The White Sox announced on Friday that they’ve signed free agent catcher Welington Castillo to a two-year contract. One of the few teams to disclose financial terms, the White Sox confirmed previous reports that Castillo signed a two-year, $15MM contract with an $8MM club option for the 2020 season. He’ll earn $7.25MM in each season and is promised another $500K through a buyout. Castillo is represented by ACES.
The 30-year-old Castillo is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, having batted .282/.323/.490 with 20 homers in 365 plate appearances as the Orioles’ primary backstop. With that strong offensive output in his back pocket, Castillo turned down a $7MM player option to return to Baltimore — a move that has certainly paid dividends now that he has a multi-year agreement secured.
While Castillo has long come with a questionable defensive reputation, he led the Majors with a 49 percent caught-stealing rate in Baltimore and also turned in dramatically improved pitch-framing marks in his lone season with the O’s. It remains to be seen if he can sustain that level of defensive play moving forward, but the improvements certainly didn’t hamper his free agent stock.
Though the White Sox are (obviously) in the midst of a rebuild, the team has relied on a hodgepodge of underwhelming options since making the error of non-tendering Tyler Flowers prior to the 2016 season. Castillo will help to solidify a position of need and also give the team’s up-and-coming core of young pitchers an experienced receiver behind the dish.
[Related: Updated Chicago White Sox Depth Chart & Payroll Outlook]
With Castillo in the fold, Omar Narvaez will shift from the club’s starting catcher to a reserve role, while Kevan Smith will likely be pushed off the big league roster. That pair received the majority of the White Sox’ at-bats behind the plate last season, with Geovany Soto and Rob Brantly also receiving a handful of opportunities. Overall, the South Siders’ catching corps posted a solid .279/.346/.381 batting line, though Narvaez and Smith both benefited from some help in the BABIP department, and neither offers anywhere near the pop that Castillo carries in his bat.
From a payroll vantage point, the Sox can easily fit Castillo’s salary onto the books. The Sox entered the offseason projected to field just a $61MM payroll (after arbitration estimates), with only $15.95MM of that sum coming in the form of guaranteed contracts. The only guaranteed money on the books beyond the 2018 season is Tim Anderson’s contract, which calls for just a $1.4MM salary in 2019.
Castillo may or may not fit into the expected competitive window on the south side of Chicago; the Sox aren’t expected to make an aggressive push for contention this season, though they surely like the idea of a veteran catcher helping a young pitching staff all the same. However, given the wealth of talent in the upper levels of the Sox’ farm, it’s not out of the question that they could contend as soon as the 2019 campaign — the second year of Castillo’s deal. If not, the team surely aims to be contending by 2020, and if Castillo’s play still merits an $8MM salary at that juncture, he could yet be leaned upon as part of the puzzle, depending on the development of prospect Zack Collins.
If the Sox ultimately need a bit longer to return to prominence, or if Collins ascends and pushes Castillo for the regular role, his contract is modest enough that it should contain some trade value on the open market, provided he continues to produce at a level similar to his 2017 form.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the agreement (Twitter links). Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reported the terms of the deal (Twitter link). Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweeted the annual breakdown.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
might as well signed Beef Wellington
Lol, made my afternoon
Yeah. 3 WARp Catchers are a dime a dozen
I think you missed his point. It doesn’t matter who the White Sox sign at catcher, they are not going to win the Central or make it to the WC. So why spend $15 million for Castillo? It makes no sense.
You really don’t see why they did this?
A veteran catcher to work with all the young and talented yet inexperienced SP doesn’t make sense to you? Wow
It makes sense if the Sox can flip him for a prospect or two either this deadline or next.
Miguel Montero could’ve been had at a steal!
He is a horrible catcher in terms of calling games, blocking pitches in the dirt, and only passable pitch framing. Why would you want a catcher that can’t do the things a young pitcher needs most?
You can sure tell the people that have never played the game above little league. Like you, they have literally no understanding about what is important.
That is the only possible reasoning. It is certainly not to have him mentoring a young pitching staff.
Carlos Ruiz?
Well genius first it 7.5 million for this year not $15m and because you are not winning this year you do not want to sign a good catcher who is in his prime
Big one off the board!
