Sox sign Rusney Castillo to 7-year/$72.5M deal (2014-2020)

[StuckOnYouk]

The sox need to be pushing for a life raft lane alongside the EZ Pass lane on the Mass Pike.

 

[Stan Papi Was Framed]

If the articles I'm reading are right, Castillo hasn't played professional baseball since 2012. Tossing him straight into ML games at this point seems... ambitious.

fair point--I am overexcited.  we'll see...

 

[Salem's Lot]

What about Betts at 3B?  He seems to have infield-friendly hands and a 3B-friendly arm.  At worst, you can platoon him with Holt there and, against RHP, have him available to play all over in Holt's UTIL bench spot.
 

 
Betts has never played 3B in professional baseball at any level. If they were planning on trying him there next year he would probably not be on the major league roster.

 

[Corsi]

Castillo will count for $10.36 million against the luxury tax threshold for each of the seven years of his deal, including 2014. However, the Sox cleared enough payroll at the 2014 trade deadline that, as of now, it does not appear that they will exceed the $189 million luxury tax threshold in 2014.
 

http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2014/08/22/red-sox-agree-to-seven-year-deal-with-rusney-castillo/

 

[oumbi]

Still got Craig too. 

Though Craig has played 217 games at 1B in his career. And for trivia buffs, Craig also has 9 games at 2B and 4 games at 3B. Perhaps he may sub for Napoli at 1B for 20-30 games next year.

 

[chrisfont9]

Wouldnt bet on it happening, but wonder if flipping Cespedes is a possibility given the new roster makeup and the fact that the OF FA class sucks.    

To me this makes sense. Maybe not right away, give him time to see if he'll hit in Fenway. But given his short contract, the likelihood that his next deal will be the type the Sox shy away from, and the poor ob%, I can see Cespedes being dealt. 

 

[flymrfreakjar]

Though Craig has played 217 games at 1B in his career. And for trivia buffs, Craig also has 9 games at 2B and 4 games at 3B. Perhaps he may sub for Napoli at 1B for 20-30 games next year.

 
Yeah, they'll likely be trying to give Ortiz more breaks in the future as well. 

 

[Corsi]

 

Rob Bradford ‏@bradfo  2m
Another FWIW: Castillo has limited trade protection (consistent with most FA signings)
 

 

[twibnotes]

I can't help but think that if he plays for the Sox the rest of this season and performs well, he's then part of a cost-controlled package that's dangled to the Marlins for Stanton.

If that were the case, why didn't the Marlins just sign him themselves? Are you saying the Sox would send money along with Castillo? Would be an interesting way to exploit the process if allowed (like buying a prospect whose cost to another team would be low)

 

[CGSO]

Trades are coming..

 

[Cumberland Blues]

The next asshat who brings up Stanton in this thread is going on leave.

 

[pdub]

I wonder what this means for Bradley Jr., more time in AAA? Interesting signing, worth more than Abreu signed for. 
 
EDIT: Just to clarify, this assumes that we have Cespedes - Craig - Castillo as next year's OF. 

 

[Savin Hillbilly]

Arthur Schlesinger told the story that Joe Kennedy used to advise his sons against doing something and then if they went ahead and did it anyway, he would turn on a dime and say "best decision you ever made." That's how I'm trying to feel about this. I still think the risk is pretty huge, not so much in dollars as in opportunity costs, but I'm going to remember that they've done their homework and assume that they're really onto something here.
 
My biggest worry is the plate discipline. Most of the successful recent Cuban defectors actually had <1 K/BB ratios in Cuban ball, according to this site--and they have flipped around to look like hackers in MLB. Castillo has the worst Cuban K/BB of that bunch, at nearly 1.5/1. If the same thing happens to him that happened to Abreu, Cespedes and Alexei Ramirez, he might wind up with really hideous K/BB numbers here. Hopefully part of what's going on there is that because those other three were feared more as power hitters in Cuba, a whole lot of those BB were intentional, and the K/BB spike on hitting the majors wouldn't look so extreme if we only looked at UIBB.
 
On the plus side, with both Castillo and Cespedes in the lineup, games should be shorter..... :whistling:

 

[foulkehampshire]

I have to think JBJ is the long man out on this. 
 
Castillo makes him irrelevant.

 

[twibnotes]

I wonder what this means for Bradley Jr., more time in AAA? Interesting signing, worth more than Abreu signed for. 
 
