The Twins announced on Wednesday that they’ve signed free-agent catcher Jason Castro to a three-year, $24.5MM contract, as was initially reported last week. Minnesota, one of the rare teams that discloses financial details of signings themselves, announced that the deal is slightly front-loaded, with Castro set to earn $8.5MM in 2017 and $8MM in both 2018 and 2019. The team’s 40-man roster is now full following the signing of Castro, though they’ll presumably vacate one spot in advance of next week’s Rule 5 Draft, when they have the first overall selection.
Castro, 29, drew strong early interest in a market that featured few immediate, near-regular catching options. With Wilson Ramos carrying a second ACL tear with him into free agency, Castro’s standing was significantly improved — as was that of other top options such as Matt Wieters, Kurt Suzuki, and Nick Hundley.
[Related: Updated Minnesota Twins Depth Chart]
Age was undoubtedly a factor that worked in Castro’s favor, but he also intrigued with his blend of left-handed power and reputation as a framing guru. Though he has never returned to his breakout 2013 levels of production at the plate, and is deficient in the on-base department, Castro has hit double-digit home runs in each of the last four seasons and has historically posted approximately league-average power (in terms of isolated slugging).
In the defensive department, Castro has consistently rated as one of the game’s best at winning borderline strikes for his pitchers (by measure of both StatCorner and Baseball Prospectus). Though he’s average in other regards behind the plate, that leaves Castro as a top-quality run preventer, at least if one accepts the more aggressive assessments of pitch framing’s capacity to impact run expectancy.
There are plenty of limitations to his game, too, of course. Most notably, Castro carries only a .215 batting average and .291 OBP over the past three seasons. There’s a lot of swing and miss to his game (32.7% strikeout rate last year), though he can take a free pass and just boosted his walk rate to a career-best 12.0% in 2016.
With proper platoon usage, though, those problems can perhaps be offset. Castro hit just .149/.237/.241 last year when facing southpaws, but posted a much more useful .231/.331/.426 slash over his 279 plate appearances against righties. Those numbers mirror his career marks, which suggest there’s little reason ever to send him out without the platoon advantage.
For the Twins, Castro represents the first major acquisition of a new-look front office led by Derek Falvey and Thad Levine. With Kurt Suzuki departing this winter — bringing with him a glove that framing metrics were not fond of — that pair set out to find a replacement. Falvey and Levine evidently believe in the value of pitch framing, targeting Castro and staying on him even as the price tag moved to a fairly lofty level.
Minnesota will presumably pair Castro with John Ryan Murphy, who was picked up last winter in hopes he’d turn into a quality receiver. Though the 25-year-old scuffled badly at the plate in the majors, and hit just .236/.286/.323 in his 290 Triple-A plate appearances, he has shown more bat in the past and is considered a highly-talented framer in his own right. The club also just added Mitch Garver, another right-handed-hitting backstop, to the 40-man roster, so he’ll provide another option.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the signing (Twitter links), and Yahoo’s Jeff Passan tweeted the exact guarantee.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
We’re going to the World Series!!!!! XD But for real this will help the pitching staff.
Low risk move despite the guarentee since they won’t be very good
Free pick on the FA Prediction Contest!
Which is sad because I had this one right ! :p
Nice signing by Minnesota. That will definitely help develop young guys like Berrios, who didn’t have a great season.
The braves will now sign Weiters for 2yrs unfortunately
Looking more likely…..blech
which is funny because I had some ass on here the other day berating me. He was adamant that the Braves were going after Castro hard core.
why so down on Weiters?
He’s not all that good
Wieters was always much more likely than Castro. The Braves have been signing and trading for and talking about how they are acquiring, you know, interesting, compelling players. Castro is one of the most non-descript major free agents available.
Strange, but okay.
Castro knows how to call a game, he’ll be a solid addition. Good deal.
Good signing for the Twins
Ah, another freebie for the contest!
Love it. Shocked he picked the Twins, guessing they offered the most money but this amount seems to be within the range he was expected to sign for. Nice start to the offseason for the Twins.
Now make Murphy his backup who mostly faces lefties and plays when Castro needs rest. Both are good pitch frame guys.
Wonder if the Braves make a run at Norris now, go for Wieters or just ride out Recker. I have said for awhile now I hoped they make a run at Montero see if he can build value and move him at the deadline and next year go hard for LuCroy.
