The Phillies officially signed Luis Castillo to a minor league deal, the team announced today. He'd been released by the Mets on Friday. The Mets are on the hook for the 35-year-old's $6MM salary, less the league minimum that Philadelphia will pay him. Castillo will either make the team or be released, GM Ruben Amaro Jr. told reporters this morning.
The Phillies have a question mark at second base right now given Chase Utley's knee injury, and Castillo gives them a veteran stopgap. Although he hit just .235/.337/.267 in 299 plate appearances last season, Castillo is only a year removed from a .387 OBP. More than 2,500 MLBTR readers predicted that Castillo would join the Phillies, and Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com was first to tweet the agreement.
everyone gets a fresh start at funny. go!
Yet you continue to waste yours……
0-1 wait for your pitch
FAIL.
more of a ryan church than a ryan howard then, eh friend?
Dude, you really try wayyyy too hard.
Actually it sounds like your trying way too hard.
bill james’ projection for your next comment is womp/womp/womp
Bill James’ projections for my next comment have no statistically relevant measuring system.
wow. finished him
Shang Tsung’s soul sucking
Flawless Victory.
So the Phillies are an awesome team, no doubt about it and my Mets are terrible, probably going to finish last in the division….but when a Met hits a pop-up to Castillo, and he drops it, I’m going to die laughing.
Good for you. Can you point me to a few games where he’s dropped popups?
IF they werent playing the Yanks, Im sure that whole fiasco would of been a lot different.
It’s a joke…I know the whole pop-up thing was overblown, geez.
With our luck he will have a career year and we will be footing the bill.
Not unlike Wilson Valdez last season….
What the hell?
I’m not sure what you’re shocked about? I’m not someone saying Valdez was an MVP for the Phillies last year… but you can’t deny he had a career year…
Phillies LOVE Met rejects lol
Yeah except they play well for the Phillies, i.e. Wilson Valdez
Why do people keep saying Valdez played well? He was slightly above average defensively and provided a .256, .301, .356 line in place of Utley.
Yeah I would agree with you. I think he was good defensibly though; horrible offensive year despite his .250 average which is decent. He would have lead the league in GDP if he didn’t only play 88 games. I thought he played well though overall.
I’m happy with this signing, at the very least he gives you obp in the 8th spot which would allow the pitcher to bunt him into scoring position for Rollins/Victorino.
If he bombs, you cut him and it’s like he was never here.
Numbers really do only tell half of the story. He really was the Phillies MVP last year.
I’d say Chooch was the MVP for a better part of the year. Valdez had his moments though.
Wilson Valdez was the Phillies MVP last year? I think/hope you’re being sarcastic, but I can never tell on here.
Not Roy Halladay, NL Cy Young winner? Cole Hamels? Carlos Ruiz? Jayson Werth?
Wilson Valdez? I know numbers don’t tell the whole story, but come on. He gave the team replacement level offensive production in Utley’s absence.
But if you’re being sarcastic like I’m guessing, ignore all that.
After watching Wilson Valdez pick it for most of the year, no that isn’t sarcasm. He’s a slick fielder who more than makes up for his GDP’s playing gold-glove caliber defense anywhere in the infield.
Gold Glove caliber? What does that even mean? Nate McLouth has a Gold Glove. Jeter has like 427 of them.
But I can’t really speak on his defense. I don’t trust defensive metrics and it’s too small of a sample size anyway. He was certainly at least average.
Hahahaha. Is this sarcasm? This has to be sarcasm, right?
Because he was expected to be terrible and he exceeded that by being mediocre. Gotta look on the bright side of things. Glass half full.
disagree there. he was well above average defensively. in fact, he was a better fielder than rollins when he was healthy and plays multiple positions….this is a bad move
Even though Valdez had a fairly weak line he was pretty darn clutch, something that is an absolute mystery to the Mets.
[never mind.]
Lol Brian Shneider did amazing for the phillies last year very solid backup. I have faith Louis will do yh
Castillo will find a way to beat the Mets, in a crucial game at Citi Field.
Shouldn’t be hard. Though hopefully the Phillies actually score some runs at Citi Field this year.
What crucial game?
Well, I meant like that Eric Bruntlett play (BAH)
The battle for last place, go Nats!
You’re assuming the Mets will play “crucial” games this year? Aw. Cute.
The phillies aren’t the favorites to go to the series anymore…..
Because they signed a player to a minor league contract?
Dude, I was being sarcastic.
They have 13/4 odds, best in the NL. Unless the Red Sawx are moving to the NL, bodog.com still likes their chances.
The “No Duh!” of the weekend.
