Castillo gone: Young or Orr? And what about Stutes?
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Castillo gone: Young or Orr? And what about Stutes?
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
It will go down as one of the stranger late-spring experiments in recent memory. The Phillies bucked the conventional wisdom amongst scouts and other baseball people in signing Luis Castillo to audition for their vacancy at second base, then cut him loose a week later, shortly after the veteran infielder went 2-for-4 with an RBI, two runs and a stolen base in an exhibition game against the Pirates.
High Cheese correspondent Marcus Hayes asked general manager Ruben Amaro Jr, what, exactly, Castillo could have shown that would have won him a spot on the team.
"I'm not going to get into that," the GM responded (More from Amaro here).
In the end, the Phillies lost nothing by giving Castillo a chance. They had signed him to a minor league deal without any guaranteed money, so his release today came with no financial ramifications.
They signed, they saw, they decided. No harm, no foul.
The question now: who gets the final spot on the Phillies' bench?
Rule 5 pick Michael Martinez looks to have a spot locked up. The Phillies love his defense and versatility, and manager Charlie Manuel has spoken glowingly about him in recent days. In fact, Martinez could see time with Wilson Valdez at second base.
"Wilson and Martinez are both going to play some there," Manuel said.
That leaves one vacancy on the bench to join Martinez, Ross Gload, Brian Schneider and John Mayberry Jr.
Unless the Phillies make a last-minute addition from the outside, the two candidates are Delwyn Young and Pete Orr. Young would make a lot of sense because of his experience in the type of role he will be asked to fill. He has significant pinch-hitting experience and carries a .270 batting average in those situations. But he isn't regarded as a good defender or base-runner, two facets of the game where Orr is clearly superior.
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Impressive 24-year-old reliever Michael Stutes continued to give the Phillies a hard time cutting him, striking out three big league players in the ninth inning last night against the Pirates. Stutes walked one, but fanned Jose Tabata, Pedro Alvarez and Andrew McCutchen.
Stutes still sounds like he is in the picture for the Opening Day roster, but the Phillies have also seen lefty Antonio Bastardo and righty David Herndon pitch well this spring. Both of those players have more experience than Stutes.
"Stutes is definitely going to pitch in the big leagues," Manuel said. "It's just a matter of time, whether it's the beginning of this season or not."
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if stutes makes the show, you let him pitch middle innings and get settled. you can't put someone that green into the closers role right away...doesnt work like that.— AndyReidsMustache- Actually, releasing Castillo made perfect sense. It was the only way they could keep Martinez. The other thing is that once Utley comes back, where what role would Castillo have? He can't play as many positions as the other guys can, so his versatility is limited. It would be kind of like when Utley came back from the injury where Tad Iguchi was filling in for him. They had no use for Iguchi after that.
It didn't cost them anything to give Castillo a tryout, but I don't know what they expected to see that they didn't already know. It really makes more sense for the Phillies to keep guys who are happy to have a utility role, not someone who is going to sulk because he's sitting on the bench.— SteveS11 - Bring Stutes up in June/July for the stretch.— Romus
- After a few moments to think, my hunch is the Phillies are either ready to make a move or Utley will be activated sooner than expected and they are hoping that between Martinez and Valdez, they can do an adequate job at second. Let's hope Polly doesn't break down in the meantime.— EL Zorro
- Pete Orr is in, I say. I am volunteering him to be emergency catcher too. That gives you more IF flexibility Send Delwyn down and have him get a better name.— Horst Muhlman lives on in all of us
- There's no rush with Stutes. And they have to see what they have with Baez. I know people want to run him out of town but his spring wasn't bad. There's also Romero, Bastardo, and Herndon and there should be a decent number of games where the starters pitch the 7th. I think they're just taking it a step at a time. If Stutes makes the roster they're not going to be rushing him into a closer role. There's no point (yet).— s
- I think a rejuvenated Castillo could have helped the Phils and I would have liked them to keep him around at least through April. My biggest problem is if this move was made in order to keep Stutes, then Kendrick or Baez should have been cut. I know they make money but they simpley can't get people out so what's the use.— ericg610
- The little fish looks slow.— phillyceltic
- Give Martinez a shot— phillyceltic
- I don't think Castillo did himself any favors by showing up later than expected, and the fact that he is limited defensively doesn't help. The Phils are going to be weaker defensively in RF, and I am guessing Amaro doesn't want to be so-so at 2B as well. Having said that, I have always liked Castillo's ability to work counts. He fouls off a lot of pitches, and he tries to get base hits; he isn't trying to hit a home run every time up. That aspect of Castillo could have helped this Phils lineup a lot; hopefully, Amaro will look into acquiring someone else with those traits.— 76erfn
- This comment has been deleted.— AlexSp
- The Phillies offense was averaging 7 runs per game in their last three games with Luis Castillo at second base. In the post-Castillo era, the offense is now averaging 1 run per game and two hits per game. Once again, Cole Hamels was the victim of no run support. Without Castillo in the lineup, I would not be surprised if the Phillies offense averages under 3 runs per game in April.— Gnip Gnop
- Martinez and Stutes help us get younger.— Joe at the shore
- What was the purpose of signing Castillo? Clearly they had no intention of keeping him.— anothervoice
