Cubs Send Lendy Castillo Outright to Iowa
The Cubs have sent RHP Lendy Castillo outright to AAA Iowa. Castillo was Designated for Assignment on January 26th when RHP Carlos Villanueva (MLB Article XX-B free-agent signed by the Cubs last month) was added to the 40-man roster.
As most of you know, Castillo was selected by the Cubs off the reserve list of the Phillies AAA Lehigh Valley affiliate in the Major League Phase of the December 2011 Rule 5 Draft. He was signed out of the Dominican Republic by Philadelphia as a 17-year old shortstop in December 2006, but was converted to pitcher in 2010 after hitting a combined 239/287/313 (with 23 SB) in 132 games in the DSL and GCL 2007-09. So when the Cubs acquired him, Castillo had been a pitcher for only two years, and had never pitched higher than Lo-A (equivalent to Peoria or Kane County).
In order to fulfill Rule 5 obligations, Castillo needed to spend the entire 2012 season on the Cubs 40-man roster and/or 60-day DL, with at least 90 days spent on the Cubs MLB Active List (25-man roster). And he just barely made it, too, spending a total of 96 days on the Cubs MLB Active List after being placed on the 15-day DL with a "groin strain" in May. But placing Castillo on the DL allowed the Cubs to send the young RHP on a minor league rehab assignment for 30 days in July, which was spent first in Mesa with the AZL Cubs, and then later at Daytona (which is where he should have been all year) and AA Tennessee. He pitched a total of 20 minor league innings in 14 games at the three stops, allowing just three runs (two ER) on 13 hits (no HR) and 6/22 BB/K, with a sparkling 0.90 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. However, he was cuffed around in twelve games in the Dominican Winter League (DWL) post-2012, allowing 15 hits and 10 runs (7 ER) in 7.1 IP. (The DWL is approximately equivalent to AA).
It is not unusual for clubs to use the Disabled List to try and manipulate the MLB rules to get a Rule 5 player through a season with minimum MLB exposure, placing the player on the DL with some vague soft-tissue injury that can't be medically proven (or disproven), especially if the Rule 5 player is young and not ready for the big leagues (as was the case with Lendy Castillo). And by placing the player on the DL and leaving him there for a while, the club can eventually get the player 20 or 30 days of minor league time during the course of the player's "Rule 5 season" by way of a minor league rehab assignment (up to 20 days for a position player and up to 30 days for a pitcher). But even with the 14 minor league games (20.0 IP) while on the 30-day minor league rehab assignment and another 13 games (16.0 IP) while performing occasional mop-up duty at the big league level when he was on the Cubs MLB Active List (25-man roster), 2012 would probably have to be considered essentially a "lost season" in terms of development for Lendy, and now he will have an opportunity to get regular work at either Tennessee or Daytona in 2013 (depending upon where he is assigned at the end of Minor League Camp).
Castillo is just 23 years old (he will be 24 in April), he's athletic, he throws hard, and and he has been pitching only three years, so it's not like he's some 4-A retread. (Baseball America recently ranked Castillo as the Cubs #28 prospect). If he is not added back to an MLB 40-man roster in the meantime, Castillo will be a Six-Year Minor League Free-Agent after the 2014 season.
The Cubs made another Rule 5 selection in the Major League Phase of the December 2012 Rule 5 Draft, this time drafting RHP Hector Rondon off the reserve list of the Cleveland Indians AAA Columbus affiliate. The 24-year old Rondon was a former Indians Top 10 Prospect who missed much of the past three seasons while recovering from TJS. However, he pitched well as a set-up man for Caracas in the Venezulan Winter League (VWL) post-2012, at least proving he was (finally) healthy. (He pitched in more games in the VWL post-2012 than he did in the minor leagues over three previous seasons combined).
The thing is, unlike Lendy Castillo, Rondon has been outrighted previously in his career, and so he can elect free-agency if he is outrighted to the minors. And he is also out of minor league options, so even if the Cubs can secure waivers and even if the Indians opt not to reclaim him, he can't be optioned to the minors, and if he's outrighted (either by virtue of being re-claimed by Cleveland or outrighted by the Cubs), he can refuse the assignment and elect free-agency. So it's probably pretty much "Wrigley Field or Bust" for Rondon in 2013. He either makes the Cubs Opening Day 25-man roster (or starts the season on the 15-day or 60-day DL), or he's probably gone. In that sense, the Rondon Rule 5 selection was basically a glorified waiver claim of a player who is out of minor league options, with immediate results required for it to pay off.
