Beef au jus: Welington Castillo facing 80-game suspension

It was only a matter of time before the White Sox had to deal with a drug-related suspension for an active player.

Welington Castillo will be the one to set the precedent. Reports came out of the Dominican Republic on Wednesday that he’d join Robinson Cano in serving an 80-game suspension, and Ken Rosenthal verified it with a clarification:

https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/999472743837065216

The Sox hadn’t been completely clean this decade, even if they’d fared better than others in this area. Andre Rienzo made it to the majors with the Sox after serving a 50-gamer in the minors. The Sox also traded for prospects who had served suspensions (Michael Kopech, Jose Quintana, Tyler Flowers), and acquired a couple MLB players who had starred in rather notorious cases (Manny Ramirez, Melky Cabrera).

Castillo broke new ground as an active White Sox. I suppose the good news is that it wasn’t a player who had established an ironclad reputation and connection with the fan base. Castillo just got here, and while he’d more or less lived up to expectations with his performance — .267/.309/.466 at the plate with framing numbers on the rebound after a rough start — he hadn’t become part of the organization’s fabric.

The bad news? Well, there’s a lot of bad news. Castillo was supposed to bolster the batteries and lineup over the next couple years while testing the Sox’ abilities to evaluate free-agent hitters, and both are going to be difficult to do when missing the next 80 games.

More crucially, it hits the White Sox where it hurts on the depth chart. Omar Narvaez has been awful this season, hitting .180/.275/.246 and striking out 23 percent of the time for whatever reason, and he’s also incredibly leaky defensively, whether in terms of strikes or passed pitches. Baseball Prospectus already has him as the worst catcher at blocking, even though he’s only played part of the time.

And while Kevan Smith would normally be called up for better (decent hitter for a catcher) or worse (opponents are still running wild on him), he’s currently on the DL with an injury James Fegan said is ankle-related.

That leaves Alfredo Gonzalez as the next catcher up. He’s well-regarded defensively, but he’s hitting just .169/.279/.191 and striking out 31 percent of the time at Charlotte. Brett Austin is backing him up, but he’s one of a few catchers the Sox use to plug gaps.

If none of the Triple-A guys seem suitable for one reason or another, then you’re looking at Zack Collins. Collins is hitting .288/.461/.530 in May with an equal number of walks and strikeouts (21), but he’s also allowed six passed balls and committed four errors in just 24 games. Seby Zavala is on the disabled list with a wrist issue, and organizational catcher Casey Schroeder has taken his spot for the time being.

I’m guessing you’d see Gonzalez come up if only for the defense, while hunting for a veteran catcher who would be just about done for any other franchise (Geovany Soto remains unsigned).

And if that’s not enough, the Sox may have to make a move in the outfield after Leury Garcia sprained his knee sliding into third. Adam Engel went 4-for-4 to paper over some of the immediate pain in the outfield, but the situation looked dire when Nicky Delmonico broke his hand. This leaves Trayce Thompson as a starter until further moves are made.

The Sox have added a couple of veteran outfielders to Charlotte’s mix this week — Michael Saunders and Alex Presley — and maybe one of them will shape up enough to hold a spot in time. If the Sox want to avoid adding two players to the 40-man (assuming a catcher is one) over the next couple of days, then it looks like the Sox would have to bank on Charlie Tilson‘s May being evidence of his getting up to speed (.276/.295/.316), and not just a temporary brand of empty Triple-A adequacy. Maybe the baseball gods just want to see how far the Sox have to go to justify keeping Eloy Jimenez in Birmingham.

And to think — this all happened while the Sox were securing a winning homestand for the first time all season. It makes sense that this would be what qualifies as “fun baseball” for the White Sox in 2018.

Author

  • Jim Margalus

    Writing about the White Sox for a 16th season, first here, then at South Side Sox, and now here again. Letโ€™s talk curling.

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Greg Nix

*Looks at catcher depth chart*

“Oh god, where’s the Beef?”

Trooper Galactus

*checks minor league rosters for anybody named Holstein

soxygen

Yes, but is Castillo still eligible for the post season?

L2R

yes, i think players can be traded even if they are on suspension

karkovice squad

No. Nor the All-Star game.

Willardmarshall

Au jus…. only hurts when I laugh….

As Cirensica

Blake Swihart. Hahn, go get him.

Otter

Yeah, I think this makes sense now.

Sox are saving about $3.6m with the suspension, correct?

Flitcraft

The Sox shouldn’t expend significant resources on a mid-season MLB catcher acquisition when there’s not a meaningful game in sight. I don’t care if the new guy can’t hit a lick, only that his receiving helps the club’s young pitchers, or at least isn’t a detriment. Control of the running game a bonus. No fatties.

Has Gonzalez landed at O’Hare yet?

asinwreck

Operation Bobby Witt Jr. will not be thwarted by a home series win.
Also, the headline is just another reason that Jim should take over Tronc.

