Expectations for Eleven: Luis Castillo

Edgy MD · January 9, 2011

Pos: 2B
Born: 9/12/1975 in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic
Acquired: Traded by the Minnesota Twins to the Mets for Dustin Martin and Drew Butera 7/30/2007 (same day Bill Robinson died, as it turns out). Signed to a four-year, $25 million 11/19/2007, leading to this lovely thread.
2010 Stats:

Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB
NYM	NL	86	299	247	28	58	4	2	0	17	8	3	39	25	.235	.337	.267	.604	68	66	6	0	11	2	1
St.�Lucie	FLOR (A+)	4	16	13	3	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	2	.154	.313	.231	.543		3	0	0	0	0	0
Total	All	90	315	260	31	60	5	2	0	17	8	3	42	27	.231	.336	.265	.601		69	6	0	11	2	1

Wifey: Angie

Last Word: Sports Illusrated writer Buster olney has reported that the Mets braintrust has had internal discuassions regarding possibly releasing Castill outright before the start of spring training.

What do you expect of Luis Castillo in 2011?

Frayed Knot · January 9, 2011

I expect that Luis Castillo will be getting his mail in a different town in 2011.

Vic Sage · January 9, 2011

i'd make some joke about him getting snipered, but that could rile the Palinites into killing somebody els.
so i won't.

but i'm really hoping never to see him in a Mets uni again.

Benjamin Grimm · January 9, 2011

I think he'll play reasonably well in spring training, which will make him just tradeable. He'll be dealt, with about $4 million, and for nothing much, to some other team that suddenly finds itself needing a second baseman.

bmfc1 · January 9, 2011

I expect there to be much discussion about him when ST opens, then when the games start, he'll get some hits off AA and AAA pitchers which will lead to a discussion of whether he's back, and then Hu or Turner or another 2B candidate will get some hits, which will lead to a discussion of his release, while Heyman and Rubin try to top each other with trade rumors, and then a week or two before ST ends the Mets will release him with Sandy Alderson saying "we wanted to give him a chance to make another team before rosters are set", and I will rejoice, and then I won't care but he'll go elsewhere, get a few hits, badmouth the Mets, and then he'll slump, and bail out on DP throws, and not make any effort to go after grounders hit more than a foot to either side, and he'll be released again.

Willets Point · January 9, 2011

Luis Castillo's contract still hasn't expired?!?! Geesh.

Fman99 · January 9, 2011

No one will EVER trade for him.

He will NEVER be a productive Met hitter or fielder.

The Mets have NEVER show that they will be willing to cut him, or Ollie, and eat their salaries, and thereby also confirming that the contracts were horrific.

He will play out the duration of his contract while we all grouse about how much of a zero he is out there.

Good times.

.240 BA, 0 HR, 30 RBI, 40 runs, 15 SBs, bunting at every fucking opportunity.

Valadius · January 9, 2011

Not here.

Frayed Knot · January 9, 2011

Fman99 wrote:
No one will EVER trade for him.

He will NEVER be a productive Met hitter or fielder.

The Mets have NEVER show that they will be willing to cut him, or Ollie, and eat their salaries, and thereby also confirming that the contracts were horrific.

He will play out the duration of his contract while we all grouse about how much of a zero he is out there.

Good times.

.240 BA, 0 HR, 30 RBI, 40 runs, 15 SBs, bunting at every fucking opportunity.

The Mets cut - or traded for something akin to useless while eating most of the money - Bonilla, Ordonez, Matusi, and Roger Cedeno while owing them about as much or in some cases more than what they owe Luis. If any one of about five different potential 2B-men prove even marginally ready during ST I don't think either a clean slice or a one-sided trade is out of the question, in fact I think it's pretty likely.

