With Jason Castro heading to free agency, the Astros face uncertainty behind the plate in 2017, as Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle writes. But the veteran catcher’s entry onto the open market doesn’t mean that he won’t end up back in Houston.
The return of Evan Gattis to some catching duties helps the situation, even if he’s still lacking some polish defensively, but he’s probably not a quasi-regular option as a backstop. And as Kaplan explains, the club’s other immediate possibilities — Max Stassi and Tyler Heineman — probably aren’t in line to be entrusted with a significant role.
Per GM Jeff Luhnow, a bid to re-sign Castro is definitely on the table as the offseason approaches. Explaining that Gattis will likely be a part of the mix, Luhnow went on to address Castro.
“The rest of [the catching] picture has to be fleshed out for us, but certainly Jason coming back is not something we’re going to rule out by any stretch,” he said. “I think there would be a strong desire from our side to try and bring him back.”
Luhnow spoke highly of Castro, noting that the 29-year-old’s slightly-below-average offensive output — a .209/.307/.378 slash and 11 home runs over 372 plate appearances — isn’t the only consideration. “He does a really good job of working with our pitchers, working with our coaching staff, and I think people forget sometimes the catcher is the field general, the person that’s running the show during the game,” Luhnow explained.
That being said, Houston figures to face plenty of competition for Castro’s services. He may not be the most exciting option imaginable, but he is a respected defender who delivers some pop from the left side of the plate. With Wilson Ramos felled by an ACL tear, and Francisco Cervelli previously re-upping with the Pirates, there’s a lot of demand and much less supply than had been anticipated.
And this says all you need to know about the Astros front office. He can’t hit. If they spend a ton of money to keep him instead of spending it on a guy who can actually hit or a starter it’ll be another question mark on this front office. I would take Wieters or an injured Ramos over Castro. He’s also 3rd in passed balls in the league. This offseason will show if the front office is capable of putting together a championship team. If they stay as is, we definitely know they aren’t.
Well he’s the only real catcher on the market who doesn’t have a significant injury history, also he puts up a useful slash with an OK but not stellar OBP. Heck his OBP is better than Salvador Perez’s who was an all star, yea his average is low but you can’t take that at face value.
Also as stated, he’s great with the pitching staff he knows them well and to me id rather have a decent offensive man who’s stellar with the staff than a super star offensive player who is terrible with the staff.
OBP for catcher that clogs that base paths? No thanks. I love when people use OBP for guys that it takes a double
And single to score them.
OBP, even for a slow runner, still gives your team a baserunner. A slow player even with a decent OBP is better than a slow player with a bad OBP.
I will admit that Castro is far from great by any aspect of the imagination, but there aren’t a lot of readily available catchers who’d I qualify as great (especially since the major injury to Ramos). Castro currently has an 88 wRC+ and a .684 OPS. Major league catchers on average this season have an 86 wRC+ and a .700 OPS. That translates into a roughly average catcher. He is what he is. That also means Castro is better than the vast majority of the catchers available in free agency this season.
Vast majority of Catchers? That’s not saying much at all. I’ll take Gattis and Stassi as opposed to overpaying Castro
Castro tore his ACL in 2011, missed the whole year, I’d say that’s fairly significant. Watching him hit is an awful experience. The only way he can stay in the lineup is if there are 8 other legit hitters and we didn’t have that this year.
Is it not time the Astros hire some legit hitting coaches. Wonder what the record would be if D Santana, J Villar, and C Gomez were still on this team. All 3 have had their swings adjusted.
Agree with this 100% and its not just hitters. Too many of our players are failing here and succeeding elsewhere.
He has taken the approach to develop players with a computer and has let all the experienced instructors go
No balance 100% computers and 0% baseball
His ego to big to realize it
Reed was rushed
Singleton was waste of money
Gave up a Mlb C to angles
Did nothing at trade deadline and paid for it
See Buchanan can get a W for best team in baseball last night but can’t even get anything for him just cut him
The list goes on and on
Agree with some of this, but Carlos Perez has worse numbers than Castro, not exactly major league. All he needs is a good offseason but if he can’t pull that off, it might be time to look in another direction.