He had a nice year with the Birds but it makes sense for them to let him go. They have Joseph and Cisco, plus another prospect rapidly ascending. Keeping Wellington would only block their development.
Technically they didn’t let him go.. he did. He had player option to return. They figured he’d decline to look for multiple years and with sisco advancing probably hoped he would too.
He’s a really underrated player, I wish the Mets would have cut d’arnaud for him.
He’s not bad but he’s not a very disciplined hitter. Low bb rate and high k rate is not ideal and makes him very prone to slumps.
Castillo and Scahill in the same day? Other teams sit idle, Hahn says “screw you guys, I’m going shopping”.
This will drive dippoto crazy
I bet Dippoto wanted castillo, but only via trade.
If there had been a FA prediction contest this year, wouldn’t have predicted this.
Why do better than average players sign with rebuilding teams. I don’t understand. Especially in the heart of the rebuild with no winning in these 2 years
Money, location, job security, friends on the team
Exactly this. He was on the Cubs, before, and he had Renteria as a manager — when he was in Chicago.
Probably likes Renteria, and the city. The money was probably good, as well.
Money is a lot of it, but it isn’t everything.
And he’ll most likely get traded to a team in the playoff hunt if he does well
He’ll be traded at the deadline
Yeah. That’s what this signing seems like it’s going to end up as
I doubt it, they need a bridge to Collins
Hahn.
Finally heating up the stove!
This is particularly true in the realization that most figured the White Sox to be fairly quiet this offseason in comparison to recent years.
This will be an interesting one for the ChiSox developing young arms. Look at how BAD the D’Backs’ pitching was in 2016. Look at how BAD – seemingly out of nowhere and representing a major step back – Baltimore’s pitching was in 2017. I’d argue this is one of the worst defensive/receive signings any team could make when prioritizing the development of young arms. Suddenly, in 2017, the D’Backs pitching staff was collectively back on track. Castillo costs people jobs and money – pitchers, managers, front offices.
Who cares, the dude rakes lol. Nah, I personally wouldn’t make this move if I was Hahn. But now, I would trade Abreu, sign a cheap first basemen like Lucas Duda, and let Castillo be the DH
I definitely agree with what you are saying but the Sox had trash at the position and no one to call up anytime soon. He calls a decent game and can throw the occasional base-stealer out. If you pair him in a platoon with a strong defensive catcher who handles the kids a good chunk of the time (Giolito, Lopez, etc.) and have Castillo handle the trash (Shields and others) than it could be a solid move.
Ok, so explain what he did to cause those staffs to crumble. According to the article, his framing improved in Baltimore. But you say it isn’t. So what did he do that caused AZ and Baltimore to suck?
Framing doesn’t tell the whole story. Why was Greinke awesome, then bad, then awesome again? Why is Castillo dumped so quickly by these teams? If you could get pitchers to tell the real story, I’d bet you’d get Greinke to say he called for the wrong pitches in the wrong places. It isn’t just framing – he calls a bad game or misses the intel coming from scouts, or some other insights into why hitters are crushing his pitchers. It wasn’t just Greinke in AZ – it was the whole staff. It wasn’t just Tillman in Baltimore.
You think Zack grienke relys solely on Wellington Castillo to call his games? No.
Good point Kirby. I will def be watching if that holds true for the White Sox
His framing was trash in AZ no doubt, and bringing in Mathis and Ianetta helped them a lot. But, at least according to BP, Castillo was an above average framer last year in Baltimore. If the Sox believe that change is real, I see no problem with him leading their young staff.
I get the knock in Arizona, but the Orioles pitchers overperformed in 2016. 2017 wasn’t a step backward as much as it was a move toward what was expected. Tillman is a #3 or #4 on most teams, and represents the ace of the Orioles staff complemented by Bundy who hasn’t developed as quickly as they’d like. Throw in Gausman and Miley and Jimenez. The rotation was doomed from the start. Its not fair to put that on Castillo.
Do you go to Fangraphs at all? Bundy and Gausman are exactly why he’s not going back to Baltimore. Both age 26 and under, both regressed AND underperformed by the xFIP. They may not be Aces, but they did not develop. What a coincidence! His pitchers get rocked!
Do you go on fangraphs buddy? Castillos framing numbers shot up in 2017
He’s not going back to Baltimore because HE turned down the players option. It was his decision not Baltimores!
