Rusney Castillo

[reillymcshane]

Red Sox have put Castillo on waivers.

 

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/06/red-sox-place-rusney-castillo-on-outright-waivers.html

 

He's owed $50M through 2019.

 

He's looking pretty bad - .624 OPS at AAA this year. Really a huge waste of around $70M.

 

I'm not advocating claiming him - but if you could get the Sox to pay 90% of the contract, he would be more interesting than a guy like Presley or Eric Young Jr. I don't see that happening, but you never know. Perhaps if there's some larger deal with Lucroy...

[Boomer5]

Maybe in deal with Braun. Brewers claim him trade them Braun and they unload whatever package Stearns wants.

[trwi7]

The only way I would take him is if they wanted Braun and say one of our starting pitchers and we would get multiple top prospects in return. Like there are no off limits prospects if we take him back.

[wichmae]

Castillo has been really bad with a wildly reported poor work ethic from the Boston media. Not sure I would take him on unless like twirly said. We get a big package back.

[pogokat]

wait ten days then sign him to a minor league deal. I wouldnt pay any kind of real money for him---he sucks.

[BrewCrewBlueDevil]

I would rather see Castillo then Flores, Presley or Broxton IF Milwaukee got him in 10 days on a minor league deal (basically, for nothing). I am about ready for them to dump Maldanado and give Pinto or Pina a shot, too. He used to be a good defensive catcher. His lack of offense doesn't not make up for this years average play and under average pitch selection.

[reillymcshane]

As expected, no one claimed Castillo, so he was sent to AAA.

[JohnBriggs12]

There's starting to be a pattern for Cuban players (Puig and Abreau are other examples) who aren't accustomed to having loads of money and living in a free society. They seem to start off hot but then tail off.

[MillerParkSouth]

That's a pretty casually racist comment there Mr. Briggs. It could also be that the sample size of Cuban-immigrant players isn't that large and like any group of prospects/there will be some hits and some misses.

[reillymcshane]

There's starting to be a pattern for Cuban players (Puig and Abreau are other examples) who aren't accustomed to having loads of money and living in a free society. They seem to start off hot but then tail off.

I would argue it has nothing to do with living a free society.

 

It is talented players never having to adjust to top tier talent like in the majors. Many of these young guys arrive, have success, then falter after the league makes an adjustment to their play.

 

And let's not lump all the Cuban players into one basket of failures. Cespedes, Chapman, Jose Contreres, Yunel Escobar, Livan Hernandez, and lots, lots more have done just fine.

 

Just like the major league draft of free society guys, there are some who pan out, some that don't.

[MrTPlush]

There's starting to be a pattern for Cuban players (Puig and Abreau are other examples) who aren't accustomed to having loads of money and living in a free society. They seem to start off hot but then tail off.

 

Umm....wow.

[MilwaukeeBeers]

That's a pretty casually racist comment there Mr. Briggs. It could also be that the sample size of Cuban-immigrant players isn't that large and like any group of prospects/there will be some hits and some misses.

How is that racist in any way? His opinion may not be correct, but the idea (in today's day and age) that anything not seen as PC is "racist" has become platitudinous.

[MilwaukeeBeers]

There's starting to be a pattern for Cuban players (Puig and Abreau are other examples) who aren't accustomed to having loads of money and living in a free society. They seem to start off hot but then tail off.

I would argue it has nothing to do with living a free society.

 

It is talented players never having to adjust to top tier talent like in the majors. Many of these young guys arrive, have success, then falter after the league makes an adjustment to their play.

 

And let's not lump all the Cuban players into one basket of failures. Cespedes, Chapman, Jose Contreres, Yunel Escobar, Livan Hernandez, and lots, lots more have done just fine.

 

Just like the major league draft of free society guys, there are some who pan out, some that don't.

I think this is spot on.

[MillerParkSouth]

I think it's racist to imply that it has to do with these players being Cuban and suddenly having money as opposed to it just being players that don't work out. There are tons of prospects that get a big payday that never pan out and it has nothing to do with their nationality.

[MilwaukeesBest]

I think it's racist to imply that it has to do with these players being Cuban and suddenly having money as opposed to it just being players that don't work out. There are tons of prospects that get a big payday that never pan out and it has nothing to do with their nationality.

 

I think this is the politically correct society working in full force in this thread. I don't think anything was meant in a negative connotation by Briggs and I saw/see nothing wrong with it. Fact of the matter is in any professional league that sometimes when fame and fortune are pressed upon young adults they don't respond well, especially if they've grown up living in the polar opposite of this their entire life. Getting so much money at a young age can be very detrimental to someone, I believe that's all Briggs was saying. Initially when we signed Gilbert Lara as a 16 year old there were reports that many didn't know how his work ethic would be hampered due to his signing bonus. You could make that same argument for countless other athletes from any sociodemographic background. Doesn't pay to fish for race in this instance.

[pacopete4]

Since being Cuban is not a race it's hard to see that as a racist statement. Is the statement true? Well sure to some extent as there are people of all ethnicities who blow money when they are not used to having it. (I.e. Lottery winners) Does that have anything to do with some not working out? Maybe. But it's definitely not because they are Cuban.

[SRB]

Castillo isn't so bad really, just not what Boston was hoping for when they gave him that much money. He's got a .680 OPS for his career (337 PA) but elite defense in CF/OF, so he's a starting caliber player. By comparison, Gerardo Parra had a 4.5 fWAR season in 2013 with a .726 OPS and elite defense in RF/CF.

 

I would gladly take on Castillo if we were paying the league minimum.

