Rosenthal: Travis d’Arnaud Draws Rave Review

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports published his latest column on Tuesday afternoon, and nestled at the very bottom was a tidbit about Blue Jays top prospect Travis d’Arnaud.

Talking to a scout, Rosenthal relayed that the anonymous talent evaluator felt that d’Arnaud looked like Yankees catcher Russell Martin in his early days with the Dodgers, and that d’Arnaud could play in the Majors right now.

“The Jays, as I’ve written before, are in no rush with D’Arnaud. J.P. Arencibia lacks d’Arnaud’s upside and only recently has started hitting, but the Jays like the way he handles their staff,” Rosenthal added.

Should d’Arnaud develop into — or even exceed — the 27-double, 14-home run, .285 hitter and Gold Glove-caliber defender that Martin was from 2006-08 for the Dodgers, I’m sure that the Blue Jays’ front office would be more than pleased, especially considering that the young catcher was the more unknown player received in the Roy Halladay trade over two years ago.

While d’Arnaud, ranked the 17th-best prospect in baseball by Baseball America before the season, hasn’t exactly hit the ball the way many people thought he would in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League this season, his season at this point has been far from a disappointment. Though his current .141 ISO is his lowest since 2007 and well below the .231 mark he managed with New Hampshire in 2011, d’Arnaud has two home runs in his last three games and has improved his pitch recognition at the plate, drawing more walks and cutting down his strikeout rate all while playing above-average defense.

D’Arnaud should see a September call-up at the very least this season, but depending on how Arencibia performs on both sides of the ball in the coming months, we could very well see the Las Vegas 51s catcher before then.

– JM

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