Arencibia faces music in Toronto

Former Blue Jay finds perspective in minor leagues

TORONTO • He left under a cloud, unwanted by his team and publicly furious at certain media members. But when he returned, he received smiles and hugs from former coaches and teammates and stadium staff, and he had a new position to play.

J.P. Arencibia, once a supposed star in the making for the Toronto Blue Jays, was recalled from the minors by his new team, the Texas Rangers, on Thursday, and as luck would have it, his first stop was his old stomping ground at the Rogers Centre.

When he met the media before Friday night’s game, in which he was the Rangers’ starting first baseman, Arencibia spoke of renewal, of finding himself after Texas sent to him to play for the Triple-A Round Rock Express. Last year in Toronto – when he batted .194 with a .227 on-base percentage – he began hearing voices in his head before every at-bat, warning him not to make a false move, he said.

“I had a microphone in my head from the time I was on deck to the time I walked to the plate to the time I was in the box,” he said. “It was pretty obvious I was fighting myself. I was in my own way. That was the biggest thing. I had to go down [to the minors] and kind of get out of my own way.”

It was a vague summary of his woes, and it became no clearer with follow-up questions. Arencibia seemed to be saying he needed to focus on one pitch at a time, not the potential consequences of still another poor at-bat. He also said he needed to be more aggressive and concentrate on the abilities that brought him to the majors in the first place.

During his three years as the Jays’ regular catcher, he hit 64 home runs, batted .212 and struck out 400 times. After Toronto cut him loose after last season, he signed with Texas and batted .133 with a .182 OBP in 20 games before the Rangers sent him down.

“I think that it was something that was necessary,” he said of his demotion. “I went back and had to iron some things out and be who I can be. That was really the main thing, is changing my mentality and really understanding myself.”

Pressed about what that meant, he simply repeated that he learned to be aggressive at the plate again and not to worry about his statistics. As it turned out, his Triple-A statistics were encouraging: a .279 average, .320 OBP, 14 homers in 48 games. He continued to strike out a lot, but the Rangers, who have fallen into a dreadful slump, decided to give him another chance, this time as a first baseman with all of 20 minor-league games of experience at the position.

When he bottomed out in Toronto, he engaged in a public feud with various media types and complained that his charity work and unpublicized acts of kindness toward fans were unappreciated.

Asked whether he regrets any of those remarks, he replied: “I’m not really here to talk about that stuff. We all said what we needed to say. I’m just excited to be back in the major leagues.” He made a positive impact on lots of Blue Jays fans, he said.

But while discussing his minor-league epiphany, Arencibia also kept mentioning his struggles with self-doubt as he endured a 148-strikeout season last year. And at one point, he acknowledged the root of all those boos that he heard last summer.

“I was able to be at least OK enough to put the ball in play at times,” he said, “but I wasn’t good.”