Welington Castillo signs with White Sox on a 2-year, $15 million deal

Finally, some Hot Stove news! That was getting agonizing. GIVE US DEALS.

Free agent Welington Castillo, most recently of the Baltimore Orioles, has signed with the Chicago White Sox on a two-year deal with a club option, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.

Yahoo’s Jeff Passan reports that the deal is worth a reasonable $15 million, with the third-year club option worth $8 million.

In 96 games last year, Castillo hit 282/.323/.490 with 20 home runs. He had a 115 OPS+, 20 points higher than his average OPS+ over the previous five seasons (where he spent time with the Cubs, Mariners, and Diamondbacks).

His framing stats underwent a major turnaround from 2016 to 2017. According to Baseball Prospectus, he ranked 10th in the league in FRAA (Fielding Runs Above Average) this season, at 7.4, and ninth in adjusted FRAA. He had a positive FRAA only once in his entire career before that, notching a 0.5 in 2015.

If he can maintain that improvement throughout 2018 then this signing looks even better.

This fits with Chicago’s assumed rebuild plans, as it’s not too long a deal and Castillo will slot in as a veteran talent, replacing Geovany Soto whom the Sox declined an option on in November. Soto played in only 13 games in 2017 due to injury, batting only .190 in those appearances, leaving the bulk of the work to Omar Narvaez and Kevan Smith.

Narvaez caught in 83 games for Chicago this season in what was only his second year in the league, while Smith caught in 79. They were both serviceable but the Sox could use a reliable backstop who can also hit, and Castillo does that.

He’s only 30, so if the deal lasts the entire three years that would bring the White Sox either to the cusp of accomplishing their rebuild or already past it with him still being young enough to catch on a consistent basis.