Lurker Laura

AJ doing anything?

As Cirensica

He is probably still better than some of the options we currently have

Lurker Laura

I was only half joking.

Right Size Wrong Shape

It would be fun to see AJ’s reaction when he gets benched by Ricky for not running out a popup to shortstop.

As Cirensica

Sadly, I wasn’t

VAChisox

He could be the first player-announcer

Hatchetman

So was this already appealed? And if so why didnโ€™t Hahn already find a stop-gap catcher?

asinwreck

I bet he tested positive during spring training and this was the result of the appeal. The timing is close on the heels of Cano dropping the appeal. (The stopgap catcher was Kevan Smith, who just went on the DL.)

jorgefabregas

Players who are appealing are not required to tell their teams in the meantime.

Hatchetman

OK. That makes it reasonable. Did not know that was the case. One would think you would work with your employer to figure out the best way to manage the situation for everyone.

PauliePaulie

They had Kevan Smith until yesterday.

lil jimmy

How about Yermin Mercedes? He made it to AA last year.

Flitcraft

And to AAA this year. Joining the Knights from the Dash as of this afternoon.

karkovice squad

What’s Tyler Saladino up to?

Oh. 270 wRC+ and .7 fWAR for the Brewers.

jorgefabregas

Good for him.

jorgefabregas

I wish him well and don’t blame the Sox for trading him no matter how well he does.

karkovice squad

I don’t think I’d have enjoyed him actually becoming the backup catcher. But I’d have appreciated the novelty. Missed connection.

oljeto

Funny how Saladino and Flowers do so well after escaping this world-class coaching staff . . .

Otter

The Flowers improvement is… who knows? Life is full of mysteries… Flowers deciding to stop striking out at age 31 and not giving up too much power in the process has to be one of them. (I could see the Sox telling him to be more aggressive as something that did hurt his walk rate during his maddening years with the Sox).

Saladino has all of 22 plate appearances up in Milwaukee, though he is hitting the snot out of the ball. I have no doubt that the rumors of the Sox messing with his swing and him going back to what he was comfortable with may be behind some of his improvement; but I’m also not adding him in fantasy.

Otter

Flowers had a .275 xwOBA in 2015, but has run a .356 with the Braves.

Trooper Galactus

I thought Salad looked like a possible every day player a couple years ago, and figured his collapse since then was due to his recurring back injuries. After learning the White Sox messed with his swing after he’d had some success, and watching Flowers tear the cover off the ball for the Braves, I’m starting to think there’s a serious problem with the hitting coaches. The same thing was happening with Collins in the minors.

sgp2204

You just started thinking that? Outside of a couple guys here and there, the team has been full of brutal hitters for years.

Trooper Galactus

Yeah, but I’d always chalked that up to bad scouting more than bad coaching. Seeing the way several hitters have been breaking out after leaving, I’m starting to think coaching is every bit as culpable.

35Shields

Which hitters have had breakouts after leaving the Sox? Are we really counting Saladino’s 22 PAs in MIL as a breakout?

Tyler Flowers is one, but I can’t really think of that many more recently.

Trooper Galactus

Recency bias, I know. But Josh Phegley and Marcus Semien would be two more who churned out much better seasons after leaving than what we probably thought they were capable of.

Malkatraz

I never thought people doubted Semien’s bat… it was the fact he was a butcher at short stop (which Ron Washington seemingly fixed).

PauliePaulie

Any more info about the Sox messing with Salad’s swing?
I remember Flowers complaining about the Sox’ Minor League coaches messing with his. But hadn’t heard about Saladino.

Patrick Nolan

This is probably the least important part of anything, but Castillo’s recent framing “improvement” was largely a product of BP doing another non-transparent model update, which affected his recent framing numbers in a significant way.

Otter

#framingdoesn’tmatter

35Shields

Are BP Framing numbers broken for anyone else? Whenever I go to a player’s page all seasons other than 2018 mlb have 0 framing chances (and therefore 0 framing runs)….

Patrick Nolan

They’re probably in the process of running another “update”.

Patrick Nolan

Stellar headline

wonderpants

this

Sophist

Can they make do for a few weeks and then just slide Joey Bart in there?

As Cirensica

Let’s just end the Yolmer outfield project and start the Yolmer catching project.

Patrick Nolan

Answers

yinkadoubledare

I can’t wait for someone to intentionally walk Engel to face the catcher

Otter

Engel in May so far: .280/.357/.380 and .285 xwOBA

35Shields

You know that a player sucks when pointing out that their (half of a) monthly split of an x-stat being almost 10% lower than league average is supposed to be a positive highlight.

jorgefabregas

Well, his actual wRC+ for May is 107. I think the xwOBA was intended to help determine whether it was flukey or not.

