I know the feeling, Ricky
Because… of course he is.
In the background above we see JP Arencibia during the A’s spirit-crushing bat-around inning that knocked Ricky Romero out of tonight’s game. Little did we know at the time that, despite staying in to finish the inning after taking a foul ball off the hand, Arencibia was injured. Y’know, like everybody else.
He didn’t return to the game after the Jays mercifully found a way to end the inning, had himself x-rayed, and the results aren’t good. Robert MacLeod of the Globe and Mail passes along the news that was passed along to the press-box mid-game: it’s a broken bone, and he’s expected to be out for six weeks.
I mean… it’s not like it was abundantly clear why the Jays have been reportedly insistent on only trading for assets that will help them both this year and next, but… with Travis d’Arnaud injured and not slated to return until the Arizona Fall League, we’re looking at Jeff Mathis: starting catcher.
And maybe Yan Gomes will get into some games behind the plate, even.
Sigh
Arencibia, thanks largely to his power– as expected– has perhaps been a more valuable player to the Jays this year than you’d believe, or that you [read: I] probably thought just a few weeks ago. He now sports a .317 wOBA, 97 wRC+ and 1.5 WAR per FanGraphs– which for the moment, amazingly, is higher than qualified catchers Mike Napoli, Ryan Doumit, Jesus Montero, and is equal to Carlos Santana.
So, even if it doesn’t feel like he’s been terribly valuable, it’s a blow. If you’d been trying desperately to hold off on calling contention this season too far out of the Jays’ reach, um… add in Ricky Romero’s continuing awfulness and this might not be worst time to let it go.
Image via Brad White/Getty.