That’s a Daniel Murphy quote. You missed it. Meanwhile, see above re: framing. You think that tells the story?
Here you go, Bungalows (helps also to check the pitchers’ numbers on FG, not just the catcher):
fangraphs.com/blogs/welington-castillo-isnt-the-or…
And some great GIFs on Castillo as the model of a bad receiver:
camdenchat.com/2016/12/15/13962950/new-orioles-cat…
Enjoy!
Baseball Prospectus’ WARP measures catcher performance much better than Fangraphs
Thanks, fatelfunnel. Point taken, but really that’s a sidebar from what I was suggesting. It isn’t just framing that causes teams to realize they don’t want him back. Calling a game has to do with integrating knowledge of the opposing hitters’ tendencies, changing speeds, moving eye levels, and so much more. Here’s an article from Arizona which helps explain why they non-tendered him (maybe they listened to their pitchers): “New data about game calling (or pitch sequencing, if you will) revealed that Castillo was the worst regular catcher at calling a game…”
insidethezona.com/2016/08/welington-castillo-diamo…
The O’s have said that they had no intention of offering him a long-term deal. Just a few minutes ago they confirmed that they never contacted his agent with an offer for Castillo and that is after he had a career year at the plate and had improved pitch framing numbers. That says volumes about how they felt about his ability to work with their young pitching staff.
The Diamondbacks got .261/.772 with 31 home runs from him in 1.5 seasons and according to Steve Gilbert they didn’t make him an offer to return after the 2016 season. Coming off that performance at the plate, production that was in the top 10 for catchers, the best contract Castillo could get was a 1 year deal with an option.
Two straight teams not making an offer to bring him back speaks clearly and loudly that regardless of his offensive production, once they have seen him in action behind the plate teams don’t want him back.
The White Sox will be his 5th team in 5 years. That also says volumes about how little teams feel about his abilities.
That’s it exactly. And why White Sox fans should be watching Giolito and Lopez and Kopech with this guy behind the plate.
Ultimately a pitcher calls a game. As a player ( high school ) I never threw a pitch I wasn’t confident in throwing. And as a coach ( softball ) my pitchers knew ultimately that they had final decision on what pitch was thrown. Any pitcher who blames the catcher for a bad performance, I wouldn’t want on my team.
You are dillusional if you believe that a catcher has this much to do with Baltimore’s pitchers short comings. Castillo might throw a finger down, buck might tip his nose his cap his ear and his hand, but once the ball is released its the pitchers responsibility to execute a pitch. Get real.
Amazing! Did you really just do that? Did you really just equate your countless titles as a softball coach to memorizing the tendencies of 9 Major league hitters on a nightly basis? I’ll trust the actual data, thanks, and the data says this catcher has an on-field track record that is detrimental to pitchers throwing to him. Even if Del Boca Vista doesn’t see how Greinke could go from trusting his pitches and being awesome to sucking to being awesome again because the catcher somehow isn’t involved. I’ll take years of data on a bad ballplayer over your hall of fame softball coaching career. But thanks.
Tillman certainly isn’t the ace of the Orioles. Bundy is way more capable than Chris. Even Gausman is better than Tilly. Nice try though!
I watched or attended every Orioles game but 5 of them in 2017. Despite battling injuries this year, Tillman was by far our worst starter. He went 1-9 with an almost 8 era. He had not command and just about every strike went right down the pike. As bad as Miley and Jimenez were I’ve never seen a starter get picked apart like Tillman did and still stay in the bigs. You apparently don’t know that much about the Orioles.
You attended 157 games? I find that extremely hard to believe.
Tillman threw 4.6% fewer pitches in the zone for strikes than in 2016.
My comment says watched or attended. Does it not? And Tillman was terrible. I know!
Tillman has always been a slow starters in games, due to command issues early. By the time he “found it” he’d be 75 pitches through 3… Mechanics were all over the place this year, adding his shoulder issues it seemed he was always trying to place the ball. I still think he could be a capable #4 if he could get past his shoulder issues and settle down his mechanics from this past season.. I’m convinced the orioles have the worst pitching coaching in delveloping/teaching their pitchers, as evidence of how every pitcher seems to “find it” as soon as they leave Baltimore. Aka arrieta, bridwell, erod, Davies etc.. they would have a half decent rotation by now if they simply knew what they had and could develop it correctly, instead of dumping them all
Always liked Wellington Castillo. This move is a head scratcher. Maybe he liked Chicago and knew he wouldn’t go back to the cubs. He’ll be dealt in july
“Error” seems a bit much for a non-tender of a catcher that more often than not had been replacement level or close to it.