Something tells me Coppy has something up his sleeve and has a young guy somewhere that is blocked he is looking to make a move for.
I think it wouldn’t take much to pry Norris loose. He had a terrible year at the plate last year and his defense is bad. Norris is also arb-eligible this year and in line for 4 or 5 million bucks. If you’re going in that direction why not go after Hundley?
They probably offered Castro 1/12 or 2/18. I seriously doubt they go after the high caliber FAs of 2019, but I could see them going hard and early on type B’s in the next few offseasons. Just don’t know if Lucroy fits that bill
The Braves money situation will be different in 2019. They will be more competitive. By no means top 5 spenders but they will be able to make a big FA signing by the time that off season rolls around.
I thought Norris would be a buy low target for the Braves as well if getting a bat improvement is the priority over how they call the game, work with young pitchers, or catch the knuckleball. We know the Braves and Padres are on each other’s speed dial, and the Padres have depth at C to spare.
That’s a fair chunk of change for a player such as Castro… interesting
What I don’t get is why $24.5 Million, and all the other $ amounts, are abbreviated as $24.5MM, because it doesn’t make sense…it should be $24.5M, as there’s only one M in Million.
Slopee Joe not steak y’all
Castro or your posts?
Ya mama
My inner sixth grader was moderately offended by that but what my inner seventh grader wanted to post would probably either get me a medal or banned from this site
Hahahahaha SUCKERS!!
League average offensive catcher vs RHP and good framing skills? I’ll take that every day but you didn’t have to watch Suzuki so you don’t know how good you had it. Castro is 75 runs better than Suzuki at pitch framing over the last three years.
Twins pitchers need all the help they can get because they almost never get those close calls and as everyone knows, the Twins are very bad at K’s all by themselves. Will be nice to get some help from a catcher.
No, I haven’t watched Suzuki, but I have watched all I can stand of Castro. His overall defense is poor (3rd in passed balls), his arm is weak, and he is average at best at calling a game. His offense is deplorable; about the same as you’d expect from a pitcher with an occasional HR thrown in. I’m just glad we’ve moved on from him and who knows, maybe he will flourish in the Twin Cities for you guys.
Looks like Castro is only worse in the passed balls category. He’s much better at throwing out runners than Suzuki (could be due to the pitchers as well obviously). Suzuki also has a weak arm. I’d call Suzuki an average game caller. He might be worse but it’s hard to tell when your pitchers aren’t the greatest. They’re both likely at fault, but Suzuki has never done anything to better those pitchers.
And I don’t agree with the hits like a pitcher comment either. Maybe a handful, but that’s out of the pitchers who are actually good at it. I’m surprised the Astros allowed him to face lefties at all when he hits like Drew Butera against lefties. Was shocked to see that many ab’s vs lefties. He’s a clear platoon player. Hoping the Twins don’t make this same mistake.
I do hope he does flourish as you said. He should be much better than the Suzuki/Centeno combo the Twins had. Twins get an upgrade in Castro and the Astros now have an upgrade in McCann.
The Astros let him play nearly every day, and that baffled me! Seems like a nice guy and he does try hard, it’s just frustrating when you have a team like the Astros who always talk about winning and up until now, haven’t done much to actually win. We are notorious for having unyielding faith in crappy players.
Yeah, I’d be baffled too. There’s more than enough sample size to show that he should never face a lefty. He just can’t do it and making him do it isn’t going to magically make him better at it at this point in his career.
Obviously sometimes there is no way around it with relievers and you don’t want to pinch hit all the time so that they get a pass on. The problem is the 21 times he started vs a left handed starter. That should have gone to his backup, unless the backup is way worse vs lefties which would be hard to do…
All your comments about why Castro is no good way true except for framing. The guy is bad enough at everything else so I don’t know why you feel the need to exaggerate and make it sound worse.
“a much more useful .231/.331/.426 against righties”? Ummm not sure I would put that in the “useful” category.
Haha me either but for some reason this site thinks he’s a top tier catcher. They’ve clearly not had to watch him daily the last several years.
@astrosfan4life I even went and looked up the stats for all MLB catchers and also just the league average slash line and it’s maybe 20% below league average. I’m not sure I’d be all that excited about spending 8 million a year on him.
League average overall for a C was .242/.310/.391 last year. So as long as he’s used correctly (platooned), he’s a league average offensive catcher.
