JP Arencibia Breaks Hand As Injury Woes Continue For Toronto Blue Jays
When is someone going to make this stop? Please?
Whatever the cruel joke is that the baseball gods seem intent on playing on the Toronto Blue Jays these days. It’s not funny anymore. Tonight, it was JP Arencibia‘s turn, exiting the game after a brutal bat-around 2nd inning that saw the Oakland Athletics score 7 runs off Ricky Romero (that’s a story for another time). Arencibia took a foul ball off the hand during the inning, and stuck around to finish the frame despite injuring his hand. The team immediately sent him for X-rays, and the results were not good:
Arencibia fractured his hand. Out six weeks. #BlueJays
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) July 26, 2012
This is good news, perhaps, only if you are a huge Jeff Mathis fan, because you’re going to be seeing him a whole lot behind the plate over the next six weeks. Despite his not-so-good overall season thus far, Arencibia is actually one of the hottest hitters on the Blue Jays over the last few weeks, and that he injured himself in the midst of a hot streak is just…well, I’m not sure what’s worse, that we’ll have to see Mathis at the plate over the next six weeks. The guy can play defense, sure, but a career .573 OPS doesn’t lie. If you were under the impression that his .807 OPS in 80 ABs this season makes him better at the plate than Arencibia, I’d probably suggest an adjustment in expectation as he becomes poised to take the full-time role while Arencibia is out.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Yan Gomes, who has filled in at 1st this season, got some time behind the plate too. The injury would be much less of a problem, of course, if Travis D’Arnaud wasn’t also hurt…in any case, Arencibia’s pending trip to the DL will make him the 11th Blue Jay player to land there this season. I know, every team in the league deal with injuries; but you know, not every team deals with this many injuries.
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