J.P. Arencibia was a somewhat promising winter acquisition for the Texas Rangers, giving them a guy that has shown big-time power in his previous stop in Toronto with a lack of plate discipline and a possibly "change of scenery" candidate at catcher.
So far this season, the change of scenery has done nothing for the veteran catcher, and Arencibia's been knocked down the pecking order at catcher after signing on to compete for a starting job with Geovany Soto.
Soto was injured at the end of spring training and is out until the summer, and now Arencibia has been passed, if not lapped, by the team's third catcher Robinson Chirinos, who has had some big moments early in the season. Chirinos' numbers don't look good, and they're not. He's hitting .150 with a homer, a double and three RBIs, including a walkoff hit. But he has a pulse at the plate, something Arencibia has yet to show.
Behind the plate, Chirinos has been a solid option, and he's 4-for-4 on throwing out attempted base stealers with no errors and a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage.
Arencibia, on the other hand, has two hits all season, sporting a .083 batting average with one double and one RBI. He has more strikeouts (5) than total bases. Behind the plate, he's 1-for-5 throwing out runners, and he has two errors. He can't even take the ball out of his own glove, for crying out loud.
If he is in the lineup, he needs to be hitting ninth, not seventh like he was on Monday. He's been bad to epic proportions, and it's hard to imagine it getting much better. Once Soto returns from the DL, Arencibia will be on the streets.
