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| Rusney Castillo will be a big part of the Red Sox's future. Photo Credit: AP |
The recent surge of cuban players entering the major leagues and being successful when being acclimated to the major league competition has made top teams shell out a pretty penny to sign them and have them in the fold. The Boston Red Sox continued that trend with their latest player signing.
By: Michael Hanley
Boston agreed to terms with Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo on a seven year, $72.5 million dollar contract, by far the most money given to a free agent amateur in the history of baseball. Yes it is a very large commitment on the Red Sox end for a player who has yet to even take one at bat for the club, but the ceiling on Castillo’s potential in the coming years was too high for Boston to pass up.
The Red Sox have been trying in recent years to sign one of the many highly regarded players coming out of Cuba and coming to the U.S and playing the major leagues. An example of that is their pursuit of Jose Abreu last season. They were unfortunately outbid by the White Sox who won the rights to Abreu and has now blossomed into an instant superstar and big slugger for the franchise to showcase to its fans and now build a team around going forward in the future. Boston is not in that position but they certainly could use a young and upcoming slugger to come up and be a complementary piece to the rest of the team they have built and are going to battle with next season and beyond.
The bidding for Rusney Castillo became an intense and furious battle between many of the top teams in baseball. It is said that the Red Sox had to beat out a very large and attractive offer from the Detroit Tigers to win the bidding for Castillo’s services. Other teams who were also in hot pursuit of Castillo were the Mariners, Phillies,Yankees and Giants.That forced the hand of the Red Sox and made them have to go all out on their offer to ensure they would be able to secure the rights to the 27 year old.
Castillo drew so much interest during this bidding process that when he conducted a workout in Miami, 28 teams were on hand to watch and scout him to see what his game looked like in person. That is just how special of a player teams think he can be in the future.
The Red Sox project Castillo to be a future center fielder or right fielder for the team when he eventually is called up to the big club. It adds to what is looking more and more like a crowded outfield heading into next season. This is an outfield that now features Yoenis Cespedes, Allen Craig and, when they get healthy, Daniel Nava and Shane Victorino as well. To say Boston has depth and experience in the outfield part of their team would be an understatement.
It enables them, if they choose this route, to really take their time with Castillo and not have to rush him to the big leagues. They can just let him progress at his pace, learn the basics and fundamentals of how they want him to play the game and most importantly, get him at bats and game experience facing pitches on a regular basis.
The 27 year old Castillo is listed at 5 foot 9, 185 pounds, a player who certainly has the makeup to be a power hitter in future years to come. He has quite the track record with his days playing for Ciego de Avila in Cuba’s top baseball league:Serie Nacional. He was highly regarded for his ability to steal bases with regularity, his steady, level swing when he was at the plate and his above average play as a center fielder.
Castillo had his watershed moment when he played in the World Cup in Panama in 2011. In that tournament, he batted an astounding .512, with two home runs and eight extra base hits. It was a performance not seen in the World Cup for many years. That really opened up a lot more eyes from major league teams after watching him put up that performance.
Yoenis Cespedes commented on the similarities between Rusney Castillo and Dodgers center fielder Yasel Puig (Via Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston):
Cespedes told WEEI.com earlier this month that Castillo was "very comparable to [Yasiel] Puig. Obviously a different height and size, but very similar qualities."
He does possess similar skills in his overall game to his fellow countryman in Puig as stated above by Cespedes, but also to Jose Abreu and Cespedes himself. Though depending on who you talk to and what you read from major league scouts, he might not have the same level of power in his bat that the other three had coming to the states but that he more than makes up for that with his speed on the basepaths and above average to elite defensive play as an outfielder.
Speed and great outfield play can be a very hard for teams to come by in this day and age. So many times we see teams try to take infielders and jettison them to an outfield position, trying to make them stick out there and learn the position, but to little success and to the teams detriment in the win/loss category.
The quickness of the game has also dropped off with more teams, especially in the National League, becoming more like American League teams, station to station on the basepaths and waiting for the three run homer, instead of using speedy players to steal bases, go first to third on a base hit and putting pressure on opposing defenses. Now with Castillo in the fold, Boston can add that element of speed back into their offensive arsenal and become a more diverse offense.
Castillo will be a fascinating watch to see how he develops and what type of impact he can have on the Red sox in the coming years. It is allot of money to invest in one player who has yet to have any experience in the major leagues but the reward could potentially be the Red Sox having their center or right fielder for the next 10 years potentially. Players of Castillo’s ability to do not come around everyday, Boston was smart to go after him and invest in his future.
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