Absolutely right nutbunnies. The error was making Flowers a starting catcher to begin with. All the popups & K’s with RISP paired with dropping easy pop-outs & getting run over by Pedroia sized players at home then dropping the ball when the home plate collision was still part of the game. Tyler ” Full diaper” Flowers was my least favorite Sox catcher ever, A.J. was spot-on saying he wasn’t ready for M.L.
WAR doesn’t take pitch framing into account, and Flowers has been elite in that category in 2015 and had been above-average in that respect throughout his career. Plus he was only projected at $3.5MM.
I found it surprising at the time (and said as much then), and do think it’s fair to call it an error in judgment — especially considering that Flowers went out and got two guaranteed years in free agency.
Call me crazy Steve, but i need more out of my catcher other than calling a decent game & framing pitches well. Looking forward to having a C who can throwout would-be basestealers at a good clip. Flowers was hot garbage his whole career on the SouthSide
You are crazy.
The most important thing a catcher does by far is to call a good game. Everything else is secondary to that.
His ability to block pitches in the dirt and frame pitches is more important than throwing out runners.
Saving one base 60-70 times a year is not as important as multiple outs per game from pitch framing nor as important as giving your pitcher the confidence to bury an out pitch.
He may have helped your fantasy league team, but fantasy baseball is not the same as real life baseball.
You sure are out in left field. If you watched 75% of White Sox games while Tyler was on team as i have you would know how awful an all around ballplayer he is. good luck finding a Sox fan who thought he was a good player. U Never seen him play more than a handful of games with Sox at most but you know he’s good huh
Flower is the best framer in baseball by pretty much any measure. White Sox messed up big time letting him walk.
Great deal by Hahn. Zach Collins is at least 2 years from making a contribution, so Castillo provides a great bridge to him and allows White Sox to not rush him. Or, if Collins turns out to be a bust, then they can sign someone else after 2019. This will also help to stabilize what will be a very young pitching staff (besides Shields) in 2018 with a catcher with experience.
How do you grade pitch framing?
statcorner.com/CatcherReport.php
there
Who can get more strikes called. It varies who you can rely on as a good framer because some teams have guys that consistently pump gas or have nasty secondary and other staffs have less. It doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story.
There are two main sites that measure pitch framing. One, Statcorner, had Castillo as well below average in 2017. The other, BP, had Castillo as above average in 2017. Make what you will out of that information, because its definitely not an exact science.
statcorner.com/CatcherReport.php
legacy.baseballprospectus.com/sortable/index.php?c…
The person that runs Statcorner has said on his site that the BP methodology is better than his own. Use the BP stats.
Thanks for the links. I read the explanation page on one and it still seems very subjective to me. There are too many variables to be accurate, in my unprofessional opinion. I just always thought pitch framing was opinion oriented and not really quantifiable. In other words, instead of looking at numbers you have to actually watch the catcher catch a few games so you can make a fair assessment…was it the umpire’s fault? Did the pitcher miss his spot? Were the signs messed up? etc…
lol I still can’t believe people even look at StatCorner. It’s a glorified pitchf/x search. Just read the explanation page:
“I want to stress first that the values below should not be treated as gospel. As mentioned, the strike zone needs to be more finely determined and the methods used to arrive at these catching numbers are not designed to isolate only the catcher’s influence. The catcher is simply used as a grouping point. There’s no attempt to control for the pitchers, the umpires, the counts, or anything other than which side the hitter stood on.”
I mean, c’mon.
Just go to b-ref and look at a catcher’s DRS, which includes pitch framing and everything else a catcher does on the field (fangraphs is still using the ancient version of DRS, so ignore what you see listed there). BP has nice framing numbers, but they don’t have access to the kind of data that Baseball Info Solutions does. BIS’ framing metric is more accurate, not to mention includes other catching skills. BP’s attempts at throwing/blocking numbers are laughable.
