Ah, Rusney Castillo. How could any Red Sox fan ever forget that name? The man that Ben Cherington fell prematurely in love with in 2014, signing the then-26-year-old Cuban star outfielder to a 7-year, $72.5 million contract for God knows why. Castillo simply wasn’t good from what we saw in more than enough games with Boston and was just another classic bust Red Sox signing.
Castillo underachieved, to put it lightly, in 99 games with the Red Sox between 2014 and 2016. He batted .262 with a .679 OPS and slugging just .379 in the bigs, hitting only seven homers (one of which I was in attendance for, humblebrag). Since 2016, though, Castillo has put a lot of work in as a hitter and the numbers sure do look promising. In 2017 with the Pawtucket Red Sox, he put up his best professional numbers to date, batting .314 with a .857 OPS, slugging .507 with 15 ding dongs and 22 doubles in 87 total games.
All of Castillo’s coaches have praised him in the last year, stating that they’re seeing much better extension through the ball and he’s now much more comfortable using all of the field, especially right-center. If Castillo can drop balls into that Fenway triangle, we might have something cooking here. His groundball rate has also significantly lessened, which is great to see. He’s much less of a pull-happy hitter and has become an overall smarter batter. I remember watching Castillo at the plate and constantly throwing up in my mouth from how terrible he was at everything from recognizing pitches to even the mere look of his swing, so to know that he’s made improvements is notable.
You simply can’t talk about Rusney Castillo without bringing up the elephant in the room: his contract situation. This season, the Red Sox were forced to take Castillo off of the 40-man roster to refrain from going over the $195 million luxury threshold again for the third straight year. 2017 was a reset year for Boston, resetting the penalties from the prior couple of seasons, making some tough decisions at the trade deadline to stay under and avoid any more monetary sanctions.
Castillo’s $10.36 million salary makes things extremely difficult for the Red Sox and has for the past three years. Boston is already alarmingly close to the threshold for the 2018 season, and that’s even before any signings or trades have been made. Everybody and their mother knows that the Red Sox need to acquire a power bat this offseason, and desperately, whether that be Giancarlo Stanton, J.D. Martinez, etc. Whoever it is, they are the priority this offseason. At least they should be. The Red Sox are dumb, but I think even they’re smart enough to realize that they have to make another big splash for a big name over the winter.
With that being said, it will be interesting to see if Boston will exceed the threshold specifically for Castillo, and if they do, by how much? Keep in mind the penalties for going above the $195 million threshold. If you exceed by $20 million or less, you’ll be slapped with a 20% tax. If you exceed between $20-40 million, there will be a 32.5% tax. If you exceed $40 million, you’ll get a 62.5% tax AND you’ll drop ten spots in the 2019 (in this case) draft. The Red Sox have never, in my memory, been an aggressive team when it comes to the threshold and are very adamant about staying below it, thus the reset year every 2-3 years. It would take a hell of a lot for Boston to come even close to exceeding by $40 million, but they’re still overly anxious about any of the penalties at any price.
In the end, Castillo’s chances of playing depend almost solely on where his contract would put Boston above the threshold. If the Red Sox do the correct thing and sign/trade for a bat(s), expect some sort of a decision on Castillo to come early next year.
Our other good friend by the name of Chris Young is a free agent this offseason, almost guaranteeing the Red Sox will need a fourth outfielder this coming season. Why not Castillo? I only say this because the Red Sox obviously have something against the man, the myth, the legend in Bryce Brentz, who would be my number one option in a perfect world to take Young’s spot. As the song goes, you can’t always get what you want. Seriously though, don’t sleep on Castillo, especially against lefties. Young was signed primarily to mash lefties like he supposedly did with the Yankees. In case you’ve lived under a rock since Young arrived in Boston, Young didn’t do diddly squat against any pitcher, including lefties. Castillo torched lefties in AAA this past season, hitting .395 against them and slugging 1.085. Straight flames.
Since Young and his $6.5 million salary are essentially gone, adding Castillo to the team would increase Boston’s payroll by 4%. It’s times like these where I’m grateful to just be a fan and not have any impact at all whatsoever on a major sports team because Dombrowski and the Sox have to put their thinking caps on over the winter, to say the least.
I believe that Castillo has a legitimate shot at cracking the roster to start 2018 because brand new skipper Alex Cora LOVES him. And I mean loves him. Cora managed him in Puerto Rico over the 2014-15 offseason and the following two offseasons in winter ball, getting an up-close look at Castillo as a person and as a player. Dig through Cora’s tweets (yes, he has a Twitter and that’s second-hand terrifying) and you’ll find some deep love from him for the kid.
I hope the Red Sox at least give Castillo a chance over the winter to prove that he’s developed positively as a hitter and that he has the ability to help this lineup since one player can’t save this current situation. If they do decide to give him a chance, I also pray that they give him some time to get re-acclimated to major league pitching as he’s been away from it for quite some time now. I believe that he’s a new and improved batter and if he performs to his potential, he can be a legitimate difference-maker. Also, if anyone is going to get the most out of Castillo, which needs to happen if Castillo is going to succeed, it’s Cora.
コメント