I’ll take good defense and league average offense any day for a catcher. Getting more than that would certainly be welcome, but anything more than average offense is basically a bonus. Very few really good defensive catchers who also are stud hitters. Usually only get offense or defense from catchers, not both. The ones who provide both are special.
Interesting stats, thanks…. I couldn’t find the league average for catchers. Thanks for the info. You think he’s worth it then?
No.
It’s close. Most veteran bench guys make around that much
I mean, if I’m honest I’d want the contract to be for slightly less but I am fine on the years. Most places I saw put him at getting either 3/18 or 3/21 but I didn’t read up on many sites. So those predictions aren’t that far off.
Suzuki was getting 6M per and was a streaky hitter and very bad defensively. Looks like Castro is probably streaky too, but he was also facing lefties when he shouldn’t have been. If Castro hits only vs righties for the Twins than he’s an upgrade offensively and defensively over Suzuki and only for a little over 2M more. Easily seems worth it. Twins biggest problem is pitching, not offense. Castro can actually help them while Suzuki only hurt them.
I’d say this is about right. $8 million per year seems like it should get you a lot, but that’s about the cost of a below-average regular in today’s market. He’s not going to push them into the playoffs or anything, but he’s a serviceable starter now making serviceable starter money
That is useful though. The ops part of that is decent for a catcher, average isn’t that important
The Braves should offer John Gant and Johnathan Morales for Andrew Knapp or Max Pentecost and make a deal for a catcher who would be more ready.
As a Jays fan, I would do Gant for Pentecost in a heartbeat. Max is a nice prospect but with his injuries, his future at C is looking bleak. It’d be a sell low but if he can’t stay behind the plate, his bat doesn’t really play anywhere else.
I actually legitimately got one right without changing my pick!
Haha I will finish 0’fer I’m sure.
Does anybody think with Toronto needing bullpen arms there is a match for Reese McGuire ???? How bout a Chris Withrow for Reese ?
I can’t really see it to be honest. As I mentioned above, with Pentecost’s future behind the plate murky at best, Reece is the only other legit C prospect the team has. If he is used to get BP help, I’d personally hope they’d package him and get a better arm than Withrow.
Nice defensive catcher for the Twins, but seeking offense from Castro, that’s another story.
I was just wondering what Jason Castro has been up to since he was on American Idol.
Eight million a year for that kind of production and defense? It’s no wonder ticket prices are getting out of hand for the average Joe out there.
Hey moms and dads, teach your kids to grow up and be catcher$.
Or left handed relief pitchers.
At the price, and for his offensive numbers, I’m glad the Rays didn’t land him.
I don’t understand the appeal of Castro. Awful hitter. His only value is pitch framing? Give me a break. Let’s put this simply, he stinks.
He’s an above average catcher when he faces righties. Minnesota just has to have a straight platoon between him and Murphy
Except he hasn’t hit righties well since 2013 when he hit .286, since then .216, .219, .231 with almost or at least 100 k’s a season against righties with no more than 36 walks and low OBP, in what what world is that an above average catcher when facing righties?
His ops was good last year
Castros ops was 684 which is 11 points lower than league average for a catcher. Carlos Ruiz ranked almost 40th among offensive catchers and his ops was over 700, Castro didn’t make the list and they had about the same number of at bats
No stats show that he was above average against righties or at all when up to bat, good defensive catcher but that’s about it
Among catchers offensively*
Not sure where you are getting your stats.
Fangraphs shows the MLB average for a C vs RH as: .239/.306/.384 for an OPS of .690. That’s for 2016 only.
The MLB average for a C (vs right and LH’s): .242/.310/..391 for an OPS of .701. Again, for 2016 only.
Castro’s OPS vs right only: .231/.331/.426 for an OPS of .757. for 2016.
So yes, he’s above average for a catcher when he’s used the way he should be.. Gets on base more and slugs more. If the team is facing multiple LH starters in a row, the team isn’t going to sit him every game..but he should sit for most of them. That’s something the Astros failed to do which brought his overall numbers way down.
No one is saying he’s Piazza, but at minimum you want a good defender and an average offensive hitter. He’s a good defender, supposedly and as his stats show above, an above average hitter for a catcher when he is used correctly.
Castro is a textbook guy for the big half of a platoon. I don’t get why this is an argument. $8m is a little steep, maybe, but this is a good signing IMO.