If Arencibia be the prospect coming to the M's, here is the MLB scouting profile on him, coming out of college.  Arencibia was projected to go in the first few rounds, but the Jays grabbed him with the #21 overall.

Exec sum of the MLB scouting report:  Arencibia is below-par defensively, definitely has raw power, but really does nothing else well.  (As it happens, his minor-league offensive performance has been consistent with this.)

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In other words, Arencibia's appeal has been all about the allure of getting 30 or more homers from the catching position, and in fact he did SLG .560 in high-A and .500 in double-A.

His EYE is terrible -- 58 walks and 271 strikeouts in the minor leagues, so you know he's swinging from the backside every cut.  (Granted, he has been moved along quickly, was young last year for a catcher in AAA.)

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Catcher with a rep for subpar defense, no walks, terrible eye, light-tower power the big asset -- so he has to hit 30 homers to be effective, according to the ML scouts' reports on him.  And he'd be RH in Safeco.

Despite being a recent 1st-round pick, Arencibia wasn't one of Baseball America's top 20 PCL prospects in 2009, nor should he have been.

On the surface of it, certainly not a player I would ever expect to be a major league starter, especially in Safeco Field.   But, of course, the Jays thought he was a good value in the middle of the first round, and if the M's get him, they'll have traded Brandon Morrow for him.

Supposing he managed to become an offensive Jose Guillen at catcher, with "ehhhh" defense, is that what you're looking for anyway?

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For us who've rarely or never seen him play, it's just one 10-degree turn from "Terrible EYE" to "rushed, Lopez-type hitting talent" and it's just one 10-degree turn from "dubious defense" to "Rob Johnson defense."

Arencibia has quick feet and great athleticism by all accounts -- precisely like Rob Johnson -- and he was, after all, drafted #21 overall.  People saw special things in his bat.

I hope it's not Arencibia coming in.  But if the M's team judges him to be a good prospect, that's arguable.

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Arencibia did spend a full year at AAA last year, so you could take this strategy (if that were the strategy) as a "stoploss" given Rob Johnson's injury concerns.   As mentioned before, Zduriencik has paid a lot of attention to the width (Carp, Vargas, Ackley, Aardsma, etc) of the M's talent pyramid as well as to its height (Cliff Lee, Chone Figgins).

Hopefully, the post will become moot in a couple of hours.