While Rusney Castillo’s arrival is significant, his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox represented just another step — albeit a positive one — in the Cuban outfielder’s overall evolution as a baseball player.
Castillo went 1-for-4 on Wednesday as the Red Sox lost 9-1 to the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. He collected his first big league hit — a fourth-inning single to second base — and made a nice running catch in left-center field. The final week and a half of the 2014 season is mostly about Castillo getting his feet wet in the majors, though, so one shouldn’t place too much emphasis on his overall performance.
“I don’t think it’s the results that you learn from,” Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington told reporters in Pittsburgh before Wednesday’s game. “I think it’s just watching him around the team, pregame, interact with people, the questions he asks. All that stuff has been very positive so far. … He’s met a lot of people in a short amount of time and played games in a lot of places. He’s handled it all well so far.”
Castillo, who signed a seven-year, $72.5 million contract with the Red Sox last month, played in 11 minor league games — five with Triple-A Pawtucket, four with Double-A Portland and two with the Rookie level Gulf Coast League Red Sox — before making his major league debut with Boston. It’s been the 27-year-old’s first game action since defecting from Cuba, so an adjustment period should be expected.
The Red Sox’s final 10 games will offer Castillo an opportunity to familiarize himself with his new teammates and coaches, creating a baseline off which to work when the club arrives at spring training in 2015. Once the 2014 season ends, it’s possible Castillo could play in both the Arizona Fall League and winter ball in Puerto Rico to garner additional at-bats.
“We’re going to try to put together a plan that accomplishes some of the following,” Cherington said. “It accomplishes adding at-bats as much as we can — an appropriate amount. It doesn’t require a long period of shutdown and ramp back up again. And then also it allows him to have some break between playing and spring training. It may be a couple different things, and we’ll have more information on that in the next couple days.”
Castillo likely will split time in center field with Jackie Bradley Jr. over the final 10 games. Red Sox manager John Farrell didn’t rule out trying Castillo in right field, though, as it’s entirely possible he could wind up there in 2015 if Boston makes Mookie Betts its everyday center fielder.
Clearly, there still are more questions than answers with Castillo. Most of the questions — if not all — won’t be answered until some point beyond this season. But the Red Sox’s plan for evaluating Castillo is beginning to take shape, with Wednesday’s debut serving as the next phase.
“Honestly, when you’re scouting a player like Rusney coming out of Cuba, it’s not a perfect scouting process. It’s still an imperfect process,” Cherington said. “You don’t have the 100 games, so you have to make up for that in other ways — getting to know them, seeing them in whatever competition you can.”
The Castillo era officially has begun. Now, it’s about working toward hitting the ground running next season through continuous baby steps.
