The Rockies have agreed to a deal with free agent righty Santiago Casilla, according to Robert Murray of The Athletic (Twitter links). It’s said to be a minor-league arrangement.
Casilla recently received his walking papers from the A’s, who’ll still pay him the $2MM or so left on his salary for the current season — less any pro-rated portion of the league minimum he earns with the Colorado organization. The 37-year-old has spent his entire career to this point with the two Bay Area organizations.
While Casilla had worked to a 3.16 ERA in his 31 1/3 innings this year in Oakland, he was carrying an ugly 22:20 K/BB ratio. He’s averaging about 94 mph on his fastball still, but the 38-year-old has also seen his swinging-strike rate drop to a personal-low 9.0%.
For now, Casilla will represent a depth option for the Rox. But he could certainly end up becoming an option at the MLB level if he shows well. Though the team has already made one bullpen upgrade, the relief unit is probably susceptible of further improvement.
He’s been effectively wild this year it seems. K rate is down and walk rate is God awful but the overall body of work isn’t bad. Not the worst option to have down in AAA.
The A’s arrive in Denver tomorrow … is signing Casilla some sort of weird “go ahead and win the ALWest” gift to them?
The A’s have no chance of winning the AL West. They are 6.5 games back and behind both Houston (who may well be better than their World Series team last year) and Seattle (who we know isn’t afraid of making big deadline moves). Their only hope is a wild card.
I understand that the Rockies need what they need to make the postseason, but the acquisitions of Oh and now Casilla has to be a bitter pill after spending over $100M over the winter to upgrade their bullpen.
You nailed it Solaris. Pitching will be the key for the Rox in their playoff bid.
Just FYI you have him aging a year between paragraphs.
Well the aging process does happen before you know it.
Good luck hahah, hopefully he pitches this weekend
The 39 year old Casilla has been great in the past but the 40 year old Casilla hasn’t been as good as of late. The 41 year old will hope to turn it around with the Colorado rockies before his 43rd birthday this fall
wooo! have fun with that hot mess
Not a horrible signing. In reality there is no such thing as a bad minor league signing. If it doesn’t work, cut him loose for nothing. If it does work, then you have a bargain. He does know the NL West quite well, so you never know.
Casilla was great in Oakland when there was no pressure around him… But when things get dice it then well expect the unexpected with Santiago lol…