Otter

Pretty much, but there’s been improvement there too. There are some green shoots here. And, fwiw, Yolmer ran a .284 xwOBA in 2017 (he’s at .315 this year).

PauliePaulie

Over/Under on first squeeze bunt is set at 5 1/2 games.

Right Size Wrong Shape

innings?

Greg Nix

This team is going to be rough(er) as hell to watch.ย 

GrinnellSteve

Time to get Collins and Jimenez up to Charlotte.

Anohito

Welp, good luck Tilson and Alfredo. Yikes…

Lurker Laura

I have some hope that Tilson will be amount to something (what and how long that takes, dunno). The catching, however, is going to be U-G-L-Y.ย 

DrCrawdad

Alfredo Sauce should be an upgrade defensively over Narvarezย 

Lurker Laura

This is my new favorite nickname. If all the meat is leaving the menu, we might as well have some butter, cream, and cheese.

asinwreck

The 2018 Chicago White Sox: Inducing a Stroke Anyway We Can.

lil jimmy

If Kevan Smith gets healthy, at least he good looking.(Also nice hair)

Reindeer Games

jimmy, you gotta raise your standards, my man! This team isn’t full of uggos like it has been in the past. Kevan isn’t good looking by comparison anymore.

lil jimmy

I was introduced to him by his Mom. He is in fact very good looking.

Eyr0nMaid3n

Congrats on the sex!

lil jimmy

That was mostly for Laura, but thanks. His mom was cute!

DrCrawdad

If Tilson does not play today then his ย 2nd ML game could be Detroit where he was injured in his first MLB appearance, almost 2 years later.ย 

rhubarb

Thanks Wellington, you dick. My 8 year old son is a big fan. Now the inevitable drug talk happens later today. “Some drugs heal people, some drugs people take for fun, some drugs help you hit dingers or stay healthy throughout the course of a season b-b-b-b-uuuttttt…drugs are really fucking bad.”

Reindeer Games

“some drugs were taken and abused heavily by players in the 70’s but we like those guys, so we pretend like it didn’t happen”

Otter

“And it’s okay when NFL players do it and no one bothers to even question NBA players.”

lil jimmy

“some drugs”
In the 70’s I did all the drugs. Also,I don’t have to pretend, I don’t remember what happened.

Greg Nix

At least he took responsibility.

jorgefabregas

That’s nice. I wonder what percentage of major leaguers take responsibility rather than obfuscate.

yinkadoubledare

Considering what he tested positive for, there’s zero possibility of it being an accident or some tainted supplement or something, so I’m glad he didn’t even try.

joewho112

Just another example of him half-assing it. A real grinder would have thrown up a website for a made up tainted supplement.

GoGoSoxFan

He’s never been very good with his defense.

Trooper Galactus

Maybe Ryan Braun has those statistics handy.

Anohito

Goddamn it beef you idiot, you better take responsibility. But Jim does bring up the point that good thing it’s someone who just came from the outside and not someone we’ve grown to know and love from the inside.

35Shields

I would have been heartbroken if it was Jose

Flitcraft

Too soon!

Lurker Laura

Better this statement than Cano’s “I was just doing what my doctor told me, medical condition, blah blah nonsense.”

DrCrawdad

EPO? ย Was Castillo going on Le Tour De France?

MrTopaz

Yes.

CanOCorn

EPO (Erythropoietin) was Lance Armstrong’s candy juice…It artificially increases the red cell ‘production’ hence the amount of oxygen ‘reserve’ one carries in his/her blood to be released to muscles in long stretches of continuous effort.
From a baseball player’s perspective that was the dumbest suspension ever…Castillo should fire whomever prescribed him the dope because it is pretty much useless for any baseball related activity…Long distance running, long distance swimming, long distance cycling, high-altitude mountain climbing, etc… Maybe soccer…That was plain stupid and idiotic…What, he couldn’t do diamond laps in ST?
Has anyone ever been suspended by MLB for using EPO besides Welington?

DrCrawdad

Agreed. Strangest MLB PED suspension.ย 

karkovice squad

What about for preventing muscle cramps? e.g. if they’re anemia-related.

CanOCorn

I am not a medic…The lack of blood supply might cause muscle cramps…Not the amount of blood oxygen…

https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/muscle-spasms-cramps-charley-horse#1

karkovice squad

EPO increases blood oxygen by increasing red blood cell production. Red blood cells and cramps also are/can be related to iron deficiency.

CanOCorn

Well…He’s got three months to chew on spinach and mitigate his iron deficiency.

karkovice squad

Funny but spinach isn’t a good source of iron.

CanOCorn

But that was what I was told when I was a little boy…”Wanna have Popeye’s (strong as iron) forearms? You’d better eat your spinach!”…And then according to http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=43 1 cup of spinach contains 36% of the recommended daily iron intake.

karkovice squad

The iron in spinach is in a form that’s difficult for humans to absorb.

