J.P. Arencibia - Baltimore Orioles catcher

The Baltimore Orioles inked catcher J.P. Arencibia to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training on Thursday afternoon according to a report from Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun.

As Jeff Todd of MLB Trade Rumors points out, the O’s currently have five catchers on their 40 man roster (Matt Wieters, Caleb Joseph, Steve Clevenger, Ryan Lavarnway and Michael Ohlman), which makes me wonder if they’re preparing for a potential Wieters trade. BSR’s Connor Guerico predicted that Wieters would be moved at the deadline, which makes sense as the Scott Boras client will hit the open market at the end of the 2015 season.

But back to today’s move. In Arencibia the Orioles have added a 29 year old catcher with five-years of big league experience, whose offensive production has been on the decline over the past three seasons:

Year Age Tm G PA AB R H HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
2010 24 TOR 11 37 35 3 5 2 4 2 11 .143 .189 .343 .532 41
2011 25 TOR 129 486 443 47 97 23 78 36 133 .219 .282 .438 .720 91
2012 26 TOR 102 372 347 45 81 18 56 18 108 .233 .275 .435 .710 90
2013 27 TOR 138 497 474 45 92 21 55 18 148 .194 .227 .365 .592 59
2014 28 TEX 63 222 203 20 36 10 35 10 62 .177 .239 .369 .608 69
5 Yrs 443 1614 1502 160 311 74 228 84 462 .207 .255 .403 .658 77
162 Game Avg. 162 590 549 59 114 27 83 31 169 .207 .255 .403 .658 77
TOR (4 yrs) 380 1392 1299 140 275 64 193 74 400 .212 .258 .408 .666 78
TEX (1 yr) 63 222 203 20 36 10 35 10 62 .177 .239 .369 .608 69
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/8/2015.

Defensively, Arencibia is viewed as an above average pitch framer according to Baseball Prospectus’ catcher metrics (18.8 extra strikes) and throws out 26 percent of runners attempting to steal.

Another notable factoid about Arencibia, besides his killer Tim Kurkjian impression, is that he posted some big power numbers in the minor leagues (32 dingers in Triple-A Las Vegas in 2010) under former Rangers minor league hitting coordinator and now current Orioles hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh.

Image Credit: Kevin G