Cora, Puerto Rico league manager, impressed by Red Sox' Castillo

By Maureen Mullen

The Red Sox currently have seven outfielders listed on their roster, and that number doesn’t even include Mookie Betts or Brock Holt, who are listed with the infielders. But, general manager Ben Cherington is not concerned about the surplus in outfielders, preferring to take a wait-and-see approach.

“We’ll see where we are at the end of spring training,” Cherington said. “I’d rather have more options than not enough. We think we have some good options. It’ll be a good thing for us, too, if all of those guys are healthy and performing. That’ll be a good position to be in and allow us to maybe have some tough decisions but some good decisions.”

The most likely scenario at this point has Hanley Ramirez in left, Rusney Castillo in center and Betts in right.

Castillo, whom the Sox acquired in August, signing him to a seven-year, $72.5 million deal, appeared in 11 minor league games before making his big league debut on Sept. 17. In 10 games for the Sox last season, he hit .333 with a .928 OPS, hitting safely in nine of those 10 games. In the final game of the season, on Sept. 28, Castillo’s fifth-inning single broke up a string of 13 consecutive Sox batters retired by the Yankees’ Michael Pineda.

Castillo, who turned 27 in September, had not played in about 18 months before joining the Sox. To make up for the lost time he played in the Arizona Fall League, hitting .278/.333/361 there. But a bruised thumb curtailed his time there after just eight games and 36 at-bats.

Castillo supplemented that with 10 games in the Puerto Rican League, hitting .405/.415/.541 in 37 at-bats. He played one game in right field and seven in center, serving as the designated hitter for two.

Playing in the offseason helped him prepare for the upcoming season and spring training, he said.

“I guess the most important thing that I kept in mind while playing is that it’s always the same game,” Castillo said at the Sox’ recent rookie program, through a team translator.

“I kind of always tried to keep the same approach I’ve had throughout my baseball career, not just here in the U.S. It really helped me establish a more professional routine, getting more repetitions. So that’s the most important thing.”

In Puerto Rico Castillo played for Criollos de Caguas and manager Alex Cora, the former Sox infielder. Asked if he thought Castillo was ready for major league pitching, Cora – who played for 14 seasons and has interviewed for several major league manager positions, including this fall with the Rangers – gave a succinct answer.

“Yes,” he said.

“I think, to be honest with you, he’s going to be fine,” Cora said by phone Wednesday afternoon from Puerto Rico. “He was here for 15 days and he played in 10 games. We really liked his approach. He’s a guy that didn’t deviate from his plan. He stayed hitting the ball the other way, back through the middle. That’s the sign of a good hitter. He works on his craft every day and he understands his strengths and weaknesses, and he doesn’t try to do too much.”

Cora was impressed with Castillo’s outfield performance, particularly in center field.

“He’s a guy that reads bats well and he gets good jumps,” Cora said. “He didn’t know the players, he didn’t know the league we were playing against, and after the first inning he was already taking charge in center field, moving guys around, moving around in center. So, for me, he’s very comfortable in center field.”

While that may be unusual for a rookie, Castillo is not a kid.

“He’s played some meaningful games in Cuba,” Cora said. “So, yeah, some guys might be shy but he’s mature. I always call him a kid but he’s not. People forget that part of it

“He’s very fundamentally sound. He catches the ball clean, good release and he keeps the ball down, nothing compared to Yasiel [Puig, the Dodgers outfielder, also from Cuba, who played in Puerto Rico last year]. He understands baserunners, when to go for it, when to hit the cut-off man, when to take a chance. He has a pretty good idea. I think he’ll be OK in left, center or right. That’s something for John [Farrell], but we really liked him in center field, the way he plays.

“I think he understands the situation he’s going in. It’s a winning situation. We talk about it, and the good thing about him he loves playing baseball. That’s what he wants. I guarantee you if it was up to him, he would stay and play the whole time with us instead of leaving right before Christmas. He enjoys it. We had a conversation once and he was like, ‘Alex, this is what I do. In Cuba when it was the offseason I played softball. I don’t know about basketball, volleyball, whatever. I love playing the game.’”

But there was an aspect of Castillo’s game that caught Cora somewhat off-guard, compared to the reports the manager had received.

“The raw part of it,” Cora said. “But I guess it was understandable because he didn’t play for number of months or a year, and probably there were what they saw in the minor leagues it was in the report. But he’s fast. With all the information that they have at the big league level and they’re going to bring it to him. He likes it, he likes information, he likes to know about pitchers’ times and all that. And if he didn’t, well he fooled me because he was all ears the whole time, trying to learn as much as possible, not only from us but from the opposition so he can take advantage of it. The way he talks about the game, he pays attention to details, tendencies from the pitchers, tendencies from the catcher calling the game. I was very impressed. I thought I was going to get a wild horse, like when Yasiel came down here and played for Mayaguez and he wasn’t even close.”

Maureen Mullen can be reached at mmullen@itemlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MaureenAMullen.

http://www.itemlive.com/cora-puerto-rico-league-manager-impressed-by-red-sox-castillo/article_9b2fe654-a7c6-11e4-bc1b-ff77627a9b0d.html