Outfielder Nicholas Castellanos is only about a week into his Cubs tenure, but Patrick Mooney of The Athletic (subscription link) wonders if the free agent-to-be will work his way into the team’s plans past this season. Castellanos has excelled at the plate over a rather small sample of work as a Cub, and as Mooney explains, the former Tiger has taken a liking to his new franchise. While the 27-year-old Castellanos will be one of the top hitters in the upcoming winter’s free-agent class, a lack of defensive value figures to limit his earning power. The price could be palatable enough for the Cubs to retain him, but it wouldn’t be ideal that Castellanos would have to remain a full-time outfielder in a DH-less league.
More from the NL…
- The Padres don’t expect the shoulder tightness that forced right-hander Garrett Richards from his latest rehab start to require an MRI, per Jeff Sanders on the San Diego Union-Tribune. “We’ll see how it responds over the coming week to treatment and when he picks up a ball in the near future,” manager Andy Green said of Richards. If all goes well, the former Angel could debut with the Padres sometime before this season ends. The Padres signed Richards to a two-year, $15.5MM contract last winter just a few months after he underwent Tommy John surgery.
- Prized Pirates righty Mitch Keller is likely to return to the majors for a start next Tuesday, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette suggests. The 23-year-old is one of the game’s highest-ranked pitching prospects, but a three-start audition in the majors from May to June didn’t go well. Keller allowed 14 earned runs on 21 hits and six walks in a 12-inning span, though he did strike out 15 batters. And Keller has held his own this year in his debut in the offense-driven International League. In 103 2/3 innings with Triple-A Indianapolis, he has pitched to a 3.56 ERA/3.60 FIP with 10.68 K/9 and 3.04 BB/9.
- More on the Pirates from Mackey, who has the latest on injured outfielder Gregory Polanco and catcher Francisco Cervelli. Polanco, who hasn’t played since June 16 because of left shoulder problems, has received clearance to restart baseball activities. It’s still not clear when he might return to the Bucs, however. Polanco also sat out the first couple weeks of 2019 on account of his shoulder, which required season-ending surgery last September. Cervelli, trying to work back from a concussion that has shelved him since May 25, is progressing toward catching again this season. The concussion-prone Cervelli will first need “final clearances from our doctors, the commissioner’s office and the [MLBPA],” Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk said.
Pirates need a solid reboot.
Pirates need less injuries.
All teams need less injuries
Let’s be honest, even if Taillon pitched and Kela played all year, Pirates would still be nowhere near a wildcard spot.
Terrible lineup, worse rotation (even if Taillon was cy young)
Lineup is not even close to being the problem.
Terrible lineup? Cubs or Cards fan? The only thing they’re missing is some power. It hasn’t come together this year but the main issue is starting pitching injuries and bullpen.
I am an Orioles fan I think the Pirates are playing great
You are a funny man!
At this point two venerable franchises are having rough times.
The starting pitching was the strength of the team this year. Now it’s the weakness. It’s a rarity to see a SP going more than 5 innings.
Pirates need complete overhaul! MLB needs to make Nutting sell the team. To cheap to be an owner !
How glorious would a new owner be! Maybe Nutting can be “caught with a live boy or a dead girl” as the saying goes. Oh well, dare to dream.
Both would be better. Let’s not leave any wiggle room.
Brilliant reply wkkortas. Simply brilliant.
Remember how Marlins fans were sick of Jeffrey Loria so now they’re ready to flay Derek Jeter?
Pirates need an Owner who will keep their top prospects instead of trading them away just before he needs to pay them.
Reboot is fine, but everyone knowing it was coming besides GM who traded #1 and 5 prospects for Archer
Again?
Padres need a GM
If you are paying a player $15.5 million, why would you not give him an MRI for an injury that forced him out of a game mid-inning?
Lol true.
I’m sure they actually have and are not divulging information about it at this time.
Like shoulder pain ever heals itself in this scenario.
The Pirates are in their worst free fall since 2010,when they had the worst record in baseball,going 57-104,winning 17 games on the road,but netting them Gerritt Cole..
At least he is not the immortal Brian Bullinger.
They have had the most injuries that they have ever had,and I go back to 1961.
There are a number of teams this year,however,who have been severely impacted by injuries.The Pirates had no backup plan.