Whatever ends up happening, Rondon (as a Rule 5 Player) can be traded at any time, but he cannot be placed on Outright Waivers until 25 days prior to MLB Opening Day, and he cannot be re-claimed by the Indians, outrighted by the Cubs, or released any earlier than 20 days prior to MLB Opening Day.
The Cubs will have to drop another player from the MLB 40-man roster whenever Scott Hairston is added. Like Carlos Villanueva, Hairston was an MLB Article XX-B FA, and thus the Cubs do not have to add him to the 40 until the contract is filed with the MLB Office. And the Cubs have up to 20 days to file the contract after Hairston signs on the line which is dotted. So depending on when Hairston actually signed, it's very possible that the Cubs will be able to wait to add Hairston to the 40-man roster until after the start of Spring Training, and then place either Arodys Vizcaino orScott Baker (both TJS rehab) on the 60-day DL at the same time.
Another possibility would be to try and outright 3B Ian Stewart to the minors, like the Cubs did with Manny Corpas and Blake DeWitt this time last year. Stewart was non-tendered on November 30th and then re-signed with the Cubs in December, getting a non-guaranteed 2013 major league contract with a $2M salary and another $500K in potential performance bonuses. If he were to be placed on Outright Waivers and waivers are secured, Stewart could be outrighted to the minors (and removed from the 40-man roster), although he would still be at Spring Training (as an NRI) with the exact same salary and opportunity to make the Cubs MLB Opening Day 25-man roster as he had when he was on the 40-man roster. Although Stewart could elect free-agency if outrighted (he has more than three years of MLB Service Time), it is unlikely that he would opt out since he would have gone unclaimned off waivers, and thus he (and his agent) would know that no other club was interested in him enough to make a claim (at least for that salary and a spot on the claiming club's MLB 40-man roster).
Recent comments
-
crunch 7 hours 38 min ago (view)
kevin rizzo is in camp with the cubs and is in workouts with the team.
very tiny guy, no power, but he can run down a ball in the field and he's almost impossible to pitch to. time to give him a contract and put him in the OF.
https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/1366081602242023425
-
crunch 8 hours 18 min ago (view)
Marquee has added a tuesday game, so now the first televised cubs game is March 2nd (3pm EST)
-
Arizona Phil 18 hours 9 min ago (view)
The DFA of Robert Stock to make room for Kyle Ryan coming off the CoViD-related IL wil need to be followed by removing another player on the 40 to make room for Ryan Tepera.
It's possible somebody (like a pitcher) is injured to the extent that he might be placed on the 60-day IL, or else maybe somebody else will go on the CoViD-related IL (which is 40-man roster exempt) in the coming days to make room for Tepera.
-
Arizona Phil 18 hours 43 min ago (view)
The Cubs have signed LHSP Ben Holmes (ex-LAD) and RHRP Jose Moreno (ex-NYM) to 2021 minor league contracts. Both were post-2020 minor league 6YFA and neither has been on an MLB 40-man roster.
Holmes pitched collegiately at Oregon State and has some AAA experience, but Moreno hasn't pitched above Lo-A over the course of seven seasons in the Mets organization.
-
crunch 1 day 3 hours ago (view)
side note...k.wong is on 1st putting on one of those "baserunning mitts" (hand protection for sliding) that's extending past the length of his hand/fingers by at least 2-3 inches.
they're going to have to start regulating this piece of equipment if this keeps up...
-
crunch 1 day 5 hours ago (view)
Q with LAA in his debut for them...HBP, a wild pitch, and BB through 7 pitches...then 3 pop-outs to follow.
blah blah spring training...
baseball on TV...neat.
-
First.Pitch.120 1 day 9 hours ago (view)
We just traded for Maddux!!! ......... nope, the other one.
-
crunch 1 day 21 hours ago (view)
yeah, i'm just saying i did consider piling onto it with a troll-level post about the trade...it's practically asking to be written that way.
jeff passan did it quite well... https://twitter.com/jeffpassan/status/136577746706...
that said, i had no idea zach bryant existed before today, but his early numbers looked oddly good (which means nothing without context that early in his career).
-
Charlie 1 day 22 hours ago (view)
Oh, I mean the trade. You were quite diligent in posting!
