Blue Jays: J.P. Arencibia teases fans about returning to Toronto

J.P. Arencibia teased the Blue Jays’ fan base on Monday with a tweet indicating that we’ll be “seeing and hearing a lot more” of him in the near future.

There have been a lot of changes throughout the Blue Jays’ organization, including in the broadcast booth. Blue Jays’ legend Jerry Howarth will be sorely missed as the long time voice on the radio, and Gregg Zaun and his “Manalyst” segment will be absent from Blue Jays’ games this season as well.

While it’s difficult to go through change on our radios and television sets, one familiar face might be making that a little easier for Blue Jays fans.

I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t know for certain what J.P. Arencibia‘s tweet from Monday means exactly, but I think we can take an educated guess. The former Blue Jays’ catcher mentioned that he has some “exciting news”, and that fans will be “seeing and hearing a lot more from me”.

The now 32 year old former big leaguer played his last big league game in 2015 for the Tampa Bay Rays. Prior to that he spent the 2014 season with the Texas Rangers, and played for the Blue Jays from 2010-13. After spending the 2016 season toiling in Triple-A, Arencibia decided to call it a career in January of last year.

More from Jays Journal

• Matt Chapman has been exactly what the Blue Jays needed
• Blue Jays: The goalposts are moving in the right direction
• Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays advance to the Championship Series
• Blue Jays: Comparisons for Alek Manoah’s Second Season
• Blue Jays: Adam Cimber, the unlikely decision King

Since that time he’s worked with his alma matter at the University of Tennesee with their baseball program, and also dabbled with a brief experience working with the MLB Network as an analyst. My guess for Arencibia’s future would be the latter in the Blue Jays’ organization, something that was banded about on social media a few months ago after Zaun was dismissed.

Arencibia was an incredibly well liked player in Toronto, and throughout Canada during his four years with the club. He was viewed as a building block to a future core, but unfortunately his career as a player never worked out in the way that many thought it would. His first full season turned out to be his best, as he slugged 23 home runs, drove in 78 RBIs, and finished with a batting average of .213. Unfortunately it was the slash line that ultimately did him in, as he finished his career with a .212/.258/.412 in 1573 at bats.

If he does end up joining the Blue Jays’ broadcast team, it would be a sweet sort of irony for the Cuban-American. In his final season in Toronto when asked about the comments made by then Blue Jays’ commentators Gregg Zaun and Dirk Hayhurst, Arencibia didn’t mince words saying, “there’s not one person in our clubhouse that respects those guys”. While we don’t know what role Arencibia might take on, or even if he’ll be broadcasting for certain just yet, personally I can’t help but laugh at the possibility of him taking a role similar to what Zaun used to have.

We’ll have to stay tuned until the official announcement comes down the pipe, but expect some sort of news to come in the not so distant future.

Next: Munenori Kawasaki stepping away from baseball