He’s going to be a fine backup catcher and will work well platooning with Maldy. Good signing IMO. Still a solid defender and good vet presence for a pitching staff that will need it.
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Wasted money, that money should have gone to a SP or RP. Stubb's can give you what Castro does at a much cheaper price. Why some fall in love with former .200 hitting players baffles me. It's not like Stubbs isn't a good defensive catcher.
Castro is a career .702 OPS catcher Stubbs is a career .506 OPS catcher I think it's a stretch to believe that Stubbs can even come close to giving you the offense you can get from Castro. On top of that, Castro has a better arm than Stubbs and is significantly more likely to catch runners stealing. For a bargain basement signing, this one is a pretty good one.
It isn't about replacing Stubbs. Catchers get banged up and Astros need more than 2 on the 40-man. As it is hard to get a 3rd catcher with minor league options that is MLB ready, Stubbs is getting the shaft.
I don't like how much Click is paying some of these guys. There is Alex Avila, Wellington Castro, Robinson Chirinos, Tyler Flowers, Wilson Ramos, Austin Romine, Rene Rivera, Kurt Suzuki (now signed) and Matt Wieters. They could have gotten one, possibly several of these guys for less money.
If Stubbs had a OBP of say .600 which is entirely possible since he's a young guy and I think you're cutting him short defensively. Everything I've read, seen looks like he's above avg defensively. Then I would rather put Castro's money towards signing a CF like Profar/Millar etc... I know Profar hasn't played CF but I believe he can play CF. If Maldy gets hurt then you can trade for a C. Or add a former MLB guy on a minors deal say like Joseph from the Orioles to get you by until Maldy gets healthy.
What do you think Click's, the fans love affair with Castro is. It's no coincidence that the team got better when Luhnow let him walk.
He's never had an OPS even close to .600 and never had an OBP of even .290. You can gamble that overnight Stubbs will turn into a replacement level backup catcher, but he's shown nothing to suggest that will happen. Instead of gambling that a miracle will happen, it's much better to sign a guy like Castro on the cheap who you know will have better than a .600 OPS even if it's a down year for him. When Castro's down years are better than the best anyone has seen from Stubbs, it's hard to think that we should have just had faith that he was going to magically turn into a competent baseball player. If it happens, awesome, if not you still have Castro so you aren't screwed. I don't think a cheap signing of Castro means you can't make other signings.
I'm guessing Click is banking on the platoon split against righties and reduced workload making Castro look better than he has. He was pretty good in 17 and 19, but was bad in his shortened 18 and 20 seasons. It isn't as if he's been consistently a sub .200 hitter I'm not really a fan of paying him that much, but if I squint I can see where he thinks value could come from.
Joseph sucks. If he's the fallback, Castro should have gotten more. Castro is getting paid like a scrub that hits 0.200.
That's surprising. I assume average is so low due to the shifts he sees or just not enough balls put in play? I would take his 2019 numbers in a heartbeat. Only had 80 AB's last season so 2020 can pretty much be thrown out the window. Has had a lot of variability throughout his career but hopefully he can be a positive as the backup C for this squad. I also assume this doesn't really affect our ability to sign a CF and another buy low pitcher signing or 2.