-
crunch 2 days 1 hour ago (view)
i contemplated writing the post totally trolled out as hell with "zach" coming after a wall of text.
i decided the cubs being cheap was enough pre-season punishment without piling on.
-
Charlie 2 days 2 hours ago (view)
This is a straight up troll
-
crunch 2 days 4 hours ago (view)
rsox aquiring ZACH bryant from the cubs.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player...
ptbn from the josh osich deal.
totally useless trade...hopefully not a terrible loss.
-
Hagsag 3 days 5 hours ago (view)
Chase Strumpf and Andy Weber invited to the ML camp.
-
Dolorous Jon Lester 3 days 10 hours ago (view)
Ryan Tepera returns. Major League deal
-
crunch 4 days 8 hours ago (view)
spring training TV is usually fluid...adding and subtracting broadcast games...
first cubs TV (as of now) is March 3 (wednesday) on ESPN at 3pm EST.
radio broadcasts available for almost every game that's not televised. the cubs get going on monday and some other teams will start the day before.
-
crunch 5 days 5 hours ago (view)
dj snelton's left elbow is screwed up...6 weeks rest then re-evaluate.
looks like he's going to try to avoid having surgery.
Comments
Great to hear from you PHIL.
E-MAN: Lendy Castillo was
E-MAN: Lendy Castillo was outrighted to the AAA (Iowa) reserve list and will probably initially be assigned to the Iowa squad at Minor League Camp (which doesn't mean anything, because the vast majority of players cascade downward during the course of Minor League Camp as players are sent to Fitch Park from the MLB squad).
I suspect Lendy will start the 2013 season as the closer at Daytona and then move up the ladder as performance dictates. Because he is a Six-Year Minor League FA post-2013 if he isn't added back to the 40-man roster by the 5th day after the conclusion of the World Series, he essentially has one year to prove himself as a prospect. If he struggles, he probably will walk and the Cubs won't care. But if he shows promise, stays healthy, continues to improve during the course of the year, and establishes himself as an effective reliever at AA Tennessee by the end of the season, he will probably be added back to the 40 sometime in October to keep him from becoming a minor league FA.
Note that If the Cubs add him back to the 40-man roster prior to the conclusion of the MLB regular season, Castillo will burn a minor league option, even though he was outrighted (not optioned) to the minors. So I doubt that he will get called up in September, no matter how well he pitches in the minors in 2013.
BTW, by rule Castillo will make $288K in 2013 (60% of what he was paid in salary in 2012), so we won't need to have a car wash or hold any Tag Days for Lendy.
"Mets signed OF Corey
I was going to say I thought
Phil, do you think Justin
JOHN B: Justin Bour will have
JOHN B: Justin Bour will have to establish himself in AAA and have a couple of really good years at that level before I would consider him to be any kind of prospect. He has struggled to hit LHP for most of his career, he is a below-average defensive 1st baseman, and he has below-average speed.
The best comp I could make would probably be Bryan LaHair at a similar age, who did develop a big-time HR stroke later in his career after spending several seasons in AAA hitting lots of doubles, but who never was able to hit LHP. Bottom line is, unless and until Bour starts hitting 30+ HR a year and can at least hold his own against LHP, his ceiling is probably AAA.
And even if he does eventually develop into an MLB player, Anthony Rizzo is blocking him at Wrigley Field and Dan Vogelbach is coming up from behind, so I doubt that Bour will be in the Cubs organization beyond 2015 (he qualifies as a 6Y minor league FA post-2015).
Bour probably will be at Iowa in 2013, although it's possible that he will repeat AA (even though he has nothing left to prove there) if Brad Nelson is the 1B at Iowa. (The Cubs released Rebel Ridling after last season, so C-1B-3B Taylor Davis is the de facto Tennessee 1B right now).
Speaking of LaHair, I saw an
Great to hear from AZ Phil! I
STICK: I saw all of Michael
STICK: I saw all of Michael Jensen's outings when he first reported to Mesa in 2011 and also his Instructs outings that year, and then I saw him at Minor League Camp last March (when he pitched "lights out" and earned a spot in the Peoria Opening Day rotation), but I didn't see any of his MWL games. He should be in the starting rotation at Daytona in 2013.