I guess it makes sense since its a very low risk deal, but I dont think it was necessary. At this point in all of their careers, Barfield/Valdez/Martinez are better players than Castillo.
I agree.
Can’t wait to watch him!….
….in Allentown
Go Pigs!
A minor league deal is nothing. Im guessing they take a look at him the rest of spring training and if he stinks it up he will be sent down.
Low-Risk, High reward
I definitely agree with the low-risk part. But…uh…..
haha ok, low risk, moderate reward
Low risk, low reward?
must we even use the word “reward”?
How about low risk- it could be worse?
Well odds are it will be no reward but if he can somehow channel 2009, Id have to say that would be a decent reward.
Odds are he will start the season in AAA and if he does anything they would bring him up. I just dont see him starting the season on the 25 man roster.
Let’s face it, with Utley out the Phillies are gonna need guys who can get on base. Rollins and Victorino are slightly above-average(Rollins might not be anymore though) and at Castillo’s worst he’s a .335 OBP guy. Valdez is better defensively, but he can’t really get on base at a solid clip.
Enjoy the $414,000 lawn ornament. It goes well with the statuary that you have out in left.
Statuary? A collection of statues?
How many Ibanez’s do they Phillies have out in left anyway?
Three.
NOT ENOUGH AMIRITE
One too many.
Wrong met. I wanted David Wright.
LOL.
Brian Schneider, Wilson Valdez, Luis Castillo. Am I missing anymore former Mets that the Phillies signed immediately after they were let go in NY?
Reyes is as good as gone this year, coincidentally Rollins last year of his contract as well. So we might add another name to that list for 2012.
I do hope they sign Oliver Perez though.
I would be in favor of this. When he’s on, Reyes is the best leadoff hitter in the game. I just hate his celebrations but I feel like I would love them if he was in a Phillies uni.
Figueroa
Nelson Figueroa. They were also in on Jeff Francoeur. (Cholly liked him, but Amaro wasn’t interested. Which is why Amaro is the one with more than one pair of shoes.) Be sure to check the team photo for new clubhouse manager, Charlie Samuels.
Actually, they were interested, Francoeur chose KC because he thought he would have more playing time.
Pedro, although not exactly immediately.
Last year when the Braves traded Yunel Escobar for Alex Gonzalez, Frank Wren said of Gonzalez ‘He’s a winner.’
Castillo has two rings, right? I really hope I get to hear those words from RAJ soon regarding Castillo. Hell, he might forget that he even signed him by tomorrow though.
Castillo has one ring. Just like Gollum. (Separated at birth)
Ahh, for some reason I thought he was with the Marlins during both of their championships.
I’d rather see Gollum at 2B than Castillo.
You go from Chase Utley to Louis Castillo? Life is good for a Mets fan
Not really. Amaro has proven to be as incompetent as Dayton Moore and Omar Minaya and yet we’re still not remotely close to catching the Phillies 😛 2-3 years though? The Phillies will be back in the basement where they belong.
to all philly fans lotsa luck with this mummy. you all deserve him.
i feel like chicago just dodged a jim hendry bullet of a mistake…..i would like to thank the cubs for not perusing too much, and the phils for panicking about chase utley…..
if only jim hendry’s mistakes were minor league depth signings.
How is it that Castillo refused to platoon at second, but now signs a minor league contract? Whatever, Castillo is having a great Spring, but is defensive liability. Philly, you got a good back-up. Please do not slam my Mets on this bord too badly. PS Enjoy Reyes next year because of our Fraudulent Owners
The difference is that he was unemployed when he signed that minor league contract…
Well we Phils fans don’t have to worry about a visitation to Walter Reed to visit injured soldiers getting in the way of him taking extra BP.
Guess you don’t PHollow the PHillies advertising PHoibles…
He only did it the first time too…
PHail
ph that
Ha.
Your the one that has his screen name as “I hate Mets Eventually” and your telling Tanner to get a life? Wow. Just Wow.
And when he tries to drag bunt with 2 outs and a runner on second, I will laugh in yours.
What does that even mean anyway?
Most teams have at least a serviceable utility men. Just because the Phillies survived Valdez’s lack of offensive production doesn’t mean he did a great job, nor does it remotely imply that he should be considered by anyone to be the team’s MVP.
I appreciate and admire players that give it their all despite their shortcomings, but the fact is that Valdez is barely serviceable on offense. Like I said, can’t comment on his defense. His dWAR last year was 1.3 in limited action, so he may be great defensively. It’s just too small of a sample size for me to go on.
Haven’t you seen the MLBTR poster named MetsEventually.
No. But now I’m wondering what the hell that means. Great.