I should add that by DRS Castillo was -9 runs on defense last year. -6 runs in framing. +5 thowing, +2 good fielding plays (blocking). -10 runs from pitcher performance. He can block and throw, but can’t frame or handle pitchers well.
Pitch-framing was always the big knock against him. Very glad to see him play once more, at least for another half season
Dude just keeps getting better with age from a offensive perspective…
Didn’t see that coming at all
This is a great pickup for Chicago. Friendly contract. If they decide to continue to sell, another strong start for Castillo and an injury to a contender’s catcher and they could flip him on that deal should they decide to.
Solid move by the ChiSox front office. Nothing but compliments for them of late.
Definitely lighter than I expected
Best catcher on the market, a 3 WAR player. Gets half of the guys running on him, and has made strides in his receiving ability.
The White Sox somehow convinced this guy to take under market, because he should be making a lot more money.
I don’t think they’ll flip him. They’re really thin at catcher and the long term solution is about two years away.
The dollars were likely the biggest factor but the importance of rejoining manager Rick Renteria and his love for Chicago also had to play a key role, especially since the White Sox are hardly considered contenders in 2018 and where most veteran catchers possessing a similar resume would have expected to sign.
not a bad move. catchers are so bad across the league. hes going to help these young guys.
Castillo and Carson Kelly will be a nice catching duo in 2018 when Abreu heads South on I-55.
Wow! Excellent move in acquiring this veteran catcher for 2018 and an option for 2019 when their top catching prospect Zack Collins figures to be ready for prime time. At worst, Castillo could also be a viable flip candidate for the White Sox. There’s also the familiarity with Castillo since he was the Cubs primary starting catcher under current White Sox manager Rick Renteria in 2014.
Castillo is an excellent hitter as a backstop and an upgrade over the veterans they have signed the past two offseasons that included Omar Narvaez, Alex Avila and Geovany Soto.
Make that 2018 and 2019 with a 2020 option per reports. Still in all, this gives the White Sox ample time to groom Collins and ease him in as Castillo’s backup in 2019 should they retain the veteran for all three seasons. It also gives the White Sox a viable catcher in the near term should Collins not fulfill his promise behind the plate or in the event he needs to move to another position.
In addition, Castillo’s veteran presence can’t be underestimated for a young pitching staff that has the potential to be truly dominant in the coming years.
Wellie and RR means they’re not taking any chances bringing in players just for numbers or dollars. I like this move.
ChiSox might as well sign Ubaldo Jiminez so that at least they have at least one player who played with Castillo.
This is a curious signing. Castillo is the type of player that a team that is planning to contend would want to have behind the plate, not a player that a rebuilding team signs to a short-term deal.
You’re an idiot.
Liked the prediction that A’s would sign him. No idea what the A’s will do now. Seems so risky to plan on Maxwell. Hoping that Astros and A’s come together on a Gattis deal. Frees Houston to pursue Lucroy and even if Maxwell is back in Oakland, Gattis could be used in platoon at catcher, get ABs in LF and DH.
Happy to have a C that can hit. Good homerun hitting park. Hopefully this move signifies Sox hopes to be competitive in 2019. Seems like a pre-requisite that players Hahn brings in played for flubs in their career though
2018 world champions
Castillo also wanted to play probably for a Spanish speaking coach on a team with a lot of Latino players and fans. He probably could have got more from another team that had playoff aspirations but this gives him a chance to play in a big city with several other Dominicans.
If I’m not mistaken it’s 12/1 and Castillo is the highest rated free agent to sign so far. The only way for this hot stove season to move any slower is if it shifts into reverse.
Things like this keep up and the sox will need an English interpreter in the dugout
The have a bilingual interpreter in the dugout. in manager Rick Renteria.
Tyler flowers mistake? He couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. The fact that he over stayed his career with WSox was their mistake
Go take a look at the numbers from last 2 years in Atlanta. He’s more than a serviceable catcher.
What he’s doing is adding years to his career. Good for him. Hope he gets paid. No idea why you have some vendetta with the guy. He not sign a ball for you or your boy?
What does that have to do with what he did for the White Sox?
Go take a look at the numbers from his career in Chicago. He was absolute trash. Good for him though. He’s still getting paid to play baseball.