1:13pm: The Twins did meet with Castro’s representation during the GM Meetings this week, tweets Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (via Twitter), though the two sides only discussed “general needs and wants” at the time. Berardino adds that the Twins and Castro agreed to “reconvene” next week.
11:27am: Free-agent catcher Jason Castro is already weighing offers from at least three American League clubs, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), who also notes that the market for catchers is beginning to heat up. While Passan doesn’t specify which clubs have extended offers to the Stanford product and former No. 10 overall pick, there are multiple clubs in the AL that could certainly use catching help. The Astros are known to want Castro back, while the Angels, White Sox, Orioles, Rays and Twins are among Houston’s AL rivals that could look to pick up some help behind the plate.
Castro, 29, posted a .210/.307/.377 batting line with 11 home runs in 2016 — sub-par production relative to the league-average hitter but right in line with the park-adjusted output of a league-average catcher. While he was an All-Star with Houston in 2013 and looked to have enjoyed a breakout season (.276/.350/.485, 18 home runs, 35 doubles), his bat has regressed quite a bit since that time. While some clubs are undoubtedly tantalized by the upside of Castro once again reaching this height, he’ll play the bulk of next season at age 30, so teams also must be cognizant of the fact that it could simply be an outlier.
If a team were able to find a sufficient platoon partner for Castro and heavily limit his exposure to left-handed pitching, there’s reason to believe that his overall performance would increase. Castro hit .231/.331/.426 and launched 10 of his 11 home runs against right-handed pitching in 2016 but floundered at a .149/.237/.241 clip against fellow lefties. That’s been a trend throughout his career, as evidenced by a .247/.328/.424 slash line when holding the platoon advantage and an ugly .190/.249/.287 line against southpaws.
Though he may not be more than an average bat for a catcher, he does excel when it comes to pitch framing — a trait that is becoming increasingly important to front offices around the game. Castro trailed only Buster Posey and Yasmani Grandal as the best framing catcher in baseball, according to Baseball Prospectus, and he’s consistently been among the top framers in each of the past three seasons. He’s seen some fluctuations in terms of halting stolen base attempts, throwing out a career-best 36 percent of potential thieves in 2015 but sandwiching that between a pair of below-average seasons. Overall, he’s prevented 26 percent of the attempts against him in his career — about two percent below the league average in that time.
Though Castro has his flaws, his solid numbers against right-handed pitching and excellent framing skills landed him 29th on MLBTR’s Top 50 free agent list with a projection of two years and $15MM. I’ll note, however, that I’m among the most bullish on Castro among the MLBTR staff and do think he has a chance at landing a three-year pact.
Hope one of those offers in from the Halos
Probably is. They need another veteran behind the dish.
Hell no
Do you guys really want him? The past 3 years dude could not hit his way out of a wet paper bag…. Think Perez and Bandy are better. Just my opinion.
Orioles are one of the teams. They have already been linked to him and he would make a great platoon option with Joseph.
The Twins are definitely one of the teams.
Sounds like not, but I hope they get added to the list of offers quickly. I don’t expect Castro to choose the Twins over a contender though, so wouldn’t surprise me at all if they miss out.
C’mon Rays, 3/21 and get it done.
If thats what it takes then Houston should re-sign him.
I know they are not an American League team, but the Braves need to sign Castro and then be set with their major shopping list.
I’d rather stick with Flowers and Recker than have Castro. Then we could wait until next year and possibly go after Lucroy. Anyways, Flowers is also among the better pitch framers in baseball and he hits much better than Castro
The Braves could still go after Lucroy if they so desired in the next off season since Flowers only is under contract for 2017 now (with a team option). Signing Castro for a two year (or three year deal) would guarantee the Braves an elite framer (as he trailed only Posey and Grandal per this very article we are posting under). for the young pitchers coming up. If the Braves decided to go full out for Lucroy next off season they could also certainly deal Castro if so inclined (since good framing catchers are almost always in demand). Signing one does not eliminate signing the other next season. Also while it is true that Flowers hit better than Castro in 2016 that has not always been the case.
Let’s just say that the catcher market may be interesting to watch even if there are no exceptional candidates since Ramos’s injury gave him question marks.
Wow, where to you Braves fans come from.
An elite framer that can’t hit water if he fell out of a boat on the left side, and finishes out as a .220 at best and you think this is somebody that can change things.
and as far as your comment about framers always in demand….only as backups that can’t hit.
Its still an offensive game and defensive metrics even for a catcher normally are used to validate why a player is playing in place of somebody else..
Your right that no one should expect Castro to hit much, but the plain fact is over his career he has a 93 OPS+, and in 2016 his OPS+ was 88. But if you are actually looking at facts then you’d already had realized that the average OPS+ for all catchers in 2016 was 87. That means that even after what almost everyone would describe as a poor year with the bat, Castro was still around (slightly better in fact) than the average major league catcher. Besides a few select catchers league wide the state of catchers with much of the league is NOT where they’d prefer it to be, which is why there are so many teams looking to improve their catching situation this off season.
The truth is that since Cervelli signed an extension earlier this season, and Ramos got injured late in the season the available catchers are not what was once expected to be this off season. But even ones who are elite framers like Castro (who you apparently think should be a backup) are supposedly getting interests from teams.
Another truth is that IF Castro were to sign with Atlanta he would not be a classic starting catcher …although as the left side of a near platoon he would generate the most atbats. No where in any of my many posts on this website have you ever seen me even remotely insinuate that I thought Castro (or any other player at any other position) would “change things”. But I will admit that based on the Braves current situation that I believe that signing Castro would MOST LIKELY be the teams best option for improving the catching situation based on the current catchers thought to be available, expected salary, and expect cost in talent expended (which since he is a free agent is zero). The Braves however I’m sure have more information and formulas at their disposal than either one of us do and may definitely decide differently. In my opinion the Braves even with the addition of several improvements are not going to be in serious contention in 2017 (although they might stay in wild card contention until late in the season IF a lot of things go well).
Feel free to criticize any of my opinions or statements (they are only my opinions based on what factors I’ve analyzed after all). I have absolutely no problems with criticism if it is warranted, but please don’t claim that I’ve said something that I never did.
Braves should make a play for Miguel Montero as a tandem with Flowers and focus on finding a catcher of the future whether in the draft or aquiring somebody young from another team.