Their starting pitching is clearly below average,and their bullpen is worse.They make too many mistakes in the field,and they have little power.
They are listless.
I actually thought that they had a chance this year,but it is clear that they are not a good team.
They need some new free agents,and some new life on the team.They also probably need a new manager.
They are 4-21 since the AS break.It has become pitiful and I feel sorry for the team and the fans.
Solid that you called Bullington Bullinger.
My mistake.Thanks.
He will be called Bullinger from now on. I should be thanking you.
He was from the dark era when they did not want to spend enough money to sign a legitimate first choice in the draft.
As bad as it is now,it is still not as bad as what it was then.
Those ownership and management teams were a joke.
That would have been the McClatchy era along with Littlefield. The only good thing that McClatchy did for the Bucs was get PNC Park built.
I think that he kept them in Pittsburgh also,but that could have been the previous consortium to whom John C Galbreath sold the team.
They and Cam Bonifay were equally as bad.
It just seems that there is no impetus now to field a winning team.Management is competent at least,but no one is held accountable to win now.This goes along with the premise that Nutting is mostly interested in the business aspect of making money.
Wait… I thought Castellanos was unplayable in the field? He could never make it with a national league team?
Must have been another bad rumor.
The people who said Castellanos wasn’t a great hitter and would be a detriment thanks to his defense are in-hiding. Suspect glove, great arm, huge potential with the bat. The dude can play.
Don’t think anybody is “in hiding”…..he’s played 7 games Dude…..what’s there to comment about in 7 games?
If he was a good/average defensive player, while having offensive prowess, and at 27, don’t you think Detroit might give consideration to building around him….especially since they also gave up on JD and look at what kind of hitter he is now? They seemed pretty desperate to moving him to anyone that would take him.
I’m sure if he was out there making errors in just seven games everybody would be on it like white on rice.
Lol “in hiding” you say that with a straight face?
Anyhow Castellanos is a solid RH bat. Cheap acquisition price and he can hit. Only cost Richan. Two 40 FV prospects is about right. Richan has the ingredients to be a backend starter so it was a solid return for Detroit. Nice pickup for the Cubs.
I wonder how many “straight face” comments are made by people typing on a keyboard? That is factually incorrect nor does it make sense. I am not sure what point you attempted to make. Seems like everything I say prompts you to run from your video game console to the keyboard quick. You are welcome Bigz.
Trim if nothing else you are predictable. How long are you going to play pretend behind your new account?
What was my point? That Castellanos was a solid pickup for the price. Was that not clear? The in hiding comment? You know that refers to your now old account. I mean you’re going to come on here and claim people who badmouthed Castellanos are “in hiding” while you literally switched accounts and are trying to deny it. That’s truly funny to me. I realize you’re going to play dumb and not see the hypocrisy but it’s there.
Or, it’s only been a week.
He’s a double machine, that don’t stop in the NL.
His defense isn’t good and has never been good but hitting .379 with 1000+ ops your defense can be over looked. Cubs were hitting like a little league team for the week leading up to the deadline.
While WAR is useless for a single season, over a career it is pretty accurate. Castellanos is completely devoid of defensive skills.
-60.4 overall on defense and -26.0 in the OF and -25.8 at 3B paints a clear picture of his defensive ability or in this case lack thereof.
The Cubs need for his bat overrode his bad defense for them, but it does not mean he can suddenly play defense just because he is a Cub.
Funny how the cubs always come full circle on trades and acquisitions. They got rid of a solid hitter in Jorge Soler because “he couldn’t field”. A few years later they end up trading for Castellanos, a OF with the same profile.
The northsiders hype.
There were a lot of reasons, I didn’t think lack of defense was one of them. He was constantly injured, was benched a bunch for lack of hustle, and just didnt play well enough to knock out other everyday players. He was terrible for the Royals in the beginning too. But KC was able to let him play every day. The Cubs didn’t have the luxury of giving him that. If he wasn’t always injured in, say 2014, when the Cubs weren’t contending, things would be different.
Very scary thought—-of Schwarber, Eloy and Soler—Schwarber is BY FAR the superior defender. I know superior really isn’t the right word, but……..