EDIT: Just to clarify, this assumes that we have Cespedes - Craig - Castillo as next year's OF. 

Think it's becoming more and more evident that taking Craig was the price for getting Kelly. Wouldn't be surprised if the Sox FO are not counting on much from Craig

 

[Buzzkill Pauley]

I have to think JBJ is the long man out on this. 
 
Castillo makes him irrelevant.

 
No, Castillo makes him trade-bait for the NL.  That'll be highly relevant in the offseason.

 

[normstalls]

"However, the Sox cleared enough payroll at the 2014 trade deadline that, as of now, it does not appear that they will exceed the $189 million luxury tax threshold in 2014."
 
This makes me feel better about the deadline moves... It seems they had this in the works the whole time and this was definitely  part of their plan.  Now if they move Cespedes and a prospect in the off-season for an arm I would be feeling even better.  i just can't fully get on board with him and his .290 OBP

 

[Savin Hillbilly]

I have to think JBJ is the long man out on this. 
 
Castillo makes him irrelevant.

 
It's an interesting question. Castillo's skill set seems far more duplicative of Betts' than JBJ's. The only thing Betts has that he doesn't is strong plate discipline numbers--but JBJ has those too. OTOH, JBJ doesn't seem likely to be much use anywhere but CF, unless his offense takes some huge leaps forward, so if they signed Castillo to play CF, then JBJ is certainly out of a starting job for the near future, while Betts could still be relevant at either OF corner.

 

[foulkehampshire]

 
No, Castillo makes him trade-bait for the NL.  That'll be highly relevant in the offseason.

 
I meant irrelevant to the roster going forward. C'mon, dude. 

 

[Madmartigan]

Are there any MLE projections out there for Castillo?  

 

[Darnell's Son]

 
So we've now gone from "No way we get Craig for Peavy" to "They had to take him as a dump if they wanted Joe Kelly"? 

No, it was always the latter.

 

[InsideTheParker]

 
So we've now gone from "No way we get Craig for Peavy" to "They had to take him as a dump if they wanted Joe Kelly"? 

Lackey.

 

[LeoCarrillo]

 
They were never anywhere near the luxury tax threshold. Even if they hadn't moved Gomes, Lester, Peavy and Lackey, they still could have made this signing and not been close. 

Either way, the timing is great in that they can save $2M a year against the luxury line by spreading it across "seven" years and not the six it really is.

 

[geoduck no quahog]

I wonder if this is why Cespedes left the game yesterday. Assist the FO in communications?
 
I'd rather it be that than some personal hardship.

 

[Buzzkill Pauley]

Are there any MLE projections out there for Castillo?  

 
Nope.  At least, none worth a damn.
 
This is a pure scouting-only sign....Allard Baird's fingerprints are all over it.
 
Well, I suppose any time you can spend $10MM instead of $500K, you have to do it.

 

[Stitch01]

I don't know why you would trade Betts++ for the right to pay a guy 20 mil.  I had a pro scout tell me that Betts would be our best player in 2 years.  I said, "But but but Xander--"  He said Betts.  I don't think you trade the guy for anyone other than Stanton and certainly not for a pitcher who makes 20 mil or Douchebag Mat Latos.  Keep Betts, sign Lester, Scherzer, Shields, Iwakuma, etc.
 
You don't trade 6 years of Betts for the right to pay a guy 20+ mil, especially when we most likely will have a protected pick.

I agree with you in a vacuum on value (although I dont give that much weight to one pro scout opinion).
 
Given that the Sox deadline moves show an intention to contend in '15, that they desperately need talent in the starting rotation, that they seem very averse to paying open market value for top-tier free agent pitching, they have plenty of money to spend in '15, and that Betts both doesn't have an obvious path to a starting role on the '15 team and has seen his trade value skyrocket this year, it seems like the stars are aligning to package him with one of our AAA pitching prospects for a front of the rotation starter for '15.

 

[turnthe2]

On another note, who is going now?  According to Sox Prospects there are two open slots on the 40 however if he is going to see Major League playing time before September 1st, someone is getting the boot.  I imagine they'll give him from now to then (9/1) to acclimate which is less than 2 weeks.

 

[Buzzkill Pauley]

On another note, who is going now?  According to Sox Prospects there are two open slots on the 40 however if he is going to see Major League playing time before September 1st, someone is getting the boot.  I imagine they'll give him from now to then (9/1) to acclimate which is less than 2 weeks.

