The Nationals have signed catcher Welington Castillo to a minor league contract, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets. Castillo will earn a $950K salary if he cracks the Nationals’ big league roster.
This is the second straight winter in which Castillo has inked a minors deal with the Nationals, though he didn’t play at all last year after opting out over COVID-19 concerns. He’ll now vie for a spot on a Nationals team that has just one proven catcher in Yan Gomes. Tres Barrera, who has two major league plate appearances on his resume, is the only other catcher on the team’s 40-man roster.
Last time he took the field, Castillo batted .209/.267/.417 with 12 home runs in 251 plate appearances as a member of the White Sox in 2019. Historically, though, the 33-year-old has been a rather effective offensive player relative to his position. Castillo has amassed 2,701 PA in the bigs with a handful of teams and combined for a .254/.313/.426 line and 98 homers.
This is all Welington and good, I guess.
This guy keeps trucking along.
Wellington ain’t a bad hitter yet and I would think after Cubs trade there decent c-2 who a hitter and framer will be traded Cubs could use him tillrookie is ready to back up the best catcher in the league Willie Contravas is #1 in the league
Doubt they going for jt realmuto
Assuming the Nats don’t sign JTR, Castillo could end up replacing Suzuki in a timeshare in Washington
I starting to wonder if Realmuto will ever get anything other than a check-in. Everyone (GMs) seems to be against signing him.
I think he killed whatever leverage he had by insisting on too big of a deal out of the gate.
Cosmo2.. I agree. Even if he’s the best catcher in the game, he’s not good enough to be a real difference-maker at the price he wants. It’s a good strategy to have two decent catchers share the position as opposed to having one guy catch 140 games. It’s not easy replacing your stud catcher if he gets hurt. I can live with less offense from the catching position if I know the money saved was put to better use elsewhere.
Well said Cosmo and CeyHey. And now that the Billionaire Mets are out of the picture, his fields of green may have been cut back an acre or two.
This is a good pickup for the Nationals. Guy can play
The Rochester AAA roster just got beefed up
Speaking of Castillo I’m surprised more baseball players don’t get caught running Epo.
There signs another more-competent catcher, DET.. We live to see another day.. with Greiner behind the dish. Come on already, Casali.
Once upon a time one of the best catchers in free agent, now no one wants him cept bottom feeders
Try watching Greiner for 3 years. Its rough man. DET non tendered McCann.. for this.