toronto and Texas.
But wait … there’s more! ESPN did a feature piece on Arencibia and he echoed the very same comments from that video.
“It’s an easy clubhouse … I’m back to enjoying myself. I’m back to having fun. I’m back to waking up and being excited about coming to the field every day. And I think that has to do with this team.
Not to take away anything from where I came from, but it’s a different feeling around here.
It’s fun to come to work with guys that work hard and want to win. The culture around here is different. It’s exciting to me. I have fun being a part of that.
I’ve missed that the past couple of years, and it’s exciting to get back to that.”
Keep in mind, these comments are coming from a player who fell out of favour with the Blue Jays and ultimately lead to him being non-tendered, so clearly he might have some ill will towards the Blue Jays organization.
However, the Blue Jays gave J.P. Arencibia every opportunity to succeed, with a starting catcher job for the better part of three full seasons. With the disastrous season J.P. had last year, the Blue Jays certainly could have dragged his name through the mud, but they preferred to take the high road.
There may have been some truth in the statements J.P. Arencibia made, but it’s not very respectful to speak that way about a team that went out of its way to make the split as amicable as possible.
Alluding to the clubhouse environment of your former employer probably isn’t the best idea when Arencibia still has yet to officially crack the Texas Rangers Opening Day roster.
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Image courtesy of AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
It could be a case where it was expected to be much more then he actually was with the Jays. Pressure to be more of a leader on and off the field for the Jays. How many times was he front and center for interviews and what not?
In Texas? Not so much. That would certainly make it easier to relax and "have fun"
When you're under the microscope as the starting catcher for the Blue Jays, it definitely amplifies things a bit. So flying under the radar in Texas as a backup is probably a better spot for J.P.
He brought that on himself with all the "my team!" stuff. He wanted to be a leader and have that attention but didn't like it so much when things didn't go well.
I'm sure it's much more relaxing when you're not the #1 in your position. Life is just so darn hard when people have all these expectations for you to be good at what you do when you're being paid millions. We saw his true colours last year and I'm sure Texas will see how much of a bitch he is if they ever have to put some pressure on him.
What a d-bag…he shouldn't be saying anything about the Jays, considering his crappy performance last year. He's lucky they didn't dump his sorry ass last year..
He's hitting .226 so obviously regardless of how relaxed he is he's still terrible. Good riddance!
Arencibia…..i think it's best that you watch more of How To Be a Leader of a Major League Team? Give you some examples like; Gary Carter, Mike Scoccia, Pat Borders and Buck Martinez. Great examples of true gentlemen that play the game with dignity and honor. Instead of running your mouth against the Jays, how you were treated. Not cool after they have given you 3 yrs. of contract. They could have canned you a long time ago. I'm glad you're doing great warming up the Texas bench. That's where you belong.
I think getting traded to any team there will always be some form of hostility towards your former team. A lot of players may not show it but it's there. He had expectations and being a starter catcher he had a hard time living up to them. Defensive wise he suffered, offensive wise he crushed the ball and is a power hitter but he struck out a ton and it only got worse. If his remarks were towards the Jays then he should have stayed quiet. He got traded for a reason and that's why he's a backup catcher now.
Where's this hilariously bad strikeout?
No luck finding it- it's probably on MLB.TV somewhere, but not on the video highlights.
Well JP sorry you think that, but a dude hitting .083 should be careful of how many stones he tosses. The Jays have a different catcher this year and a different attitude. That catcher is winning games and coming up with clutch hits. Funny how when your key player isn't striking out and giving up pass ball in clutch situations everyone's attitude is elevated. I predict this is chokers last year in the bigs. Solid catchers with no bat can hang around but Swiss cheese with no bat just stinks up the joint. Bye Bye meat.