The Padres have re-signed reliever José Castillo and catcher Webster Rivas to minor league contracts, according to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America. Both players were cut from San Diego’s 40-man roster at the end of the season.
Castillo tossed 38 1/3 innings across 37 relief appearances for the Friars in 2018. He averaged 94.9 MPH on his fastball that year and posted excellent numbers, looking to be a high-leverage reliever in the making. Castillo worked to a 3.29 ERA with a huge 34.7% strikeout rate and a fine 8% walk percentage in his age-22 campaign.
Unfortunately, Castillo has barely pitched since then on account of a brutal run of injuries. The southpaw missed the first four months of the 2019 season due to a flexor tendon strain. He returned to make one MLB appearance, then suffered a season-ending hand ligament tear. Castillo missed the entire 2020 season dealing with a teres major strain, and ran into perhaps his greatest setback of all last March. Early in Spring Training, the Venezuela native went down with a forearm issue that necessitated Tommy John surgery.
Despite only making one big league appearance over the past three years, Castillo accrued enough service time while on the injured list to qualify for arbitration this offseason. The Friars non-tendered him rather than carry him on the 40-man roster all winter, but they apparently quickly worked to bring him back on a minor league deal. Given that he’s only ten months removed from the Tommy John procedure, the 26-year-old is probably targeting a midseason return to the mound.
Rivas, a 12-year minor league veteran, was rewarded for his persistence with a long-awaited MLB debut last May. The right-handed hitter got into 24 games, tallying 77 plate appearances in a reserve capacity behind the dish. Rivas spent more time with the Padres’ top affiliate in El Paso, where he hit .252/.339/.393 with five home runs across 186 plate appearances.
San Diego outrighted Rivas off the 40-man roster at the end of the year. Presumably, he’ll get a chance to partake in big league Spring Training, although it seems likely he’ll open the season with El Paso. The Padres already have quite a bit of catching depth on the 40-man roster. Austin Nola looks like the #1 option if healthy, with Víctor Caratini, the recently-acquired Jorge Alfaro and top prospect Luis Campusano all competing for playing time.
Glad they could keep Castillo. Even though he’s missed 3 straight seasons I still think there is solid upside considering he’s only 26.
He was downright nasty in 2018. I remember thinking after that year that he was going to the silver lining to the unfortunate Wil Myers/Trea Turner trade and these injuries have just totally taken him out of commission. Hopefully he’s still got something in the tank.
He can’t do anything to tip the balance of the Myers trade anymore because the Padres non-tendered him. Still worth it on a minor league deal tho.
The ship sailed on the Myers/Turner swap years ago, it’s basically always been a loss. I meant that ~4 years ago when he had his debut, Castillo looked like a legit 8th inning option of the future. If he had become a lockdown setup man, that would have helped salvage some value, but obviously didn’t come to fruition.
Dude was throwing so hard even his own ligaments couldn’t hang.
That seems to be more and more a problem these days!
I don’t really have a solution but the PA should be fighting for RP harder. Many of the problems within the game begin with the amount of nameless RP who all throw 95-97. Slows game game, offence isn’t lowered because guys only see these guys once and then regardless of how they do over 3 days they’re sent down to bring up a fresh arm, rinse and repeat.
Mlbpa should be fighting for it because inevitably those changes will help SP get paid more because the ones able to pitch more innings and be effective will be even more valuable
Somehow force teams to keep affective RP on the roster instead of using 12-14 RP taxi squad.
Castillo, another pitcher that could have been great. Does anyone expect him to pitch at the ML level again?
Nope. Maybe a cup of coffee, or as another “wtf” Preller call up.
Another pitcher that “could have been great.” Do you remember their names? Neither do I.
😉
With the lack of catching depth across MLB, I’m surprised Rivas chose to re-sign with San Diego given their surplus of major league-ready catchers already on the roster. Maybe SD is getting ready to trade some of their catching depth once the lockout is over?
They gave him his first shot in the majors and he is familiar with the staff. Perhaps that had something to do with it?
I don’t see how they do it from a roster construction perspective with Nola, Alfaro, Caratini, and Campusano. They can stash Campusano in AAA for a bit but he’s got the highest upside, Alfaro is out of options, Nola is the presumptive starter, and Caratini is Darvish’s personal catcher and a decent backup.
It’s not like they have 2 of that group they can clearly put in AAA. Someone is probably on the move and then Rivas backs up in AAA.
I’m still trying to figure out why Preller got Alfaro. He’s not very good, and he’s out of options. Preller’s too stubborn to release guys with no options, so …
If healthy (granted a big IF) Castillo seems like he could turn into a steal. I’m surprised no other teams were there to snatch him up with a major league contract… though of course the lockout could’ve prevented that and he just decided to take the ml guarantee. In normal conditions though a guy who’s going to start on the DL and then work his way back on a rehab assignment… with the minor league track record Castillo has could’ve at times prompted a team to take a ML flier.
Surprised another team didn’t grab him. Low risk for big upside, but big IF on his health