ARLINGTON, TEXAS—Former Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia said Saturday that unfavourable media coverage in Toronto contributed to the organization’s decision to release him at the end of last season.

“I learned the media controls a lot of things and the only question that you guys were writing in the off-season was what they were going to do behind the plate, when obviously the pitching was something that needed to be addressed,” he told the Star after taking batting practice. “But I was the only question because I was the villain of the team.”

Now with the Texas Rangers — who signed him to a one-year, $1.8 million contract after he was cut loose by the Jays — Arencibia played his first game against his former team on Friday night, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout.

A former first-round pick who at one time looked destined to be the Jays’ catcher of the future, Arencibia endured a disastrous 2013 season, in which despite hitting 21 home runs he was among the worst offensive and defensive players at his position. His .227 on-base percentage last season was not only the lowest in the majors, but also the fourth-worst in baseball’s modern era (since 1901) for a player with at least 400 plate appearances. He also led all catchers with 13 passed balls and 11 errors.

His final season in Toronto was also marked by Twitter spats with fans and public clashes with Sportsnet baseball analysts Gregg Zaun and Dirk Hayhurst, whom he accused of being overly negative in their criticism.

Despite his historically poor production on both sides of the ball, by Arencibia’s estimation it was the media who ran him out of town.

“I think the media made me out to be a monster — I wasn’t. They changed a lot of things that I said or made up stories. So I thought that that was a big thing that went down. I learned how much media does control things.”

Arencibia did not specify to which reporters or media outlets he was referring. Of the allegations he said were falsely reported, he mentioned only one: that he had complained to team president Paul Beeston about Hayhurst and Zaun, which he said “wasn’t even close to what happened.”

Arencibia himself was actually the source of that report, when he said in an MLB Network radio interview that he spoke to the “team president” about broadcasters “that we employ” and asked, “How do you build a fan base when everything that fans are hearing is negative?”

Though he once again declined to specify about whom or what he was speaking, Arencibia also said he considered taking legal action against some members of the media, whom he vaguely accused of defaming him.

“Of course I was over it at this point of trying to say anything because it made no difference,” he said. “For everything that I did and everything that I try to do in the community and always be a good person first, to see people just turn around and make things up. Obviously you know that there’s bad human beings in this world and I realized we had quite a few of them that I had to deal with.”

This season, Arencibia’s struggles have continued on the field. Signed as a potential backup to Geovany Soto, who suffered a knee injury in spring training, Arencibia has split everyday catching duties with Robinson Chirinos. In 19 starts, Arencibia is hitting .133 with one home run and a .182 on-base percentage; while Chirinos has started 23 games behind the plate and is hitting .215 with two home runs and a .279 OBP. The Rangers will have to decide whether to keep Arencibia on the big-league roster in about a month when Soto is expected to return.

In interviews with Texas-based media during spring training, Arencibia said the team culture was different with the Rangers than it was with the Jays.

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“Not to take away anything from where I came from,” he told ESPNDallas.com, “but it’s a different feeling around here. It’s fun to come to work with guys that work hard and want to win. The culture around here is different. It’s exciting to me. I have fun being a part of that. I’ve missed that the past couple of years, and it’s exciting to get back to that.”

Asked by the Star to clarify how the two teams’ cultures differ, Arencibia no longer seemed interested in the interview. “Warmer weather,” he deadpanned, followed by: “No poutine.”

“I have a lot of fun here, and I had a lot of fun in Toronto,” he said. “Other than some of the different things that I don’t care to comment about it anymore, that’s pretty much all I feel like saying.”

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