From what I saw of him, he is a definite prospect. His breaking ball is a plus-pitch, and he has life on his fastball, too. I would say he would be in the second group of ten among the Cubs Top 20 pitching prospects (Paniagua, A. Vizcaino, P. Johnson, B. Wells, A. Cabrera, J. Arias, Blackburn, Underwood, Maples, Whitenack, McNutt, Loux, Struck, Zych, YL Wang, Jensen, Loosen, Rhoderick, L. Castillo, and Burke).
another day, another slew of
I think I know the answer,
The first full squad workout
TJ: An unsigned player can
TJ: An unsigned player can take BP and participate in drills and an unsigned pitcher can throw bullpen sessions and throw "live" BP (just like when an unsigned player is brought in by a club for a workout), but he can't play in Cactus League or Grapefruit League Spring Training games until he is officialy signed and the contract is filed with MLB.
That's why the Yankees had to sign Billy Crystal to a Uniform Minor League Player Contract before he could bat in a Grapefruit League game. The Padres did that with Garth Brooks a few years ago, too
Jason McLeod will be on XM
McLeod Interview...
Thanks!
Thanks Arizona Phil. If I was
TJ: Scott Hairston has
TJ: Scott Hairston has probably already signed his contract, it's just that the Cubs haven't filed it with the MLB office yet. (Clubs have 20 days to file a contract after the player signs).
So while he won't have to be added to the 40-man roster until the contract is filed, the contract should be legal and therefore he won't have to worry about getting hit be a runaway garbage truck and having the contract voided should he decide to report early to Fitch Park. (And I'm not kidding about runaway garbage trucks, either, because the Mesa City Yard is just down the street, and there are garbage trucks running up & down 6th Place on the south side of Fitch Park all day long... I almost was hit by one last year).
I hereby request a cubby blue
now i wish i could remember
Artist rendering of Az Phil..
Nicely done!
I have AZ Phil as a 68yr old
http://futuretom.files
Having met AZ Phil, I'm
Curt Schilling is still an a
B/N has a transcript of Jed
King Felix gets record
It buys out 2/39.5, so it's a
And to think 3/44 was the
is brian roberts a cub yet?
Things certainly have changed
Damn!!! Hoping he would be a
they could always give
"Indians signed LHP Rich Hill
"Mariners designated RHP
Law's Top 10
Law's Top 10
Baez, Almora, Soler, Vizcaino, Candelario, Underwood, Paniagua, P. Johnson, Blackburn, Alcantara
Guess he's not a Vogelbach
Yeah..it's a popular opinion
paul goldschmidt never made
He can continue to raise his
Keith Law just on Espn radio
Duane Underwood, Pierce
nick stuck's story is a great
Mark Prior in the present
Breaks my heart about him.
Paul Sullivan tweets that
lame.
figgins finally signs...
Podcast: Keith Law talks
Over at that "Boys of Spring"
Even in the batting cages,
Yeah, and I don't see muscles
at least dusty isn't around..
I'm afraid the Coraline
MLB Network is showing game 2
based on this game no one in
I don't know if this is a
testing comment in chrome 24
It's happened to me more than
It happened to me once, but I
It happened to me on an iPad.
Has happened to me in Firefox
so much lulz...screw you
MLB should step in and force
Maybe part of the problem is
I guess in that sense we're
i hope this is the last
The difference next offseason
live sports is a cable/sat
Hairston signed 2 years,
Maybe the Cubs think Vizcaino
they expect baker to break
re: latest on/from baker...
JOHN B: Agreed.
JOHN B: Agreed.
Maybe not so much with Scott Baker (because it would be difficult for the Cubs to place Baker on the 60-day DL after he made comments about how good he feels and after the Cubs management say they expect him to be up to 75 pitches by Opening Day), but Arodys Vizcaino could have been a definite possibility. That is, unless Vizcaino also claims he is healthy enough to pitch in Cactus League games and compete for a spot on the Cubs MLB 25-man Opening Day roster.
You can't put a player (even a TJS rehab guy) on the 60-day DL this time of year if he reports to camp in shape to pitch and wants to compete for a spot on the 25-man roster.
It appears as though the Cubs waited as long as they did to add Hairston to the 40-man roster in order to detemine if Baker and/or Vizcaino could be deemed medically remedial enough to be placed on the 60-day DL, before finally having to DFA somebody (Campana).
MLB will supposedly be investigating all DL assignments involving Rule 5 players this season (they could call it the "Lendy Castillo Rule"), and they may be cracking down on February 60-day DL assignments, too.
Now he can come back and
Tony C highlight...
http://mediadownloads.mlb.com
The real reason Brenly left
Concern grew when he tried to
Not pretty...and I'm not