The Nationals announced today that they have added catcher Taylor Gushue to their 60-man player pool. The move comes in the wake of Welington Castillo’s decision not to participate in the 2020 seaseon.
Gushue is not on the Nats’ 40-man roster. He would need to be added to it in order to take up a spot on the club’s active roster once the season gets underway. In all likelihood, the 26-year-old will be tasked primarily with working with the team’s pitching staff in its satellite training location while staying ready if a need arises.
A former fourth-round pick out of the University of Florida, Gushue has never rated as a significant prospect but is coming off of a nice 2019 season. In 288 plate appearances at Triple-A last year, the switch-hitter popped 11 home runs and posted a strong .312/.358/.517 batting line — good for a 108 wRC+ in a supercharged offensive environment.
solid depth
Love the standard “depth” Comment!
While I understand why you’d opt out and generally support the decisions, it surely has to be going through some players’ minds that they could be leaving open the door to losing playing time to some prospects. Not saying this is the case here, but in general, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few unheralded prospects took the opportunity handed to them and ran with it into a starting role.
its just a fact that there will be a turnover this offseason. less free agent money handed out, more pre-arb guys getting a chance to cut costs. guys opting out will probably just speed that up.
If that happens, I hope Welington Castillo doesn’t start a beef with Taylor Gushue
(I’ll show myself out.)
Gushue was a nice hitter in High A. Hope he gets a shot.