 
My guess would that he doesn't see MLB playing time until rosters expand.  Maybe not even until the end of the AAA playoffs.
 
He's been out of professional baseball since 2012, and will need time to get acclimated.

 

[OptimusPapi]

1. There are a million other differences between Castillo and Ellsbury too; however, many have compared Castillo to Gardner with more power. Given the value of the contract they gave him, they must hold a similar view. I am with you on the Castillo signing; you just have to trust the FO and their evaluation of his offensive and defensive potential. He's a free agent, and this valuation is of a middle-tier free agent, so they are balanced in terms of both upside and downside risks, I think.

2. I go the other way on the impact of having now won 3 world series on what I'd like to see. I'd rather watch meaningful baseball through the end of September every year than win a world series one year out of the last five (2013), another great pennant race (2011) and turn to football with the mid-July start of training camp in three other years (2010, 2012, and 2014) where they used the "bridge year" philosophy.

3. Manny (the WS MVP this ownership group tried to give away for nothing), Youkilis, Varitek, and Wakefield (189 IP at league average is not easy to find, as this season shows) were still absolutely key contributors in 2007; Manny (again, the guy this ownership tried to give away for nothing), Damon (Would they have signed him to that contract, Duquette's last? I recall a lot of Gammons articles suggesting they were pissed about it), Varitek, Lowe, Wakefield, Nixon, and Pedro were all regulars and Youkilis provided 250 PA of quality depth in 2004. Enough facts for you, newbie?

I was refuting your claim that 2004 and 2007 was largely moves of another ownership group which I did. Also what team is going to make the playoff every year, you have unrealistic expectations. Any other questions moron?

 

[Corsi]

As of roughly noon, while the two sides were working together to define the terms, the agreement had not been formally reached. However, the concept being discussed would have Castillo receiving a prorated minimum for 2014 (receiving a percentage of the roughly $500,000 minimum — likely in the vicinity of $80,000-$85,000 for roughly a month under contract), with the balance of the $72.5 million paid in a signing bonus and spread out over the six full seasons.
 

http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2014/08/22/red-sox-agree-to-seven-year-deal-with-rusney-castillo/

 

[RedOctober3829]

Per Alex Speier, it sounds like he's getting the prorated minimum salary for 2014 and the rest is paid out starting in 2015 in both salary and signing bonus money.
 

As of roughly noon, while the two sides were working together to define the terms, the agreement had not been formally reached. However, the concept being discussed would have Castillo receiving a prorated minimum for 2014 (receiving a percentage of the roughly $500,000 minimum — likely in the vicinity of $80,000-$85,000 for roughly a month under contract), with the balance of the $72.5 million paid in a signing bonus and spread out over the six full seasons.
 

http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2014/08/22/red-sox-agree-to-seven-year-deal-with-rusney-castillo/

 

[Night of the Keyboard]

What about Betts at 3B?  He seems to have infield-friendly hands and a 3B-friendly arm.  At worst, you can platoon him with Holt there and, against RHP, have him available to play all over in Holt's UTIL bench spot.
 
3B Betts/Holt
2B Pedroia
DH Ortiz
1B Napoli
RF Cespedes
CF Castillo
LF Craig
SS Bogaerts

A platoon with Holt will only result in about 40 starts and the only players in your line-up that wouldn't play everyday are Craig and possibly Napoli. They could trade Craig and make make Betts the starting leftfielder but that would be far from maximizing the value for what I believe could be an all-star 2B.

Moving Betts to CF made sense but with that possibility now gone he should probably be traded.


C Vazquez
 
Bench: C, Betts/Holt, Nava, Victorino
AAA/Traded: JBJ, Middlebrooks, etc.

Sorry, I inserted my response in the wrong place.

 

[Plympton91]

 
Nope.  At least, none worth a damn.
 
This is a pure scouting-only sign....Allard Baird's fingerprints are all over it.
 
Well, I suppose any time you can spend $10MM instead of $500K, you have to do it.

I don't know as I'd say, "none worth a damn." We're starting to approach the standard minimum sample of 30 at this point, aren't we. 20 at least? That's better than nothing.

 

[H78]

It really is crazy to think about how different this team is going to look from Opening Day 2014 to Opening Day 2015.

 

[JohntheBaptist]

 
Rusney, Rubby. Rubby, Rusney.
 
