Happy J.P. Arencibia Isn’t The Blue Jays Catcher Anymore Day!

Sep 24, 2013; Baltimore, MD, USA; Toronto Blue Jays catcher

(9) throws down to first base to get out Baltimore Orioles left fielder

(not shown) in the ninth inning at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Blue Jays defeated the Orioles 3-2 in ten innings. Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

You know about Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years but in the middle of all those great days is a special day today for Toronto Blue Jays fans.

HAPPY J.P. ARENCIBIA ISN’T THE BLUE JAYS CATCHER ANYMORE DAY!

Yes Arencibia has been non tendered and the Jays have signed a new catcher so all is better in Blue Jays land.

Like all those other great days we celebrate J.P. Arencibia isn’t the Blue Jays catcher anymore day has a story behind it.

In 2010 Arencibia came up to the big leagues while Jays every day catcher John Buck was on the DL.

He had a big league debut for the ages. He hit a home run on the very first pitch he saw off James Shields no less. And then hit a double, single and another home run in that same game.

Despite this when John Buck got healthy Cito Gaston prepared Arencibia for the rest of his career by letting him warm the bench, much to the anger of most Blue Jays fans.

On a side note even if you don’t like Cito his ability to know talent when he sees it isn’t really something you can deny. He kept Travis Snider and Arencibia sitting and gave Bautista playing time before he was Bautista just to cherry pick an example.

In 2011 the Blue Jays made Arencibia there starting catcher. He put up a 219/282/438 slash line and put up a 0.5 WAR. Not very impressive but he also hit 23 home runs and since catchers take longer to develop and it’s rare to find a catcher with power why not give him another chance.

And hey if he gets worse the Jays have Travis D’Arnaud waiting in the minor leagues to come up one of these years anyways.

In 2012 Arencibia put up a 233/275/435 slash line and put up a 1.1 WAR.

Again not great but hey D’Arnaud’s coming eventually!

The following offseason the Jays had to trade D’Arnaud to get R.A. Dickey and for some reason that wasn’t a good enough reason for AA to try to replace Arencibia for 2013.

But hey the Jays had already made their payroll as high as it’s ever been and with how stacked the Jays looked on paper you could maybe afford mediocrity out of one position.

Except that mediocrity would have been light years better than Arencibia was in 2013. He put up a 194/227/365 slash line and put up a -0.6 WAR. He was the first player in baseball history to hit 20 or more home runs and have a OPS below 600. In 138 games he struck out 148 times and had 18 freaking walks all season!

There was just no way the Jays could keep him.

I don’t know how I’ve got this far in the post about talking about his awful defense to. He couldn’t catch, frame, throw or do anything behind the plate that didn’t make him look like a little leaguer.

In addition to his terribleness on the field he got in numerous Twitter fights with fans and went out of his way to say negative things about Sportsnet analysts Gregg Zaun and Dirk Hayhurst. He also annoyingly acted like there was nothing wrong with his play as long as he hit home runs.

I may be happy to see Arencibia off the Blue Jays but I wish him all the luck in the world for the rest of his career. Just in case this post seems vicious, which is not my intention.

So with no more off the field drama, no more worrying about awful defense at catcher and an automatic strikeout in the lineup I wish every Blue Jays fan a happy J.P. Arencibia isn’t the Blue Jays catcher anymore day!