Chicago Cubs Catcher Welington Castillo is a great teammate and the handler of the cubs pitching staff. He’s take a position that’s been a major question mark for this organization and made it more stable. With further improvement, Welington Castillo could make the catching position in Wrigley Field a position of strength.
He’s a tireless worker, who’s made himself a better defensive catcher and game caller. I had an exclusive with Welington Castillo prior to the CSN Sports Awards, where he was awarded the Cub of the year. We talked about what he’s working on get better in 2014.
Castillo kept his acceptance speech very short, as he admitted he was nervous during his time at the CSN Awards podium. The award emphasizes community service.
“I feel really honored, it’s very special to get this award. I have to work hard to get this and keep doing what I do,” Castillo told me before the show.
Following small stints with the Cubs from 2010-12, the Dominican catcher nicknamed “Beef” broke out during the 2013 season. Advanced metrics have praised his defensive skill, with Fangraphs ranking him as the fifth-best defensive catcher of 2013.
In a late season interview on the Cubs’ radio pregame show, first base coach Dave McKay, who served as a St. Louis Cardinals’ coach from 1996 to 2011, compared Welington Castillo ’s potential to that of Cardinals’ All-Star catcher Yadier Molina.
I asked Welington Castillo about how his offseason is going: “a lot of time at the field working hard. God gave you all the ability to play this game, but you have to put in the hard work,” he responded.
So what specifically is he working on?
“I was working on my body, after having surgery, I’m working on my strength, trying to get as strong as I can so that I can get through the season healthy. Pitch-calling, framing, trying to get all the scouting reports and information I can to try and get better.”
Welington Castillo had surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus in his right knee; an injury that ended his season after just 113 games. Castillo had an outstanding DWARP (Defensive Wins Above Replacement Player) last year and hit .271 with eight homers and a .741 OPS in 113 games. Offensively, that’s well above average production for the position and defensively he also threw out 29 percent of steal attempts. Not many teams get much offensive production from the catcher position, but Welington had a .388 OBP in the second half of the season.
I asked him how he can keep improving offensively;
“I feel like I need to improve on every area that I have, and keep working,” he said.
The Cubs christened their new Spring Training ballpark, Cubs Park today, and pitchers catchers report in just a few days. Welington Castillo told me that he’s very excited about spring training, he’s hungry, and that his main goal is to keep healthy. Far and away that is the most important goal of spring training for everyone involved.
“I know if I’m healthy I can play every day,” Castillo said.
The first game at Cubs Park is Thursday, Feb. 27, at 1:05 p.m. when Welington Castillo and the Cubs open their inaugural season at the new ballpark against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)