Ceetar · January 9, 2011

he'll do alright in Spring Training, but there is nothing he can do in 30 exhibition games that are going to convince anyone. I doubt he'd be a disaster or a blight in the lineup if it came to that, his OBP would help, etc, but that ship has probably sailed. Unless Murphy gets injured and none of the other guys hit to even Tejada levels, he'll probably be shipped off for some given up on draftee from Toronto or something.

I could certainly see him ending up contributing as part of a 70-30 type platoon somewhere and making the World Series though. that seems about right.

January 9, 2011

He will earn $6 million.

Rather, he will make $6 million.

ashie62 · January 9, 2011

Starting Mets 2B.

TransMonk · January 10, 2011

Traded by the Mets during ST, then traded again to a contender at the break.

Comes alive in October after having to fill in for someone due to injury. Wins WS MVP.

The Mets pay 70% of his salary during the whole ride. This game is funny.

Centerfield · January 10, 2011

I expect him to suck. Hopefully for someone else.

MFS62 · January 10, 2011

Frayed Knot wrote:

The Mets cut - or traded for something akin to useless while eating most of the money - Bonilla, Ordonez, Matusi, and Roger Cedeno while owing them about as much or in some cases more than what they owe Luis.

Ding! Ding! Ding!
Thanks, FK, for coming up with the win/win solution. If he proves he can't play anymore during spring training, a Castillo "retirement" followed by a Bonilla-type buyout that doesn't kill this year's budget, yet removes Luis from the current roster.
Pure genius y'are.

Later

January 10, 2011

Ceetar wrote:
he'll do alright in Spring Training, but there is nothing he can do in 30 exhibition games that are going to convince anyone. I doubt he'd be a disaster or a blight in the lineup if it came to that, his OBP would help, etc, but that ship has probably sailed. Unless Murphy gets injured and none of the other guys hit to even Tejada levels, he'll probably be shipped off for some given up on draftee from Toronto or something.

I could certainly see him ending up contributing as part of a 70-30 type platoon somewhere and making the World Series though. that seems about right.

agreed. he gets shipped off along with 5.6 mil dollars for a has been prospect or a low A level lefty pitcher.

January 10, 2011

MFS62 wrote:

Frayed Knot wrote:

The Mets cut - or traded for something akin to useless while eating most of the money - Bonilla, Ordonez, Matusi, and Roger Cedeno while owing them about as much or in some cases more than what they owe Luis.

Ding! Ding! Ding!
Thanks, FK, for coming up with the win/win solution. If he proves he can't play anymore during spring training, a Castillo "retirement" followed by a Bonilla-type buyout that doesn't kill this year's budget, yet removes Luis from the current roster.
Pure genius y'are.

Later

speaking of. don't we start paying bonilla this year?

MFS62 · January 10, 2011

Yep. Payment starts in 2011.

Later

Edgy MD · January 10, 2011

Yeah, the pingpong between "Laugh at the stupid Mets too afraid to eat money" and "Laugh at the stupid Mets eating money with Bonilla" is too much to get involved in.

seawolf17 · January 10, 2011

I wonder who "player a" and "player b" were in my post. I'm assuming one of them was Castillo.

Frayed Knot · January 10, 2011

MFS62 wrote:

Frayed Knot wrote:

The Mets cut - or traded for something akin to useless while eating most of the money - Bonilla, Ordonez, Matusi, and Roger Cedeno while owing them about as much or in some cases more than what they owe Luis.

Ding! Ding! Ding!
Thanks, FK, for coming up with the win/win solution. If he proves he can't play anymore during spring training, a Castillo "retirement" followed by a Bonilla-type buyout that doesn't kill this year's budget, yet removes Luis from the current roster.
Pure genius y'are.

Later

- Castillo isn't going to "prove" anything in spring as everyone knows what he can and can't do. At this point it's merely a question about whether the options of getting rid of him with no return or with little return are preferable to keeping him around.