(sorry)

 

[Corsi]

Castillo is scheduled to undergo his physical Saturday.
 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2014/08/22/cuban-outfielder-rusney-castillo-to-sign-record-deal-with-boston-red-sox/14441443/

 

[fineyoungarm]

I think you can.  Abreu was billed as a much better player than Castillo is.  This is a very expensive gamble that we all better hope works out.

 
The post that never was.

 

[Plympton91]

I was refuting your claim that 2004 and 2007 was largely moves of another ownership group which I did. Also what team is going to make the playoff every year, you have unrealistic expectations. Any other questions moron?

That's not what I said. I said that previous ownership had acquired many key players, and that the remaining players had been signed by a team of scouts, asst. GM's, and GM that were now working for other teams. That is indisputable, unless you think that Theo Epstein, Hoyer, and Byrnes were all figureheads and Ben Cherington the real decisionmaker all along. I'd be careful calling others names when you clearly lack basic reading comprehension skills.

Here's the relevant part of the post that you turned into a strawman to flog:

This is far more balanced than OptimusPapis presentation of things. A lot of the guys who produced the championships in 2004 and 2007 were acquired by previous owners and many of the best scouts and assistant GMs and GM from those years are now working for other teams.

 

[absintheofmalaise]

I was refuting your claim that 2004 and 2007 was largely moves of another ownership group which I did. Also what team is going to make the playoff every year, you have unrealistic expectations. Any other questions moron?

Stop with the personal attacks. If you can't argue a point without calling someone a moron on here you don't need to be here.

 

[Snodgrass'Muff]

If he really can steal 30 bases, he won't need more than a .330 or so OBP and average center field defense to be worth that contract. 30 stolen bases, a .350 OBP and above average defense and he's a star. If he has 20 homerun power, this will look like a steal.

I have no exposure to him beyond what we've all read, so I'm not claiming he's likely to hit that many dingers, but "Brett Gardner with more power" suggests that it's possible.

I don't get the hand wringing. This sounds like exactly the kind of bet this team should be making.

 

[Snodgrass'Muff]

 
Red - It could be part of a secret plan to package the two Cubans, Cespdes and Castillo, to get Stanton.

Can we stop with the Stanton crap? They now have 7 outfielders vying for major league jobs. The actions of this front office are not the actions of a front office planning on acquiring Stanton this winter.

If this is a joke, it's played out at this point. Let it die.

 

[Drek717]

I still really think there is a good chance they move him to 3B.  He reportedly played there some in Cuba, he worked out as an OF/2B with a strong arm for scouts, and the Sox were supposedly very much considering moving Abreu, who can't field 1B very well, to 3B when they were bidding on him last year.
 
Castillo is far more likely to be a competent 3B than Abreu, and if his bat is even in the same league as Abreu, Puig, and Cespedes he'll rank pretty high offensively at 3rd.  Meanwhile Middlebrooks hasn't shown that he deserves the job himself.
 
So Castillo at 3B for 2015, Bogaerts at SS, see how they fare and how Cecchini and Marrero do with a full season in AAA to further develop.  two OF jobs (Victorino and Cespedes), 1B, and quite possibly DH are all opening up next season so they can reshuffle the deck chairs then and move Castillo to the outfield if he didn't hold up well at 3B or if the next best option available is a 3B instead of an OF.
 
I could see a 2015 roster of:
C - Vaz
1B - Napoli
2B - Pedroia
3B - Castillo
SS - Bogaerts
LF - Cespedes
CF - Betts
RF - Victorino
DH - Ortiz
 
then followed by a 2016 roster of:
C - Vaz/Swihart
1B - Craig/Shaw
2B - Pedroia
3B - Bogaerts/Cecchini
SS - Marrero/Bogaerts
LF - Cespedes/Castillo/Craig
CF - Betts/Bradley
RF - Bradley/Betts/Castillo
DH - Ortiz/Napoli
 
It gives them a lot of guys to try out in 2015 to determine who gets kept for 2016, but without having to go all farm hands like they did for much of this year's depth.

 

[CaskNFappin]

I wonder if this precludes us from making a run at Tomas. I guess a lot depends on how many OFs we jettison in the offseason.

It would be interesting to see an all Cuban OF.

 

[bosockboy]

What about Betts at 3B?  He seems to have infield-friendly hands and a 3B-friendly arm.  At worst, you can platoon him with Holt there and, against RHP, have him available to play all over in Holt's UTIL bench spot.
 