[sveumrules]

AP put together the below list of the largest contracts signed by Cuban players as of May 2015...

 

Rusney Castillo $72.5, Yasmany Tomas $68.5, Jose Abreu $68, Hector Olivera $62.5, Yasiel Puig $42, Yoenis Cespedes $36, Jorge Soler $30, Aroldis Chapman $30.25, Alex Guerrero $28, Raisel Iglesias $27, Arisbel Arruebarrena $25.

 

Of those eleven contracts you've got Rusney, Yasmany, Olivera, Guerrero & Arruebarrena looking like major sunk costs. Soler & Raisel are probably still in the red but could get back to even in time. Puig & Abreu have probably provided enough value to offset the investment but are both trending downward for the second consecutive season. Yoenis & Aroldis are certified stars.

 

Granted this list doesn't include Moncada who is off to a blazing start after his 31.5 million dollar payday, but he also hasn't played in AA yet. It also goes without saying that highly compensated prospects of all socio-economic-geo-political origins bust, but there is a big difference between paying Rolando Pascual 750 grand, or Eric Arnett 1.2 million, or Jed Bradley 2 million, or Mark Rogers 2.2 million, or maybe even hopefully not Gilbert Lara 3.2 million to bust as opposed to paying someone 25-72.5 million to maybe provide future value.

 

I'll second Brew4U in that I don't believe any observations about Cubans can be deemed racist as Cubans are not a race of people.

[LouisEly]

That's a pretty casually racist comment there Mr. Briggs. It could also be that the sample size of Cuban-immigrant players isn't that large and like any group of prospects/there will be some hits and some misses.

Cuba is a country, not a race. In theory, you could be Cuban and be any race on the planet, just like you can be American and be any race on the planet.

 

I think his comment had more to do with coming from a non-free society and suddenly having both money and access to many things you never had access to. Like the proverbial expression, "kid in a candy store". Similar to how Russians clamored for many things American that they never had access to. Talk to people who were able to get into Russia/Soviet Union back when things started opening up; you could bring half a suitcase full of Levi's jeans and pay for your entire trip - you could easily get over $200 per pair, and that was back in the late 80's.

[SRB]

I don't want to wade into this trainwreck of a discussion, but the semantics of whether it is "racist" or just "xenophobic" is kind of irrelevant, don't you think?

[jerichoholicninja]

I don't want to wade into this trainwreck of a discussion, but the semantics of whether it is "racist" or just "xenophobic" is kind of irrelevant, don't you think?

 

I didn't want to wade into it either but...what he said he was neither. I'll give you it was poorly worded though. Briggs is much older than most of here and like people of that age they're not as aware of how easily offended people can be these days and how carefully you must chose your words. Like the word Mexican. Referring to someone from Mexico as "Mexican" is going to be seen as offensive to some people regardless of the context or intent.

[1992casey]

The statement in question isn't racist for reasons that others have pointed out. Cuba is a mixed race society, much like the US. The majority of its people are white. Significant minorities are African, native, and mixed race. And a small minority is Asian.

 

Some might see the statement as bigoted. But I'd simply call it a faulty generalization that reilly effectively debunked.

 

Please be aware that we're teetering around the boundaries of some of the guidelines in Fan Forum Etiquette. As long as people continue to play nice, this topic can remain open.

[nate82]

I think it's racist to imply that it has to do with these players being Cuban and suddenly having money as opposed to it just being players that don't work out. There are tons of prospects that get a big payday that never pan out and it has nothing to do with their nationality.

 

Not really racist at all. It is a fact that people from Cuba come from a society that their lives are completely dictated by the government. I believe Livan Hernandez said he had a bit of trouble adjusting to the culture here in the US compared to the culture in Cuba.

 

It is no surprise that a lot of the Cuban players have struggled after a year it is an adjustment going from living in Cuba to living in the US or even in any other country. Unless that country is similar to the one the player is leaving there is going to be a culture change that the player is going to have to go through. The same is true for American born players if you go from nothing and then all of a sudden you have this large signing bonus it is similar to a player coming from Cuba and adjusting to life in the US.

 

All of this will have an impact on how a player performs to deny that it doesn't have an impact is just ignoring the issue.

[QuevedosTongue]

I don't think anybody would say that any person going from very little money to a lot of money, and the freedoms that come with that money, wouldn't be impacted in some way, regardless of where they are from. But it happens, and can happen, to anybody. When someone suggests that it happens to Cubans (or Wisconsinites, or Canadians, or Midwesterners, etc.) it's a discriminatory statement and that's a problem. Not racist, but discriminatory nonetheless. And please don't trot out the "he didn't mean anything by it" argument. Or that anybody is being overly politically correct. The comment was discriminatory and prejudicial and has no place in society.

[LouisEly]

It's not about not having money, it's about not even having access to things at all. No matter how poor you are, chances are you've eaten at a McDonald's. Not possible in Cuba, unless you find a way to sneak into the military base at Guantanamo Bay. No matter how poor you are, chances are you have or have access to a TV and multiple over-the-air TV stations. Even if you have money in Cuba, what cars do you have access to? Car purchase wasn't legalized in Cuba until 2011 (and only 50 cars and four motorcycles - total, new and used - were sold in the first six months of 2014). A vast majority of the few cars that are there are 50 years old; they haven't been able to even import anything since the 60's.

 

How would you react to just seeing things that you have never even seen before? If you're poor in the U.S., you've at least seen these things even if you can't afford them. It's one thing to have access or exposure but not be able to afford; it's another thing to not even have access or exposure at all.