While J.P. Arencibia continues to be at the centre of trade rumours, he believes much of it is being fabricated by the media.
The Toronto Blue Jays catcher joined Jeff Blair and Dirk Hayhurst on Sportsnet 590 The Fan Wednesday morning where he explained why he doesn’t buy into off-season speculation.
"What I’ve learned is writers almost throw stuff on the wall,” Arencibia said on the Jeff Blair Show Wednesday. “Watching with our managerial search where we had all these finalists. I talked to Alex (Anthopolous) and we hadn’t even talked to any of those finalists. So that’s when I really understand that as a writer, you’re almost like you’re a meteorologist."
While the 26-year-old may not be affected by being linked to trade rumours, he has to deal with nervous family members who tend to believe everything they read or hear.
"With family members too. They stay up to speed on the internet and things like that," Arencibia explained. "We don’t pay attention as much because a lot of it is propaganda.
"My sister unfortunately she reads some of those things and she’ll ask questions, I think it’s just lack of knowledge. If you don’t know the way kind of works, especially some of them come from these publications that are credible. "
With social media becoming so prominent, Arencibia said he commonly hears about news and speculation from friends.
"A lot of it just comes from friends I would say," he said. People text me before I ever find out everything … It’s kind of how I found out about the trade with the Marlins. I was in Alberta, hunting actually. I got back and saw I had 20 missed text messages. But that’s kind of the way sometimes you learn about it and you research and find out about it."
The Blue Jays catcher has been mentioned as a possible trade chip throughout the off-season until the rumours were downplayed by GM Alex Anthopolous on Tuesday.
“Beyond that, I don’t promise anyone anything," Anthopolous said. "J.P. is our everyday starter, he’s the guy we plan on starting.”
"I think Alex put it to rest (Tuesday)," Arencibia said. "He talked to me (Tuesday). I think he did a good job of putting that to rest."