My goodness you just never stop huh? How much sleep have you lost bc of your hatred for luhnow? I recommend just jumping off the bandwagon now, if ya got this many problems with the way the team is run. Every GM makes mistakes. While yes he’s not been perfect and the recent trades haven’t gone his way, but he deserves credit where credit is due. Mind you this guy was the GM for a team who increased their win total from 51 to 86 in just two years! He didn’t simply turn the worst team in baseball into a playoff team by sheer luck. I’d imagine you’re also the kind of person that will vilify his decision to “tank” the three years that they were 100 loss teams, but I implore you to ask yourself where they’d be right now had they gotten middle round picks in the last 4 drafts instead of the 5 picks they got, which were all top 5. You can go ahead and say goodbye to Correa, McCullers, Bregman, K Tucker, and who knows how the Giles trade would’ve worked without Appel. Bottom line, without the combination of luhnow’s drafting, overall analytics, trading, and international signings, the Astros wouldn’t even be close to where they are now. Especially if stupid ole Ed wade was the one still runnin the show.
Oh but last thing, “100% analytics and 0% baseball”… Really man…really? That doesn’t even make sense.
I appreciate your stream of consciousness rant, and I completely agree about the hitting coach.
However, I’m proudly a Lunhow-lover and I’m more than happy to give him a few more years to figure things out.
Criticizing him for not adding at the deadline is lazy. Who would you have added and at what cost? Two top 100 prospects for a rental? No thanks.
I’m tired of reading about how the Astros should add an ace, like they’re readily available and affordable. There’s little evidence that any ace was available at the deadline.
It’s worth noting that the Astros still posted a winning record despite having a hit or miss rotation and only half a batting order. The Astros have tons of internal options and all their best players are locked up for years. What’s not to like?
Winning record is the”Moral” victory in this? Stockpiling prospects that can’t play can be just as Risky as trading too many prospects. The absolute Giveaway of Villar to Brewers has to be the dumbest, lazy move by this group. Lucroy is from Louisiana, Prob a resign guy, not rental.
Villar did nothing to justify keeping him, and with Correa and Bregman, he didn’t have a spot. The Brewers struck gold with that trade, but I don’t remember anyone complaining when he was traded. I play fantasy baseball and he wasn’t even on the radar.
Good for Villar and Stearns, but don’t blame Lunhow.
I’m happy they’ve stockpiled prospects. It gives the team and endless choice of options and it keeps the payroll down. They can also be traded as needed.
Villar hite
Villar hit .284, 109OPS in 115 ab’s last year. Luhnow traded a 5 tool ML All Star for a AA pitcher, yet you place NO blame on Luhnow. Seriously??
Where did he fit on the major league roster? And if he had value, why didn’t another team outbid the Brewers?
.284 19hrs 60sb. YOU tell me where he fits on that team. It amazes me that your Luhnow love blinds you from seeing how bad of a trade this was. You don’t give up on 24yr old tooled out guy like that.
What was Villars value at the time? He came out of nowhere, so don’t act like this is on luhnow. Nobody could’ve predicted the year he was going to have.
Who cares what his value was at the time. He was out of options, but better than 1/2 the guys that broke spring training with the big club. You trade a guy and 10months later he’s a 5 tool, all star SS. You don’t see anything wrong with that? Really?? Isn’t analytics basically business of predicting future success? Make ALL the excuses you want. It was a BAD trade.
Tsolid, I think your hate for Lunhow is blinding you. It will be interesting to see how Villar does next year, but I’m hardly upset. It’s just a game and I wouldn’t trade Lunhow for any other GM in the game.
I just noticed your name. I recommend you either find a new team or watch some football. Life’s too short.
Don’t forget JD Martinez…
JD had his chance on Houston and couldn’t stick. He needed a few months of AAA seasoning but he was out of options. It sucks that he blossomed elsewhere, but it’s not like Houston didn’t him every chance to succeed.
How many times do I have to say these words they should’ve got Lucroy in the off-season or going after him in the beginning of 2016 instead they let their biggest rival the Rangers take him and they will be paying for it for as long as he is with the Rangers
Gattis is capable as a bat first catcher. The Astros just need a defensive backup.