The White Sox have placed catcher Welington Castillo on the 10-day injured list, per a club announcement. He’s said to be dealing with a strained left oblique.
This move will create active roster space for the previously reported arrival of Zack Collins, who’ll receive his first taste of the majors. The South Siders also reinstated lefty Jace Fry from the injured list. He’ll take the place of the previously optioned Thyago Vieira.
Castillo, 32, has long been a solid offensive performer. But he’s slashing a meager .196/.289/.364 over 121 plate appearances this year. Unsurprisingly, he has ceded more and more time to James McCann, who has continued his scorching start at the plate.
It’ll be interesting to see how this backstop situation plays out over the course of the season. In addition to the introduction of Collins, there are some reasons to expect both veterans to move back towards their career norms. Castillo has only a .232 batting average on balls in play, while Statcast credits him with a .340 xwOBA that dwarfs his actual .290 wOBA. It’s just the opposite for McCann, who has enjoyed a .400 BABIP and .378 wOBA but carries a xwOBA just scarcely north of Castillo’s at .348.
Just dfa him already! Needs to go!
Alonso is much less significant in terms of position and production. Keep Castillo, DFA Friend of Manny
Yes. Yonder Alonso has been a liability thus far for the White Sox as their primary DH and backup at 1B. Perhaps when his other pal Jon Jay completes his rehab assignment at AAA and finally makes his South Side debut the two can feed off of each other and actually gain some trade value before July 31st. Zack Collins has taken some reps at 1B in AAA along with DH besides splitting time behind the plate with Zeby Zavala making him a candidate to replace Alonso.
The White Sox will surely be fielding trade offers for both Wellington Castillo and James McCann as the July 31st deadline approaches. Both have an additional year of controllable available, Castillo with a 2020 team option and McCann with another year of arbitration eligibility. Obviously McCann is having the better season and is much cheaper than Castillo. As a result, they’d be selling low on Castillo and high on McCann.
I’d expect one of the two catchers to be moved by August, especially if Collins plays well during his MLB debut. That being said, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that all 3 catchers can finish the season on the active roster with Collins also getting PA’s at 1B and DH with Alonso out of the picture.
I hope they keep McCann, but if they get too good of a deal to pass up, then by all means pull the trigger on the deal. Though they need to DFA Alonso, Castillo, and Nova for that matter, that’s a lot of money to just flush down the toilet, especially when the owner is named Jerry Reinsdorf.
Speaking of Nova, I’m not looking forward to the bloodbath tonight. The Cubs are a good measuring stick for the Sox. I expect the Sox to get slaughtered tonight, but I’m curious to see how tomorrow’s matchup goes. A playoff atmosphere against a strong team, it will be interesting to see how Giolito fares.
The Yankees game impressed me a bit because Giolito could’ve easily imploded as he has in the past. If (a very big IF) Giolito comes away looking good tomorrow, then maybe there really is something to his turnaround, more than just dominating mostly bad teams. I’m still a bit skeptical about him, though less skeptical than before the Yankees game.
Slaughtered(?)……um, no. Baseball is a funny game.
@domchota
Yes it is a funny game. I’d love to be wrong like that every time.
Now watch, Giolito will get lit up tonight.
Gotta love Eloy with the dagger in the 9th. He still has a ways to go, but it looks like it’s starting to click for him.
Did you miss what he did against Houston? He has been doing it against everyone that’s been thrown in front of him, not just bad teams. Yes, he’s likely due for a blowup game in the near future, but that’ll take away absolutely nothing from what he has been doing thus far.
I doubt he’ll continue to be a top 5 pitcher in all of baseball, but to think he’ll revert back to last year’s form suggests you haven’t been paying a great deal of attention.
@Priggs89
I don’t think he’ll regress to what he was last year, that much he’s definitely proven. My thoughts were he won’t be an ace of any staff. He’ll be a useful piece of a rotation–maybe a #3 or #4. Which this is far more than we were expecting coming into this season.
Alanso is certainly unproductive, but I don’t know who else can play first other than Abreau.
Um, almost anyone can play first base if they have size. Matt Skole or even Palka… Or you know, collins who they just brought up. Not saying i would dfa alonso, but lack of first basemen isn’t the reason.
Nah, Castillo is just struggling at the plate, looking second horse to McCann progressing with pitcher improvement and unprecedented hitting. He’s got a lot of heart. The whole thing was capped off with that umpire call that got him ejected. Injury or not, guy looks like he’s ready to blow.
Hmmm… check stats for Castillo pre- and post-PED vacation.
It’s not proof positive that Castillo was taking Erythropoietin (EPO) when he was producing better number prior to joining the White Sox. Castillo claims it was an isolated case: “‘I did not know what I was taking, so I just got screwed’.
Per excerpts from the White Sox cable TV affiliate (nbcsports.com/chicago/white-sox/welington-castillo…): After the suspension was handed down, Castillo said in a statement that the positive test “resulted from an extremely poor decision that I, and I alone, made. I take full responsibility for my conduct. I have let many people down.”
Castillo wouldn’t say who gave him the substance that caused him to get suspended. In his words, he doesn’t want “to throw anybody under the bus.” But in the end, it’s his actions that he’s responsible for. He took the drug. He suffered the consequences. He’s determined to never let that happen again.
“I’m never going to put something in my body that is going to hurt me and hurt my career and my name. I’m never going to put something in my body that I know that this is not good for you and I’m going to take it. No, that’s not me. That’s not how my dad and my mom raised me,”
We can all draw are own conclusions as to whether Castillo was a regular user. I’m guessing that with all the testing MLB does in this day and age that his positive result was an isolated incident.
Please don’t come back. Those ped’s helped him make money now please leave