Hatchetman

not like beef liver but its pretty good.

Reindeer Games

Is Yolmer in the Outfield still a thing?

Disney needs to make this happen.

TTJ

WestEddy

Matt Davidson seems to be injured, somehow, as per Roster Resource. That’s why Rondon is DHing yesterday and today.

joewho112

Back tightness

35Shields

Dear God, Daniel Palka is batting 4th for us today….

Lurker Laura

My poor mother is going to the game today, and she’s not going to know who anybody is except Jose.

gusguyman

It is probably better she doesn’t know.

35Shields

I decided to work from home today and I’m excited to watch the game out of the same sort of sick fascination one gets when driving by a car crash.

Reindeer Games

That isn’t that bad. It’s way better than batting Nicky D in the four whole. At least Palka has some threat of power.

joewho112

What does EPO do for a baseball player? I get it for endurance sports like cycling, but baseball?

gusguyman

Speculating, but catching requires a lot of endurance to stay in your squat, at least relative to other mlb positions. Perhaps he needed some help to chase Fulmer’s pitches all over the zone?

CanOCorn

That!

Amar

Gus Triandos probably used EPO

DrCrawdad

I donโ€™t get it. ย  Triandos career ended in 1965.ย 

Amar

He used to catch Hoyt Wilhelm (ask pnoles)

lil jimmy

He was good but no J C Martin

GoGoSoxFan

This made me lol. It also reminded me of Camillo Carreon, the guy J C replaced. Carreon tried to catch Wilhelm with a mitt the size of a garbage can lid. He still didn’t have much success, and when MLB put a size limit on mitts he was screwed.

As Cirensica

It increase blood cells production which makes you less prone to feel fatigue

DrCrawdad

Wellington has to be the 1st MLB suspension for EPO. The potential gain from EPO is minimal vs common side effects, sore joints & muscle pain.ย 

Otter

The White Sox have claimed catcher Dustin Garneau off waivers from the Athletics, per a club announcement. Righty Miguel Gonzalez was bumped to the 60-day DL to create a 40-man spot.”

So last we’ll see of Miguel? And anyone got some hot Garneau takes?

CanOCorn

Pretty pathetic except for career 0.3 WAR…

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/garnedu01.shtml

Right Size Wrong Shape

If you squint you can pretend like we claimed Justin Morneau.

Kenny always repeatedly gets almost his guys.

jorgefabregas

Folks, folks, let’s get Willians Astudillo.

joewho112

Without Leury, can the Sox still keep 13 pitchers? Right now, Trayce is the only backup outfield and Rondon is the back up infielder.

35Shields

Pretty rough when you’ve already given up four runs before Josh can even get the game thread up

Otter

Make that 5.

35Shields

Nah, six

gusguyman

If there is no game thread, can we just pretend today never happened?

Anohito

Would probably be for the best

Anohito

Yeah… now that Beck’s in, it really would be for the best

MilkyโœŒ๏ธ

Didn’t notice they had started when my gf texted asking “Oh no. What’s the fastest a pitcher has ever been pulled for being bad?” So it seems safe to go ahead and write this one off

jorgefabregas

Tilson getting a 103 mph lineout seems like the highlight of this game so far.

Amar

Would be ironic if Dunning ends up being the most valuable return piece of the Eaton trade

Otter

Everyone is losing that trade. Meanwhile, everyone is winning the Sale trade.

Amar

Nats still have three years of control for Eaton after 2018. Even with his injury history, I would say that the trade is tilting towards the Nats.

karkovice squad

The trade is tilting towards the Nats because they acquired a major leaguer who could contribute immediately. It’d be a disaster for the Nats if they hadn’t benefited more to this point. The Sox still have about 18 player-seasons to cover Eaton’s value. Odds are it’ll be roughly a wash for both teams.

jorgefabregas

The Nats have benefitted to this point? I mean, I guess they’ve gotten a win out of the 28 games he’s played.

karkovice squad

Ironic like rain on your wedding day, maybe.

Hatchetman

Hard to fathom but Narvaez now leads the majors in passed balls.

Greg Nix

Not THAT hard to fathom. Dude sucks.

MilkyโœŒ๏ธ

Not hard to fathom, but still impressive he’s done it as a backup.

35Shields

Is anyone else somewhat frustrated that Renteria continually chose to pair his awful receiving backup with the rookie starter who has control problems?

Starts with Narvaez:
Giolito: 5/10
Shields: 4/10
Gonzalez: 2/3
Santiago: 2/4
Covey: 1/2
Fulmer: 1/8
Lopez: 1/9

As Cirensica

I believe this was an issue with Rodon, but Giolito’s problems are bigger than his catcher’s skills (or lack of)