As of late last night, the Red Sox and Tigers were said to be the favorites to sign Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo, whose price tag reportedly could land between $50MM and $60MM over five years. The 27-year-old Castillo is expected to make a decision this weekend, with many reports having indicated that today would be the day he chooses a team. We’ll keep track of Friday’s Castillo rumors here…
- Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports that the Red Sox “are working hard” to try to sign Castillo, and he, like Speier, hears that the Sox are the favorites.
- Castillo is still talking with “multiple clubs,” including the Red Sox, tweets Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald, and a decision could be reached today. Lauber also tweets that Castillo won’t be influenced by whether or not a team is contending in 2014, as he views his choice as a long-term decision.
Earlier Updates
- WEEI.com’s Alex Speier reports that rival clubs view the Red Sox as the favorites to sign Castillo. One source indicated to Speier that Castillo is still actively weighing multiple offers, but sources from multiple clubs believe the Sox to be nearing a deal with Castillo and his agents at Roc Nation Sports, according to Speier.
- Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com spoke with a league source late last night who indicated that the Red Sox are “optimistic” that they will sign Castillo (Twitter link).
NICE!!!!!
Can we drop Craig back off at Busch stadium? Does no give backs apply?
I think they should have shut him down for the rest of the year and find out what is really wrong with that foot/ankle. I feel like they may not have done enough background work on that injury.
Don’t give up on Craig, everybody wants to fall in love in the next greatest thing but before he got hurt he was a vey productive hitter and an off season is probably what is needed right now.
I have a feeling that Red Sox nation will be in love with Craig at this time next year.
Craig’s slugging percentage has declined every year since 2011. And he can barely play the field. I’m not very optimistic about him.
I get that, but he has been hurt for the last two. Hard to play with a foot injury, and Farrell said yesterday that he thinks offseason surgery is a possibility, which says he is hurt. In the World Series last year, most of the Cardinals highlights were Mr. Craig.
No doubt there is a chance he is never the same, but if he gets healthy he will bat 5 for this team for quite a while.
I would put my money on him at his relatively inexpensive contract than giving Castillo $60 mill for five years.
Craig didn’t play hurt last year besides the World Series. He spent ~6 weeks on the DL prior.
Slugging percentage isn’t everything though. The guys walk rate and strikeout percentage have stayed mostly the same and he can still be a .270 BA .330 OBP guy with around 10 HR at the least when his foot recovers and his BABIP bounces back. I think they should open the season with him as a bench guy that rotates around 1b and Lf or trade Nap for pitching
For his BABIP to bounce back he needs to make better contact. That low number isn’t just bad luck: His grounder/fly ball ratio is up to 1.35 this season, which is going to lead to a lot more in-play outs.
Ok that’s fair but how much of that is due to the foot injury? Did his grounder/fly ball ratio go up consistently over the last 4 years or did it just spike this year?
I just think a lot of Red Sox fans are completely ignoring the upside of Craig.
The Cardinals have this nack of knowing when to let a player go.
Including Allen Craig in that trade is beginning to look more and more foolish. I think they were expecting him to bounce back and take over for Napoli at first after next season. Whether that actually happens remains to be seen. Now he’s just starting to look like an underperformer who is ill suited to the outfield for whom we don’t have another position.
This would be really interesting because of the domino effect that could follow. An outfield of Castillo, Cespedes, and one of out 80 other outfielders would open the Sox up to swing some trades…
Giancarlo Stanton!!!
Good luck with that.
People keep saying that about Stanton. I don’t think he’s as locked up in Miami as everyone thinks. If any team has what it takes to get him, the Sox are the ones!!
If Miami trades Stanton, they might as well close up shop, and admit that baseball does not work on the major league level long term in S Florida.
The team is at .500 right now with a young team and its best pitcher lost for most of the year. If they trade him what does that say? Here we go again starting over with another boatload of prospects.. What they ought to do is get him extended right now like the Angels did with Trout.
If the Marlins were smart, they would’ve extended him BEFORE that deal with the Blue Jays.
Not happening. Miami has been adamant about not trading him. It’s a popular speculation topic, but they’d be facing their worst PR nightmare yet if they dealt Stanton at this point.
We have the best chance to sign him with the overhaul of pitching propects we have.
He’s going somewhere!
Miami does not have enough to pay him the monster contract that he’s gonna receive.
Over 200 million.
Not sure what to make of this report as a Tigers fan. A few possibilities:
1. Dombrowski is in stealth mode as is his typical MO. He does NOT want to be a “front runner”. Better to let others think that Tigers are not as desperate as they are. Goal is to scoop him up at the last minute at a more reasonable price.
2. Red Sox will get him, but already have “dozens” of moderately adequate outfielders, some of whom have cleared waivers. If so, the Tigers should trade for one of them before 8/31. Perhaps Nava in a platoon would make sense… and likely help the Tigers more in 2014 than Castillo.
3. Tigers have decided that Castillo will not help enough this year, and they will get a better deal with more supply (multiple free agent outfielders) in the offseason….
4. Yasmani Tomas is their target.
Why not?
Obviously Miami ain’t gonna pay him.
So you tell me where’s he going then?
He’s going somewhere other then Miami I tell you that!
They can pay him. They’re not paying the rest of the team anything. They can keep Stanton to his free agency and still stay within their payroll constraints.
They will have plenty of resources available to trade for Hamels this winter, which is what I think will happen.
Funny, less than a week ago the “favorites” were either the Yankees or the Phillies!
Wow it’s like things change
Mystery Team not far behind
Detroit needs to add a bat or TWO. They can not lose gems like Price threw yesterday.
That was a 1 in a 1000 fluke. Will not happen again.
You kidding since the All Star break the tigers have not gave any run support for their starters and what little leads they have had the bullpen blows. The bats are weak.
1 in a 1000 fluke. Error and triple back to back. Perfect game otherwise.
Tigers may lose 1-0 again. But they will not lose a game in which their pitcher gives up 0 earned runs and one hit again, this year or for the rest of the decade.
Love it when fans use absolutes like “never” or “not”.
I’m sure this is all just part of the master plan Cherington. I’ll just wait until all of the pieces fall into place before I point out this would be like the 9th outfielder on our 40 man, 10th if you count Holt.