And Nori Aoki, Kevin Witt and A.J. Cole
Former Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia turns 39 today.
Arencibia was a first-round draft pick by the Jays in the 2004 draft, number 21 overall. He quickly became our top prospect and hit #43 on Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list before the 2009 season.
Then, he came up to the Jays and played his first MLB game on August 7th, 2010, and it couldn’t have gone better. He went 4 for 5, with 2 home runs and a double. We thought we had our catcher for the next ten years.
It didn’t work out that way. He had more trouble with the bat than we thought he would, and he took those troubles with him behind the plate.
JP played four seasons with the Jays. He hit .212/.258/.408 in 380 games. Over the years, we talked too much about his shortcomings, but he seemed like a good guy. He was great with fans and great with kids.
He came to Calgary with the Jays’ winter tour several years ago, and I got to talk to him a little bit. He was very nice. I didn’t notice how good-looking he was until later when I saw pictures that a friend of mine took for me, and I noticed how many photos she took of JP.
From the Jays, he went to the Rays (and had a poor year) and then the Rangers (and hit well, .310, but in 73 PA). Then he played in the Phillies and the Rays systems but didn’t return to the majors.
Since then, he’s worked as an analyst for Marlin games (I thought he was pretty good in the role). He married and divorced Kimberly Perry of the Band Perry (who wrote a song that wasn’t very complimentary about JP) and has married Fox broadcaster Tomi Lahren (who, to my knowledge, hasn’t written a song about him).
Happy Birthday. JP.
Nori Aoki turns 43 today.
Aoki came to us in trade from the Astros for Francisco Liriano at the deadline in 2017.
Nori played in 12 games with the Jays, hitting .281/.294/.594 with 3 home runs. Looking at the stat line, I wonder why we gave up on him so quickly, but we released him on August 31st. The Mets picked him up, and he played 27 games with them and hit .284/.371/.373. That was the end of his MLB career. In six years, he hit .285/.350/.387 in 758 games with 33 home runs.
He returned to Japan and has played for the Yakult Swallows ever since. Last year, at 42, he played 75 games.
Kevin Witt turns 49 today.
He was drafted by the Jays in the first round of the 1994 draft (28th overall).
He made it to the Jays in 1998, playing 5 games. He played 15 the next year and was released after the season. After that, he bounced around (when you are a first-round draft pick, you get many chances). He did get some time in the majors with the Padres (2001), Tigers (2003) and Rays (2006). Kevin also spent time in the Reds and Cardinals systems.
Witt played 146 games in the majors with a .233/.267/.376 batting line.
Happy Birthday, Kevin.
A.J. Cole turns 33 today.
Cole played in the majors for seven seasons, the last two with the Jays (2020 and 2021). He made 30 relief appearances for the Jays with a 2.59 ERA, with 2 saves.
Career, he pitched in 109 games, 19 starts with a 14-11 record and a 4.51 ERA.
Happy Birthday, A.J.