The Orioles made one of their most notable additions of an all-too-quiet offseason Thursday with the announcement of a minor-league agreement with veteran catcher J.P. Arencibia.
The deal includes an invitation to spring training for the former Toronto Blue Jay and Texas Ranger who has also played a limited number of games at first base. The 29-year-old is a career .207 hitter with 74 home runs and a .658 on-base plus slugging percentage in five major league seasons.
Arencibia spent the first four seasons of his major league career in Toronto after he was selected in the first round of the 2007 amateur draft by the Blue Jays. In his lone season with the Rangers in 2014, Arencibia hit only .177 in 222 plate appearances and spent part of the season in the minors.
With backup catcher Nick Hundley signing a two-year deal with Colorado and Matt Wieters’ status for Opening Day still unclear, executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette had wanted to add another catcher to the mix for spring training.
Arencibia’s best major league season came in in 2011 when he hit .219 with a career-high 23 homers and a .720 OPS.
