What is Rusney Castillo’s future with Boston Red Sox?
The Boston Red Sox hoped outfielder Rusney Castillo would seize a starting role this season, but it’s looking like that might not happen right away.
The Boston Red Sox have a lot of questions going into the start of the 2016 season. Whether it’s what they are going to do with Pablo Sandoval or how they are going to round out their starting rotation, Boston has a lot to figure out before Opening Day. But perhaps the biggest question is how the team will handle their highly-priced outfielder Rusney Castillo.
Back in 2014, the Red Sox signed the then-26-year-old Cuban outfielder to a seven-year, $72.5 million deal. This showed that the Red Sox had faith that Castillo would be a major piece in their lineup in the near future.
However, in the two years since Boston inked Castillo to that contract, he has only played in 90 games and hit for a modest .253 batting average in 2015, while also not showing any real glimpses of power. The lack of production and development in the two years since Boston signed Castillo has complicated how the club plans to incorporate him this season and in future years.
Looking at the Red Sox’s outfield options, it seems that there are too many players for all three outfield spots. The Red Sox have penciled young building blocks Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. into two of those positions. The team still has Brock Holt, who is coming off an All-Star appearance last season, along with the newly-signed Chris Young.
In addition, the team took outfielder Andrew Benintendi with the seventh pick in last year’s amateur draft and also signed another Cuban in Yoan Moncada last season. Granted, Moncada is projected to play second base and may be a year away from contributing at the major league level. However, he can play outfield with Dustin Pedroia still signed to play second for several years to come. David Ortiz is also locked into the designated hitter role for next season, so there won’t be much flexibility in the lineup.
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A couple days ago, Red Sox manager John Farrell provided a little bit of surprise news when he indicated that Brock Holt was going to be the club’s starting left fielder for the most part going into the 2016 season, even though Castillo was seen as the favorite entering Spring Training.
"“At this point, unless he’s on the infield somewhere, yeah,” Farrell said of using Holt in left field. “I think he’s earned a lot of it. This is a guy, his value continues to grow.”"
The main reason for this decision stemmed from the fact that Holt just gives the Red Sox the better chance of winning right now. Holt had clearly outplayed Castillo in Spring Training despite making much less money. Farrell believes that the main weakness in Castillo’s game right now is on the offensive side.
"“The area that he continues to work at is just the offensive side of the game. That’s got to gain some consistency,” Farrell said of Castillo. “And that’s part of his own knowledge of who he is and what his swing is capable of and how that matches up with certain types of pitches.”"
While Castillo is still very talented and athletic, he is also 28 years old. One has to wonder how long it will take him to get to the point where he can be a productive player for the Red Sox or if he will ever fulfill his potential. With so many outfielders and quality hitters clogging up the Red Sox lineup and farm system, Castillo must figure out how to succeed at the major league level soon or it could mean him getting shipped out of Boston.
Still, the Red Sox are probably going to be patient with him given the four years and $43 million left on his contract, with an opt-out for the 2020 season.
Castillo clearly hasn’t been the player the Red Sox hoped he would be when they signed him and while they are waiting for him to figure the game out, he will be one of the most expensive bench players in the major leagues, which is certainly not want the Red Sox wanted or expected when he joined the organization a couple of years ago.
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What do you think about Rusney Castillo’s future in Boston? Did the Red Sox make the right decision going with Brock Holt over the highly-priced outfielder? Let us know in the comment section below.