- The fact that they owe him $6mil as opposed to the $12mil of this time last year makes eating most or all of the contract just that much easier. Plus, the biggest reason he's been here up to now is the utter lack of replacements available even as each AndyHandy or Tejada quickly got crowned as the next new thing despite, for the most part, hitting worse than Luis did. Wanting those guys to be better isn't the same as them actually being better. This year's crop at least has more options to choose from.

- However things turn out it's not going to be a budget-buster. Whoever replaces him if he's gone or joins him if he's not is going to be at or near the ML minimum.

- Met fans have to get off this obsession with the Bonilla thing. All that arrangement did a decade or more ago was allow the team to take a smaller amount of money than they were going to have to pay him up front and invest that in a fund that would pay him off starting at a much later date and over a much longer time. It's not like what he's being paid off that fund has suddenly been added to this year's budget.

Ceetar · January 10, 2011

Frayed Knot wrote:

- Castillo isn't going to "prove" anything in spring as everyone knows what he can and can't do. At this point it's merely a question about whether the options of getting rid of him with no return or with little return are preferable to keeping him around.

If been thinking out loud about what a small Spring sample could possibly convince us of in Castillo's case. I think it's probably less about him, and more about everyone else as you said. If Murphy twists an ankle in late March and no one else looks to be successful, Castillo probably sticks around and provides some measure of bland play which doesn't quite help the Mets win, but doesn't help them lose either.

Barring that, unless he's stealing bases like Jose, or making it to second base on liners to the outfield, I'm not sure what we'd see out of him that would award him the job as the favorite. He'll probably draw a lot of walks, and represent that he can be a high OBP guy, and maybe that's enough for a team with a hole to toss us a bone or something. I certainly don't think he's useless or done as a major leaguer.

But even if he played like he was 25, it's such a small sample size.

January 10, 2011

The only conditions I can see Castillo lasting through the end of ST are injuries to one or more of Muffy n' Emaus. Even then, I would suspect Ollie's got a better shot of being a contributor.

ashie62 · January 11, 2011

Lets hope he has a great spring or he will be sitting the Mets bench.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2011/01/11/2011-01-11_mets_fully_intend_to_bring_luis_castillo_to_spring_training_to_compete_for_secon.html

Edgy MD · January 11, 2011

The real mystery to me is how he got so deep in Manuel's doghouse midseason last year that he could scarcely unhook himself from the bench, even as less productive players were trotted out every day and the season hadn't completely gone cold yet.

metirish · January 11, 2011

Edgy DC wrote:
The real mystery to me is how he got so deep in Manuel's doghouse midseason last year that he could scarcely unhook himself from the bench, even as less productive players were trotted out every day and the season hadn't completely gone cold yet.

And IIRC at that time he was playing more than OK right?

Ceetar · January 11, 2011

metirish wrote:

Edgy DC wrote:
The real mystery to me is how he got so deep in Manuel's doghouse midseason last year that he could scarcely unhook himself from the bench, even as less productive players were trotted out every day and the season hadn't completely gone cold yet.

And IIRC at that time he was playing more than OK right?

He had just started to play well, a couple of walks and hits in the last three games or something.

Regardless, we won't have to ponder these insane questions any longer. (At least until we unveil Collin's insanity)

Edgy MD · January 11, 2011

Actually, seeing as few think there's a chance in hell of him presenting himself as a useful Met ever again, and as Manuel had previously stuck with Castillo through some tougher times (shitty production in 2008 while Easley was available on the bench, dropped popup days in 2009), I'm still a-ponderin'.

Ceetar · January 11, 2011

Edgy DC wrote:
Actually, seeing as few think there's a chance in hell of him presenting himself as a useful Met ever again, and as Manuel had previously stuck with Castillo through some tougher times, I'm still a-ponderin'.

Had he? I still contend that if he'd played Castillo in the everyday role he'd been accustomed to after returned from the DL in 2008, he would've put up far superior numbers to the Argenis Reyes/Damien Easley/Luis Hernandez combo he was rolling out there, and that very well may have been the difference.