Baltimore Orioles Interested In Catcher Welington Castillo
By Ben Palmer
The Baltimore Orioles are interested in former Arizona Diamondbacks catcher, 29-year-old Welington Castillo. With the potential loss of Matt Wieters, Castillo could be a relatively inexpensive, capable replacement.
The Arizona Diamondbacks surprisingly non-tendered catcher Welington Castillo, and naturally, he’s drawn almost immediate interest from a number of teams, including the Baltimore Orioles. Being that the Orioles could possibly lose Matt Wieters to another team, pursuing Castillo makes sense.
We’ve already seen the Baltimore Orioles inquiring into other catchers on the free agent market, so the fact that the team is pursuing Castillo seems to be a logical move. According to Roch Kubatko, the Orioles have liked Welington Castillo for some time, so they may be more motivated to sign him.
Castillo is 29-years-old, and is coming off of a decent season in which he batted .264/.322/.423 with 14 HRs, 41 R and 68 RBIs. Those numbers don’t necessarily jump off the page as superstar numbers, but that’s not necessarily what the Orioles are looking for.
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Castillo is a more than capable defender (he was third among qualifying catchers last year in defensive runs saved) and a hitter that won’t kill your lineup. At this point in his career though, he is what he is, and he’s relatively predictable.
His plate discipline isn’t great (26.5% strikeout rate last year), but when he hits the ball, he hits it pretty hard, as evidenced by his 39.8% hard hit rate last year, which was good for 14th in the league, just below Kris Bryant and just ahead of Corey Seager.
While that hard hit rate is encouraging, don’t think that Camden Yards would increase his home runs. Chase Field in Arizona was one of the top parks for right-handed power last year, so if there was anywhere Castillo could hit home runs, it was in Arizona. That being said, Castillo was in the National League, and moving to the American League, especially the AL East, is always a good thing for a hitter.
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If the Baltimore Orioles do eventually sign Welington Castillo, he would be a fine Wieters replacement. Would he be as good as Wieters? No, of course not. But he is a solid defender, a decent hitter, and most importantly, he’ll likely be cheap, as he was only making just under $4M last year with Arizona.