1:17pm: Add the Orioles to the list of teams interested in Castillo, as MASN’s Roch Kubatko tweets. The Orioles could lose Matt Wieters to free agency and have been interested in Castillo for some time, according to Kubatko.
11:03am: The Diamondbacks’ unexpected decision to non-tender Welington Castillo has added a new name to the free agent catching market, and Castillo is already receiving interest. The Rays are “expected to aggressively pursue” Castillo, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times wrote last night. The Rays, who currently have Luke Maile and Curt Casali atop their depth chart at catcher, were already expected to look for catching help, so it’s easy to see why the surprise addition of a .264/.322/.423 hitter and longtime starter to the market would be intriguing for them.
Topkin also tweeted this morning, though, that Castillo was receiving a number of calls, and not just from the Rays. It’s possible one of those teams could be the Braves, who have “some interest,” as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution tweets. Current Braves backstop Tyler Flowers hit fairly well last year and rates as a good framer, and he and fellow catchers Anthony Recker and Tuffy Gosewisch are all now under contract for 2017. Castillo could certainly still help the Braves, however, and it stands to reason that they’d have interest, since they’ve also shown at least some interest in free agent backstops like Matt Wieters and Jason Castro.
Rays take him
Rays your both a good fit for each other
Braves got him on a 2yr deal. rays will have to settle with Ramos
“Settle.” Ramos is the best catcher on the market, and will still be expensive even with his surgery. Doubt the Rays will splurge on him
I agree. Ramos still is the best catcher on the market, even if he might miss a few months. I don’t think not getting Castillo will cause you to “settle” for Ramos. Ramos will probably still be out of Tampa’s price limit.
Wilson Ramos could opt to have his leg amputated rather than let his ACL heal and he’d still be out of the Rays price range
And I say that as a Rays fan
Go get him Braves
Rays need to jump on this. Go ahead and offer him a 2 year extension and get it done. They haven’t had a catcher able to hit above the Mendoza line in years.
Problem with framing and throwing out runners.
Plus when he slumps, HE SLUMPS!
extension? he has no contract to extend.
Not 100% sure about this, but if he is 3-4 years in a team that signs him on a one year deal will also get him for the rest of the 6 via arbitration if they chose to tender him a contract next year.
Yes they can just sign him, but I’m guessing he meant give him more than one year which could be taken as an extension in that context
Yes, I meant to entice him to sign with the Rays, offer an extra couple years of security.
Him being non tendered probably ticked Weiters off lol. I wouldn’t mind the Braves getting him. Although, I am fan of Recker. Should be interesting to see where Castillo ends up.
Braves need to get on this
Flowers and Recker will make a good tandem at catcher next year. No reason to get Castillo when he’s not much of an improving over the current options.
yeah I feel like Tyler Flowers is actually slightly better than Castillo. He was above average offensively last year and his pitch framing is better.. He just struggles throwing out baserunners.
What am I missing here? Dbacks sign Jeff Mathis and non-tender Castillo? Could they not renegotiate with Castillo rather than signing Mathis? Is he an upgrade over Castillo on a 2-year deal.
I don’t get it.
Sure, they can neegotiate which I’m sure they did. But why would Castillo accept less than he’s projected to get in arbitration?
I mean… teams seem to be trending pretty hard towards valuing pitch framing above all else for catchers lately, but this seems drastic.
I assume it has part to do with his defense/game calling and part to do with not wanting to pay him. Az isn’t a large market team… paying Grienke that much may have been a bit too much. Which is sad, I really like the dbacks team. On paper is looks like a really solid rotation and a fairly potent lineup with Pollock/Goldy anchoring it.
Arizona has to cut salary obligations, hence this move and the Segura trade.
The Diamondbacks had no leverage to negotiate with. If they did not tender him a contract, they were comitted to paying him $5.9 million in 2017.
Diamondbacks are cutting payroll. This is why they traded segura. Castillo is a decent offensive catcher but they save 4 million by getting rid of him.
Greinke contract is going to mess them up for a long time. Even if Greinke comes back, which I think he will-he takes his time adjusting to a new environment-that contract of his would be a financial burden
I think Orioles would be a good fit. They don’t seem to mind streakiness and strikeouts as long as there’s power in the bat.
I hope the Braves hold off on a multi-year deal for a catcher this offseason. Go after Lucroy next year. Coincides perfectly with the rebuild schedule.
They sign Castillo for 2 years. He backs up flowers this year and if they do get lucroy he can back him up next year. Flower is a FA in 18
The White Sox need Castillo.
All reports are the Sox plan to rebuild, why would they sign him?
The rebuild is not a sure thing at this point. Until they trade Sale, I won’t buy it. Narvaez and Smith are their current catchers.
they need to start completely over
Angels need him
Braves are in the mindset to add and win games for the new park and to be more competitive. I don’t see the Rays being able to out spend Atl for Castillo. We could offer something like 3/18-21 and then trade either Flowers or Recker elsewhere.
Where the heck are the White Sox they need a catcher
As stated above, why? They’re in a rebuild, even though they haven’t publicly stated it. If they were planning on ” going for it,” they would’ve been in on the Cespedes, or Reddick, or Castro types. They’re letting all the big ” going for it” names go by. They are going for A REBUILD, and that should now be obvious to all. Now, do they have the Baseball smarts to do a proper rebuild?I’m not touching that one.
Just because you’re rebuilding doesn’t mean you can’t go sign players. Castillo can be a nice catcher then turn into a trade piece later.
So a proper rebuild does not include a 29 year old catcher who would be the best catcher on your team and could be a placeholder to see if your first round pick last year can stay at catcher and by the way if Castillo reverts to his form two years ago boy would he have trade value to flip. That is part of rebuilding.
Those bonehead northsiders did not know how to rebuild I guess. They were rebuilding but they signed Feldman anyway and he was coming off an injury. Those boneheads flipped him for Arrieta and Strop. Then the boneheads to another injury risk and signed Hammels. I guess they forgot they were rebuilding. Then they include him in a deal for Addison Russell. Are you kind of getting it now?
At least with all these teams getting added, we know whoever doesn’t end up with Castillo will be a potential landing spot for Stephen Vogt.
I’m really hoping Dumpster Dan can get aggressive for once and go get Castillo. Wieters wants to much and Castillo is better.
As much as I hope Braves get him, we already have a right handed Catcher. May not make sense to sign another.
I think it actually drives Castillo’s price up & Wieters price down now. I am on the ledge about the Braves signing BEEF. A part of me wants him because I think he will be a good bounce back candidate with everything he went thru with his baby being sick. But I think with him being available other teams may be willing to go higher than I would feel comfortable with the Braves going. Also he is a legit starting catcher and what would that do to Flowers ? Would Flowers now become Teheran and Dickey’s catchers and Beef catch Colon, Folty & Garcia ???? Both being RH a straight platoon couldn’t work. Gonna be interesting next week.
Another non-tender that makes too much sense for the O’s, so Duquette won’t go after him.
The Braves will go all in on this guy because there’s no way they’ll shell out whatever Wieters wants. Plus, it fits perfectly with all the “meh” moves they’ve made so far this offseason.
^ last statement pretty much!
Buy yourself a ticket to Tampa man.
Mets need to hop on this