There's actually nothing in the Davidi article to suggest that JPA's injury was the reason for his poor performance.

Arencibia was interviewed before last night's game and he strongly implied this was the case. Paraphrasing here, he suggested he could have taken the easy way out and gotten a shot and gone on the DL for a month, but that he chose instead to gut it out to help the team. It seemed pretty clear that he saw his non-DL time as heroic and unselfish and that his numbers paid a price. He also suggested that the number of games he caught was also a contributing factor, saying that he prides himself on his durability. It seemed pretty clear that in his mind, he took one for the team, playing hurt at the expense of his numbers.

If we are trying to read between the lines in a broadcast interview, it would be nice to see the actual words, rather than an impression.

I'd link to the video if it were on-line anywhere. Absent that, all I have are my impressions which you are certainly free to disagree with, as you have done. Perhaps others who saw the interview can weigh in with their impressions and those well might contradict mine.

Nor are the Jays stupid enough to think that they should ignore an injury if it is significantly affecting his performance.

I'm not saying that I know what the Jays knew or didn't know, or if Arencibia's injury actually hurt his numbers or didn't. I'm just providing my potentially flawed recollection of the message that I felt Arencibia was conveying.

China Fan, I don’t think that article as clearly states that the Jays don’t know whether his knee has affected his hitting as you do. I think a reasonable interpretation is that Davidi suggests that there are two likely explanations for his offensive struggles, which aren’t mutually exclusive, and those are that he’s either not a good offensive players whose lack of plate discipline and pitch recognition skills are being further exploited the more evident they become or that his struggles are, to at least some degree, impacted by physical issues. It says that “the Jays must settle” the issue, but I don’t read a couple of quotes from Mottola as excluding the possibility that the front office or coaching staff may have already made up their minds on this front.

If they haven’t made up their minds, they’re going to have to decide how much of a mulligan to give for 2013, but I don’t see Davidi’s wording as indicating that AA hasn’t already decided to either a) give JP that mulligan or b) to view him as someone likely to have continued offensive difficulties in the majors.

And I also don’t agree with your “helping the team” comment. JP seems to have an inflated view of his own talent and any professional athlete must have a certain level of self-confidence. I think it’s very likely that JP believes that his presence in the lineup does more to the team’s chances of winning than Thole’s, even with an injury. We see professional athletes gutting it out through injury all the time, sometimes to their team’s detriment, and I don’t see why JP would be any different.

I have a question

Why has there been little talk about getting Halladay back? I realize he is having a bad year, but 2 years ago he was cy young?  His pitching style is one that he can pitch for a long time.  In this poll, how can he drop to 20th?  (Josh Johnson is ahead of him?)

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/09/top-34-free-agent-starters.html

Personally, if he can come available for a decent price, I am putting a flyer on him.  But...  In my eyes, he can do no wrong.

Given Redmond's lack of a track record, his performance must be viewed with an especially skeptical eye. But still, there's no arguing with success, especially when accompanied by strong peripherals. I think he will definitely be in the mix for next season. For no really good reason, I see he and Rogers as low cost 100-150 inning swingmen rather than stalwarts of the rotation. But even that has value, given their modest paycheques.

As for some of the other names, you've got a mixed bag there.

I can't believe that Romero and Jenkins are in the plans at all, unless they can wedge themselves in via surprising performances during spring training. Hutchison would figure to be in the long term plans, but my guess is that he'll start 2014 in the minors. And there does seem to be loose talk that Josh Johnson would return, though surely not at 13M. If he's truly healthy, I believe he would get every opportunity to crack the rotation.

Morrow and Happ are two more question marks. Morrow may just be one of those guys who's never entirely healthy. And the walk-happy Happ is not someone who fills me with confidence.

It will be interesting to see where AA focuses his energy and money this off-season. The rotation has been the team's Achilles' heal but there also appear to be several positions that need shoring up. Availability in the market, either via trade or free agency, will be a determining factor into which paths AA ends up pursuing to improve the team. And of course budgetary constraints. I don't expect any big name starting pitchers to be acquired because the asking prices will be too dear. I don't know that 15M a year for a Garza will be seen as palatable.

A default strategy, for good or for bad, might end up being just bringing back the same batch of starting pitchers with the hope that they are better and healthier.

Ack. Heel. Heel. Heel.

Boy, this winter could be interesting.