The Rangers are expected to inquire about Blue Jays catchers J.P. Arencibia and Travis d'Arnaud this offseason, T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com reported Monday.
The Blue Jays claimed catcher Bobby Wilson off waivers from the Angels earlier Monday, giving them three catchers at the MLB level in Wilson, Arencibia and Jeff Mathis with d'Arnaud waiting in the wings at Triple-A. The Rangers currently lack catching prospects in the high minors. Their oldest serious catching prospect is 19-year-old Jorge Alfaro, who hasn't even reached Double-A yet.
The Rangers ended last season with Mike Napoli and Geovany Soto at catcher. Napoli is a free agent and could be looking at as much as $80 million on the open market; Soto is eligible for arbitration this winter. According to Sullivan, the Rangers have expressed ambivalence about offering Napoli the $13.3 million qualifying offer necessary to receive draft pick compensation for departing free agents, a sign they may not make an effort to retain him.
Arencibia has established himself as a power threat in Toronto but with little else to his offensive game. He has a career .222/.275/.433 career batting line but has hit 41 home runs in the last two seasons (231 games).
The 23-year-old d'Arnaud would be the real prize, rated the 17th-best prospect prior to last season by Baseball America. He went on to hit .333/.380/.595 with 16 home runs in 67 games with Triple-A Las Vegas despite missing about two months with a PCL tear.
For more up-to-the-minute news and analysis on the latest rumors from bloggers Chris Cwik, Jack Moore and R.J. White, follow @MLBRumorsCBS.
