Welington Castillo has experienced a rather eventful season, one that saw the catcher put on three different uniforms in the span of about two weeks. The 28-year-old played his first five seasons with the Cubs before being moved to the Mariners on May 19. He didn’t get much time to settle into his new home, as he was dealt again only fifteen days later, this time to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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Fortunately for the D-backs, the desert appears to be suiting their new backstop just fine. Castillo is putting up some of the best numbers of his career through his first 65 games in Arizona. Though Chip Hale‘s men have all but bowed out of the National League Wild Card race, the club can look at Castillo’s emergence as a definite positive in 2015.
Castillo owns a .274/.339/.557 slash line during his fledgling D-backs tenure. He also appears to have found something of a power stroke, swatting 16 homers and driving in 39 runs over his 245 plate appearances with Arizona. His total of 18 home runs on the year are a career benchmark, and his 46 RBI match his high from a season ago.
It has been a nice bounce-back campaign for the catcher, who largely struggled last season with the bat (.686 OPS) coming off a very productive 2013. Castillo posted a 4.5 WAR that year, his first extended taste of big league action, which was good for fourth among MLB catchers (trailing only Buster Posey, Yadier Molina and Jason Castro).
Much of that value came from Castillo’s reliable defense behind the plate. He gunned down 29% of attempted base stealers in 2013 and followed that up with a 33% success rate the next season. Both marks were comfortably above league average (28%). He has slipped a bit in that regard this year, nabbing base thieves at a 23% clip.
Nevertheless, Castillo has continued to show his worth in 2015. His 1.7 WAR still places him in the top-10 among all major league catchers. And with him not eligible for free agency until before the 2018 season, Diamondbacks fans and media are wondering if Castillo can develop into a long-term answer for the franchise at the catcher position.
As noted by a piece in the Arizona Republic, Castillo was a relative latecomer to catching and not always enthused about a potential career in baseball. He considered giving up the sport at age 16, and consistently rebuffed others’ suggestions to put on a catcher’s mitt. Scouts liked Castillo’s short, stocky build for a potential catcher, but his heart belonged at shortstop:
"“One of my strengths was my arm. People say I had good feet and good hands. I can hit a little bit. The only thing that I don’t have to play infield is the speed to be a middle infielder.”"
Castillo eventually relented and gave catching a try. Not a bad decision, as it led to a big league career.
Arizona has experimented with several options at catcher this season, including nine-year veteran Jarrod Saltalamacchia. But since Castillo arrived in June, he has grabbed the position by the horns. If he can finish on a high note, the D-backs will surely be glad to pencil the man they call “Beef Mode” into their future plans.