The Minnesota Twins and Jason Castro put the pen to paper on Wednesday morning, making his three-year deal with the club official. After jumping through the requisite hoops and even conducting an impromptu Twitter Q&A on the team’s official account, the Twins released him to the hounds so to speak, as he and Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey conducted a conference call to introduce the catcher to the Twin Cities media corps.
A lot of the chatter surrounding Castro focuses on his defense — most notably his pitch framing. He’s among the best in the game at coaxing fringy pitches into being called strikes for his pitchers, and that skill won’t be lost on Falvey and Thad Levine, nor will it be lost on his pitchers, who can use the help. This isn’t one of those deals where a player is good at something without being aware of it, however; it’s something Castro knows about, has studied and continues to work on as he moves through his big-league career.
“Pitch framing has come a long way in the last couple years and definitely gotten a lot more attention,” Castro said on Wednesday afternoon. “From my perspective, it’s something that over the past couple years I’ve tried to refine as much as possible. Really as much as anybody else, it’s something that you naturally do as a catcher. It’s not something that’s necessarily taught. When there was this enlightenment or focus on this new topic of pitch framing, I tried to get a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Basically the goal at the end of the day is to help your pitcher keep as many strikes as possible and not do anything to take away from presenting pitches that are in the strike zone to the umpire that would lead them to believe any given pitch is not a strike. That’s kind of the goal is to just be almost as unrecognized as possible behind the plate to allow the pitcher to allow his work to speak for itself. Framing that pitch in the best way possible to increase our chances to have our pitcher on the mound, whoever that is, optimize his chances for getting strikes and obviously that lends itself to having success.”
Castro’s defense, and perhaps more specifically his framing, is mostly likely among the biggest reasons he was a sought-after commodity on the free-agent market. Castro declined to name teams or a number of them, but said his market developed quickly, with interest not only from teams but from his camp to move quickly to strike a deal.
To that end, Castro said both in his Twitter Q&A and in his chat with the media that he was drawn to Minnesota not only because of the community, but what he perceives to be a commitment to making this team a winner again in rather short order.
“Early on in the process I got the opportunity to talk to Thad and Derek and Paul (Molitor) on the phone a little bit,” Castro said. “Hearing the enthusiasm, passion and their dedication to winning and getting this thing turned around. They kind of laid out their vision for what their plans are. Having played against the Twins the past few years, I definitely know that this organization is capable of doing some great things. They have a lot of young, really good talent and some veterans thrown in the mix that can make for a special group. It was a good fit and I’m excited to be here and be a part of it and hopefully to help the team and especially the pitching staff try to make a nice transition to 2017.”
The Twins are coming off a 100-loss season, and that’s something Castro is familiar with. Castro didn’t play in the big leagues with the 106-loss Astros in 2011, but did get plenty of time in 2012 with the 107-loss iteration and was an All Star when the team bottomed out with 111 losses in 2013.
Castro doesn’t think the Twins are on that sort of path, and in fact thinks the team is quite a bit closer than those Astros were. That’s truly saying something, considering the 2015 Astros played in the AL Wild Card game and moved on to the Division Series before losing to the eventual AL Champion Kansas City Royals. That’s just one calendar year removed from losing 111 games and bottoming out completely.
“I was actually having a conversation about that a little earlier today,” Castro said on Wednesday about the similarities between the team he was leaving and the one he’s joining. “I think having gone through that gives me a bit of a unique perspective. Having played against the Twins and looking at their lineup and roster and the pitchers that they have here, I think that this group is a little bit ahead of where the Astros were when we were in the midst of our multiple 100-loss seasons. Obviously injuries play a part in any given season. Obviously the Twins had to deal with quite a bit of that last year. But I see them as being definitely ahead of where the Astros were a few years back when we were in the middle of the rebuild. That’s something that’s positive. As long as guys can stay healthy, I’m definitely excited about that group that we have here and the possibilities.”
Castro said he doesn’t really know any of the Twins, outside of getting to know Joe Mauer at the 2013 All Star Game a little bit. Chances are, Castro is also familiar with Robbie Grossman, as the two were teammates in Houston from 2013-15. But Castro said he’s excited to get the chance to not only meet his teammates, but his pitchers this spring.
It’ll also help that spring training is a little bit longer this year to accommodate the World Baseball Classic. But ultimately, Castro thinks that time in Fort Myers will be all he needs to get up to speed with not only his teammates, but more importantly his battery partners.
“I think that’s what we use spring training for,” Castro said about needing time to get to know his comrades. “The way spring training is and how it’s set up, we have plenty of time and downtime also to not only get to know one another but also figure out what works for guys and what they’re comfortable doing. How they think out there on the mound. All those things kind of go into how we develop game plans. What to know to fall back on when guys are out on the mound and thinking about certain things or the last thing on their mind when they’re out there. That’s part of my job is to get in to know these guys and not only the types of baseball players they are out on the field and what works for them and how they think and how that will come into play, helping to manage some of the pitching staff.”
Castro was especially complimentary for A.J. Hinch, his most recent manager with the Astros with whom he had a lot in common.
“A.J. does a tremendous job as a player’s coach,” he said. “He’s an easy guy to talk to and to get to know. Being a catcher and obviously having the Stanford connection as well, we kind of hit it off right away. He’s got a lot of knowledge about catching at the big-league level. I think a lot of what I learned from him was more situational stuff. Definitely the way to think and the mindset about things that come up in the game and how to frame the way that you’re approaching calling a game based on a number of variables. I think that was one thing that was something that maybe isn’t necessarily measured but is hugely important for the catcher position and something he excelled at and was able to impart a lot of that knowledge to me.”
Ultimately, Castro is excited to go to work at Target Field, not only as a catcher, but as a hitter. Castro has batted just 32 times at Target Field, with a double in 2015 — off new teammate Kyle Gibson — standing as his only extra-base hit as part of a .286/.375/.321 batting line. None of that is terribly substantive from a sample size point of view, but Castro says he likes hitting at Target Field.
“This is a place that I actually like to hit at,” Castro said. “I feel like you have a pretty good backdrop for seeing the ball here. It was always a place that I felt comfortable hitting. Two years ago I actually got hurt here; I strained a quad muscle. Some of my playing time was cut short, but I’ve definitely enjoyed my experiences playing here and I feel like I’ve done here for the most part. I’m excited to be here. It’s a great stadium. The facilities are top-notch and that definitely makes playing 162 games and 81 home games a lot more comfortable.”