Murphy—yes to the injured part, but to his credit—Soler leads the league in games played this year. Hasn’t missed a single game.
….and to ChiSox point—Soler would have been a long term commitment….Nick is with the Cubs for these two months to try to fill an offensive need.
But is it really full circle? I mean, Soler was a high prospect, topping out at #12 overall, thanks to a profile that featured a huge bat. But come on, the guy never lived up to the hype. Just because he was a 6-foot-4, 200+ pound top prospect who played the outfield, was from Latin America, and signed as an International FA with the Cubs – it doesn’t make him Eloy Jimenez. For crying out loud, the guy had a .258 career batting average with the Cubs that’s only managed to dip in the three seasons he was traded. I suppose it’s better than the .237 clip Eloy currently sports, but that can’t be the bar with which we judge greatness. The .330 career OBP is nice, though, but it isn’t elite by any stretch. I guess, though, if you’re still doing that Eloy comp, then it does look a lot better than the .295 mark Eloy has. But a 106 OPS+? Come on, that doesn’t scream big power bat. It’s barely above league average. Though I do suppose that if you look at Eloy’s 95 OPS+ then I can see why you might view Soler as a monster bat. Ok, maybe I can see how you might come to appreciate a guy like Soler, especially if you’re comping his numbers against Eloy’s. But even you have to admit that Soler got hurt way too often. It felt like every couple weeks, he’d be back on the DL. Eventually, you just have to move on, right? But then, maybe you don’t see that as a problem. I mean, how many times has Eloy been on the DL the past two years? Four? Look, I’ll admit that the 31 homers Soler has hit this year have been a surprise. After hitting just 28 total home runs since the start of the 2015 season, he’s more than doubled that figure this year alone. But come on. Everyone that lifts the ball is putting up huge home run figures this year. Even a guy who has proven to be a sub-par hitter, a guy like Jimenez – who somehow has a negative bWAR – has jacked 18 long balls this year. So is it really an accomplishment?
Eloy shouldn’t be compared to anyone just yet. He may end up being similar to Soler, but he’s just 22. His bat has the potential to be monstrous.
The guy that should be compared to Soler is Kyle because they were both rookies in 2015.and Kyle ended up being chosen.
Every player, regardless of age, gets compared to other players. “This guy reminds me of…” “This guy is the next…” Thing is that with Eloy the comparisons are always made to guys that mashed. But through his career, Eloy’s best comparison is actually Soler. Both have struggled to stay healthy- check how much time Eloy missed in the minors prior to his 2 DL stints already this year. Both put up forgettable numbers early in their career.
The full circle was Soler to Castellanos. The same Castellanos who was a bat first, big time prospect who has a career 111 OPS+ and .324 OBP, which is right in line with this seasons 110 OPS+ and .333 OBP.
It was full circle. But they got Wade Davis. Doesn’t really matter. Needs change year over year. They didn’t give up top prospects for Castellanos. One guy MLB had in their top 20. Fangraphs didn’t have either ranked. Richan might be a backend starter. They needed RH power. Castellanos supplies it. The fielding is bad but they can put in the late game defensive replacement. Heyward and Almora have that covered.
That’s a dumb take. They traded Soler for Wade who was a great Closer for him that year. He sucks now but did his job well that year. Helped them win a playoff series. I don’t miss Soler at all. Fine when he was here but never lived up to his hype.
Soler numbers for the Cubs were not good. I don’t know where you get this troll stuff. I am glad he’s having a good year. Power numbers look amazing but he hit more this year then he did in 3 years with the cubs.
1) A team like the Pirates is only going to win when most things go right for them. When almost everything goes wrong for them, it’s gonna look like this. Ugly.
2) BUT…not THIS ugly. This is now the 4th epic collapse that Hurdle has presided over. I’ve been on the fence regarding him for a few years, wondering if he was the best guy for the job, but I figured they’d just hire a Tom Prince or another John Russel. I had forgotten that Jeff Bannister was back in the organization. He and Hurdle should trade jobs.
3) One of Hurdle’s worst decisions this year was having Mitch Keller make his MLB debut in the SECOND game of a double header. You have a young kid who is either full of fire or nerves….either way, forcing him to wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait for his debut. Why? His mindless deference to “veteran” players? Musgrove or whoever would have been fine pitching the second game.
