Atlanta Braves Might Have Catching Option Dumped in Their Laps
At tonight’s contract tendering deadline, there were a couple of surprises. One was a respectable catcher in a market devoid of respectable catchers.
If Atlanta Braves General Manager John Coppolella has not already been on the phone tonight with the ISE Baseball representative for Welington Castillo, then I would be shocked.
The timing was a bit out of order. Earlier, the Braves opted into contracts with both of their arbitration-eligible catchers – Tuffy Gosewisch ($635,000 with major and minor league clauses) and Anthony Recker ($800,000; full major league deal). But nobody anticipated this news.
From the MLBTR post on this subject:
The Diamondbacks decided not to tender arbitration contracts to catcher Welington Castillo and righty Rubby De La Rosa, per a team announcement. The decision on Castillo, in particular, rates as a surprise; both will be available to the highest bidder on the open market.
Castillo had been projected by MLBTR and contributor Matt Swartz to earn a fairly hefty $5.9MM in his final season of control. But in this market, with more teams seemingly in need of catching than there are serviceable backstops to go around, that seemed plenty reasonable.
It’s the Diamondbacks again… but since they have new people running their show now who seem to know what they’re doing, this is truly a head-scratcher. What is truly amazing here is that there has been no buzz about Castillo being made available on the trade market or … anything in advance of this non-tender decision.
It’s hard to know now whether calls had been made, but had Washington known about Castillo, they might have traded for him instead of Derek Norris today. That may have been a personal preference for them, but Castillo still represents a useful player that the Nationals, Braves and others should have expressed some interest in.
In any event, Castillo is now a free agent, and in a position where the Braves might very well be able to capitalize on his new-found freedom.
Why Castillo?
No, it’s not a perfect fit for Atlanta, but that doesn’t exclude his candidacy:
- He will turn 30 in April and has 5 years of service time, mostly with the Cubs.
- His hitting rebounded a bit in Arizona (that happens a lot) with .813 and .745 OPS numbers in 2015-16. For a catcher… that’ll play.
- His pitch framing ratings are near average. -3.2 in 2016, 0.2 in 2015. Somebody must have gotten to him after he left the Cubs, because his numbers were horrible before that.
- He throws out base runners: 106 of 340 in his career and 24 of 64 last year.
- If there’s a knock against him, it’s the Fielding Runs Above Average mark that BaseballProspectus gave him: ranking 101st out of 108 catchers (-9.7).
For reference, A.J. Pierzynski ranked 96th and Anthony Recker 97th in very limited action (Castillo easily had more 2016 catching innings than both combined; he also ranked 59th in that category in 2015).
If Castillo were a left-handed hitter, it would be a match made in baseball heaven for the Braves, but otherwise, I think we can excuse that. There doesn’t seem to be a lot to be concerned with otherwise.
The Diamondbacks seemingly baled at having to pay Castillo something in the neighborhood of $6 million via arbitration this year. Instead they will pitch to Jeff Mathis for the next two years at $2 million each.
Yes, they seem to be pinching pennies at that level in Phoenix… just a year after getting a $1 billion-plus TV contract and signing Zack Greinke to a huge deal.
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Can the Braves Afford Him?
Well, since they’re apparently still talking about Chris Sale, the evident answer is ‘yes’. The spending on Recker and Gosewisch only sums to a maximum of $1,435,000 so either could be cut loose or perhaps moved to AAA without concern over those numbers.
Since he was not afforded the opportunity of a deal estimated at $5.9 million by MLBTR, Castillo would likely readily agree to something in the $4-5 million range. He took home $3.7 million in 2016.
Such a price (call it $4.7m) would push the Braves’ commitments to an estimated $117.4 million for Opening Day… a raw figure never exceeded by the franchise.
Nonetheless, Castillo is a catcher… the Atlanta Braves need a catcher… let’s just see.