3B Betts/Holt
2B Pedroia
DH Ortiz
1B Napoli
RF Cespedes
CF Castillo
LF Craig
SS Bogaerts
C Vazquez
 
Bench: C, Betts/Holt, Nava, Victorino
AAA/Traded: JBJ, Middlebrooks, etc.

 
Seems right to me.....massive depth with Craig able to play backup 1B and DH as well, creating playing time for Betts/Holt in LF, and Victorino being a 350-400 AB RF/CF sub and injury protection.  Craig also the long term Papi replacement.

 

[SouthernBoSox]

I think Nava is as essential to this team as ever.  You need him - and his ability to hit RHP - in an all right handed outfield.
 
I think people are really overplaying Holt as an OF.  He's an infielder who was thrown into an outfield because there were bodies on the floor.
 
I'd be shocked if he isn't the starting 3B on 2015 opening day.

 

[Buzzkill Pauley]

I don't know as I'd say, "none worth a damn." We're starting to approach the standard minimum sample of 30 at this point, aren't we. 20 at least? That's better than nothing.

 
I would.  That's why I did.  The Sox have based this signing on pure scouting, because there's far too much variability in the Cuban League to make even baseline projections that are more relevant than pulling numbers out of a hat.  
 
Hopefully it works out, but it still reeks of an Allard Baird overpay.  Last time I smelt it this strongly, there was a neck tattoo involved.
 
Rusney Castillo (2009-2011): 7yrs/$72.5M
22 yrs: .349/.417/.465
23 yrs: .303/.333/.404
24 yrs: .324/.373/.555
 
Yoenis Cespedes (2008-2010): 4yrs/$36M
22 yrs: .323/.411/.603
23 yrs: .345/.426/.617
24 yrs: .333/.424/.667
 
Juan Carlos Linares (2007-2009): 1yr/$750K
22 yrs: .345/.467/.586
23 yrs: .308/.438/.536
24 yrs: .325/.430/.588

 

[OCD SS]

Seems right to me.....massive depth with Craig able to play backup 1B and DH as well, creating playing time for Betts/Holt in LF, and Victorino being a 350-400 AB RF/CF sub and injury protection.  Craig also the long term Papi replacement.

So Craig is the new Carp?

 

[Rough Carrigan]

Arthur Schlesinger told the story that Joe Kennedy used to advise his sons against doing something and then if they went ahead and did it anyway, he would turn on a dime and say "best decision you ever made." That's how I'm trying to feel about this. I still think the risk is pretty huge, not so much in dollars as in opportunity costs, but I'm going to remember that they've done their homework and assume that they're really onto something here.
 
My biggest worry is the plate discipline. Most of the successful recent Cuban defectors actually had <1 K/BB ratios in Cuban ball, according to this site--and they have flipped around to look like hackers in MLB. Castillo has the worst Cuban K/BB of that bunch, at nearly 1.5/1. If the same thing happens to him that happened to Abreu, Cespedes and Alexei Ramirez, he might wind up with really hideous K/BB numbers here. Hopefully part of what's going on there is that because those other three were feared more as power hitters in Cuba, a whole lot of those BB were intentional, and the K/BB spike on hitting the majors wouldn't look so extreme if we only looked at UIBB.
 
On the plus side, with both Castillo and Cespedes in the lineup, games should be shorter..... :whistling:

Yeah, this pretty well represents my reaction as well.  Jeez, that much?! . . . Hmm. . . . . . . Hmm . . . Yeah, this is pretty smart.
 
The only other thing I would add is that Puig started in MLB as a complete hacker and in one year became a pretty disciplined hitter.  If Castillo could make a similar adjustment it'd be fantastic.

 

[Hendu for Kutch]

I didn't see this anywhere in the thread, but according to Baseball America, Castillo can opt-in for arbitration on the last year of the deal instead of whatever his contract salary is for that season.
 
http://www.baseballamerica.com/majors/rusney-castillo-signs/

 

[O Captain! My Captain!]

So Craig is the new Carp?

 
For a year. after that, Napoli's contract is up and they've had another year post-injury to see whether or not Craig is a viable Napoli replacement. Also, Papi turns 40 at the end of 2015. Craig is really expensive for that role in 2015, but by 2016 he's much more likely to fulfill a need.