Baltimore Orioles: Welington Castillo has been a delight to have behind the plate
By Brian Pinter
Baltimore Orioles catcher Welington Castillo brings a defensive minded approach to the Orioles in 2017.
The Baltimore Orioles entered the offseason needing to sign a starting catcher, with Matt Wieters becoming a free agent. After playing 193 games over two seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks, 29-year-old catcher Welington Castillo was still on the market in December.
Enter Orioles Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, Dan Duquette.
Duquette managed to scoop Castillo from free agency on December 16, 2016, signing him to a one-year, $6M deal, with a player option for the 2018 season. An extra year added to a player’s contract at their discretion is a player option, as defined here by MLB.com.
Of course, Castillo knew his role from the beginning. In December, he told MASN’s Roch Kubatko, “I know my part, I know what to do. My No. 1 job is being on the same page with the pitchers and try to do my best behind the plate.” You can read Roch’s post about Castillo, and Wieters’ legacy here.
All things considered, Castillo is performing quite nicely through the first two weeks of the season.
The Orioles have played 11 games this season, and Castillo has caught nine of them. Last season, Caleb Joseph caught four of the first 11 games for Wieters. Of course, Wieters was still being eased back into playing every day.
Castillo enters tonight’s series in Cincinnati with a .314 batting average, good for second best on the team. Additionally, he’s fourth in on-base percentage (.333) and has 11 hits on the year, good for third-best.
Accordingly, he’s throwing out would-be base stealers at a 43% rate (3-for-7), which is the most of any catcher in the American League. Of course, we’re two weeks into the season, and we’re looking at only five or more attempted steals.
Among active catchers in the AL, Castillo ranks seventh in caught stealing percentage, with a 31.4% rate.
Comparing present, to the past.
When Castillo agreed to terms in the winter, the Wieters era in Baltimore indeed had come to a close. Wieters didn’t take out two pages in The Baltimore Sun, like Nick Markakis, and to my knowledge, he never formally said thank you to a city that supported him for eight years.
On the other hand, Wieters had nothing but praise for Baltimore, as you can read, and listen below or here via Dan Connolly’s Around the Beat Podcast.
The approval of Baltimore from Wieters was just as much as the praise of Wieters, from Baltimore. As you can see here, Twitter user @bmorecenter, created this wonderful thank you graphic, thanking Matt for his time with the O’s.
The Orioles were moving on though, and Castillo has shown why they were wise in moving on.
Both Castillo and Wieters have gone 11-for-35 on the young season. However, Wieters has hit a home-run, and Castillo has not. Regarding clutch hitting, with two outs, and runners-in-scoring-position, Wieters is 0-for-2, and Castillo is 1-for-4.
We know both men can hit, and they will so let’s look at their defense.
A catcher needs to be able to not only control a game but frame pitches for strikes. So far this season, Castillo has been able to frame 30 pitches for strikes. Wieters has framed only 11. Furthermore, Castillo’s strikes looking rate sits at 109.6 this season, while Wieters’ sits at 96.2.
Finally, in regards to attempted base stealers, we know that Castillo has thrown out 43% of runners, but we learn now that Wieters has thrown out just 14% (1-for-7).
Next: Baltimore Orioles: Analyzing losses reveals an even bigger story
The 2017 season may only be a few weeks old, and many things could happen that could prove everybody wrong. The Baltimore Orioles though, appear to have signed the right man while they wait for catcher of the future, Chance Sisco to develop his talent in the minors.