Released by the Orioles last week, catcher J.P. Arencibia has agreed to a minor-league deal with the Rays.
Arencibia has 25-homer power, which is rare among catchers, but he’s not really good enough at anything else to carry much all-around value. His defense is shaky, he’s a career .207 hitter, and his ghastly 462/84 K/BB ratio has led to a .255 on-base percentage.
He’ll head to Triple-A Durham and try to convince the Rays he’s worth a call-up at age 29.
The men in blue. Although it often looks black, yes? They still wear blue sometimes though so it probably doesn’t matter. Let’s just call ’em the baseball cops and not worry too much about what they’re wearing.
Here are the baseball cops for the 2019 World Series: Alan Porter, Doug Eddings, Gary Cederstrom, James Hoye,
Lance Barksdale, Sam Holbrook, and Jim Wolf.
Cederstrom is the Crew Chief and will have second base in tonight’s Game 1, after which they rotate as they always do.
Wolf will serve as the Replay Official for Games One and Two, after which he will join the on-field crew as the left field umpire for Game Three. Porter, the home plate umpire for Game One, will shift to Replay Official duties from Game Three through the conclusion of the World Series. The Replay Assistant throughout the Fall Classic will be regular season crew chief Jerry Meals.
The umpires will wear a uniform patch in memory of umpire Eric Cooper, who passed away over the weekend. The patch will say “Coop.”
