Luis Castillo Isn't This Bad, Right?

This little nugget in the most recent Heyman column caught my eye:

"Luis Castillo ($6.25 million) can hit for average and reach base, but this is a $1 million player, at best."

Just for the record Jon, fangraphs states that Castillo was worth $7.7 million this season, which in essence would make him unpaid....but I digress....

Look, I hate Castillo's defense as much as the next guy and, yes, we all know that Luis Castillo cannot hit for power. These limitations are painfully obvious. And again, we all know that Luis Castillo's performance was embarrassing last year....to the point where he was benched for Ramon Martinez!

But saying that Castillo is only a $1 million player is wrong.

The reality is that Luis Castillo can STILL bring a lot to the table and be a productive force at the top of the lineup. Just take a look at some of his stats from this season:

-.311 batting average
- 76 runs scored
-.397 OBP
-68/55 strikeout to walk ratio

I believe in Luis Castillo. I believe that if the Mets lineup was completely in tact this year, then Castillo would have scored over 100 runs and would have been hailed as one of the dynamic catalysts for the Mets offense. However, the Mets offense has been absolutely brutal this year, and unfortunately for a guy like Castillo, in order for him to get any significant credit for his performance, then the rest of the guys around him have to be healthy and productive at the dish.

But because the other key guys were all out for long periods of time this season (Delgado, Reyes, Beltran), Castillo's productive season doesn't look quite that good and as a result, people think that he's still one of the biggest busts in baseball. (I'll admit, the drop at Yankee Stadium sure didn't help)

Luis Castillo is not worth $6.25 million or $1 million. The truth is that his value lies somewhere in between those two numbers, probably at a range of $3-$4 million. So yeah, Luis Castillo is a little overpaid by those standards, but by no means is he THAT overpaid. If Castillo was a FA, would teams shell out $6 million+ for him? No. But at the same time, should the Mets be kicking themselves for signing Castillo for $6 million a year....no.

Not right now, at least. The Mets have bigger fish to fry moving forward.

Thoughts?

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