4) The Pirates are very proud of their analytic based Golden State Warrior like attention to rest. And it’s clearly BUNK. Do they look well rested? They look catatonic. Years of questionable line up choices pursuing this goal only to collapse in the final months anyway.
This is something Huntingdon actually does deserve blame for….
I’ve been a Bucs fan since the 70s and even with the terrible mid 80s teams to consider, I’ve never seen them look this disinterested. Hard to watch.
My god!Keep Ray away from Keller!Where is Ray Miller !
There is A LOT for which NH deserves blame, he’s the GM after all. The scouting department, free agency, trades/acquisitions and on and on. But I agree that this workload/rest thing is particularly infuriating. I’ve been saying for months that they need to worry less about how to emulate the San Antonio Spurs and concentrate more on emulating the St.Louis Cardinals.
If only they cared as much about tonight’s game as they do about next week’s games.
I agree with that statement..It seems that Clint holds Vasquez back because he thinks that he will need him tomorrow.
He throws Rodriguez to only two hitters when he has been outstanding for almost three months.
I know that they do not have many choices but Crick is relied on way too much.He needs to get a check in AAA.
I think that Liriano and Melky should make way for younger players.
I have not seen any fire in Clint for three years.The hitters did a good job at coming back for the first half of the year but I think it gets old seeing the starters and relievers fail time after time.
I think that they need a young manager with some fire.
And not John Russell.
For point 3) From John McGraw to Casey Stengel to Sparky Anderson to Jim Leyland and the list will continue forever… its true that many celebrated Managers didn’t handle their youth very well. However, there is a long history of teams using untested starters from the pen or young pitchers to make their debut during the 2nd game of a double header.
Where are all the cubs fans trying to tell me that Castellanos has no value to a team now?? Oh yea hiding because they realized they were talking bad about a player they had never actually seen play. Whoops
I don’t really remember many Cubs fans saying that. Are you sure you aren’t thinking of the trolls?
Before the trade deadline many cubs fans were saying they didn’t want to trade for Castellanos because he has no value to a team
“Many” lol
Do show a link. Ill he waiting.
He’s not wrong. There were quite a few saying they didn’t want him.
If we’re going to get all hot and bothered over a week of stats, as a Rays fan I’m much happier getting Jesus Aguilar for what they gave up, than getting Castellanos for what the Cubs gave up, not that they gave up much.
Also, if we want to look back to say how right we were, where are all the Castellanos cheerleaders who claimed he was so great that he would command top prospects in a trade? Some claimed he was worth top 100 guys. I think most who said he had little to no value we’re talking about in trade. Which was proven correct when the Cubs traded a FV 45 and FV 40 prospects for him.
Are you referring to a 2018 1st Round pick and a 2017 2nd round pick that the Tigers received? Seems they were rated quite highly just a year or two ago, when they were selected.
Soler or Castellanos?
Arrieta or Darvish?
Please choose one or the other.
At this moment? Castellanos. Soler is finally living up to the hype, but I’d be holding my breath waiting for him to get hurt again. And neither Darvish nor Arrieta have lived up to their contract, but Darvish is trending upward. And while he’s an injury risk just like Soler, Arrieta is actually injured currently.
The Cubs should absolutely 100% try to keep Castellanos. He’s a great fit for the Cubs. Trade Chatwood and his 10mil plus addison Russell for bullpen help. Free up about 16mil. Castellanos is getting much less than that. Plus he can play 2nd and 3rd as well.
Chatwood has been very reliable this season out of the bullpen. He can make spot starts as well. I agree on Russell though.
They should have tradee Russell way before the deadline
Nicholas Castellanos is a good hitter. He’s hit over 300 TB the last 2 seasons but he doesn’t play LF, 3B or RF very well. He refused to move to 1B and his camp wasn’t interested in extension talks when the Tigers offered. In another organization like the CHC or LAD, he won’t have a choice but to cooperate and he will thrive.
From a Tiger fan’s perspective, no knowledgeable Tiger fan ever said he was worth the moon and stars. However, the Tigers should’ve gotten more than they received. If its true that Al Avila was only asking for team’s #1 prospects for Castellanos and for Shane Greene then his advisors need to go back to their old telemarketing jobs.