I think a whole bunch of people owe Luis Castillo an apology.
I get the hate. I really do. But when are we going to separate the fact that Castillo is well on the other side of his career and wishing he would be gone because he’s no use on the baseball field from throwing irrational blame his way for not showing up to spring training two weeks before the actual reporting date because he supposedly doesn’t care?
Seems that Castillo’s only crime in this whole thing is not telling Terry Collins that the reason he didn’t report to camp early was because he wanted to be with his brother through his emergency surgery. That probably would have gotten all of us internet zealots off his back for about five minutes. But we’re looking for a convenient scapegoat and Castillo is it.
Again I’ll reiterate: Coming in early to training camp doesn’t mean a thing. Not a damn thing. And it kills me that the prevailing thought about Castillo was “Well, he’s fighting for his job … doesn’t he want to show up early and impress the new coaching staff?” Ask yourself this: Let’s say a new boss came to your job in sales, for example. And somebody whose performance was down all of a sudden shows up a half hour early and stops by the boss’ office to say hello whereas he never did that before. Would you be “impressed”? Or would you call him a “suck-up”?
And the notion that Collins is going to be swayed to cut a player because he showed up on time instead of early? Miguel Cabrera was not only pulled over for DUI, but was reportedly drinking in front of the cops, and he’s not going to get cut for that. Why would the Mets waste six million on a guy for showing up on time?
“But Metstradamus, Miguel Cabrera is much more talented than Luis Castillo!”
Exactly. And that’s the point. Miguel Cabrera isn’t going to get cut because he’s a good baseball player. Luis Castillo is not a good baseball player right now until he proves otherwise. And if he gets cut, that’ll be why. Not because he showed up to camp. Now, if Luis Castillo was found behind the wheel of his ride drinking a fifth of something screaming “don’t you know who I am“, he’d be cut … because he’s bad at baseball. Fair? Maybe not. That’s the reality we live in. It’s the only thing that matters. We’d be outraged if Castillo did what Cabrera did … and rightly so. But we’re outraged over not showing up to camp on time? I know it’s Luis Castillo we’re talking about but, really?
And here’s another thing I ask myself: What if we use the Folgers experiment and replace Castillo with another player who dropped an easy fly ball to lose a ballgame? What if it was the popular Daniel Murphy, who’s done less than Castillo in 2010, who only showed up to camp on time? Would there be outrage? And what if Murphy didn’t bother to tell Terry Collins until the last minute about his brother going into surgery? Would we call it a lapse in judgement by Murphy like we do with Castillo? Or would we commend Murphy for not letting his personal situation affect the team? How much more slack would we give a popular player like Murphy over an unpopular one such as Castillo?
Now I’m not saying that Castillo should be a lock to make the team. Far from it. If Castillo can’t run, can’t hit, can’t catch in spring training, then let him go. Hell, he probably should have been let go long before February with all the younger players at second base. But now that Castillo is here, then he deserves a fair shot without being put behind the 8-ball for not showing up early. As much as it pains me to say it, Oliver Perez deserves that same shot. And I sure as hell don’t think Perez should have been allowed to still have a job as a Metropolitan this far into spring training. (I’d much rather have Castillo make the team than Perez if given a choice of one and only one.)
I guess what I’m saying is that Castillo has gotten a little bit of a bad rap here. He made his bed in part by showing up out of shape after signing the four-year contract. He also made his bed with the Yankee drop. Hell, that game being shown on YES until the end of time is punishment enough for all of us, especially him. But the bad press he gets for things like what day he shows up to spring training is misguided as far as I’m concerned. He’s played through pain. He runs with one leg shorter than the other for crying out loud. I’m not saying we should retire number 1 in his honor, but we love other guys who play through pain yet we want to put Castillo’s marbles in a vice? Sure, he represents failure. But does he represent his own failure, or Omar Minaya’s failure for signing him to a four-year deal? And does he represent failure any more than Oliver Perez? Or Jeff Francoeur? Or Francisco Rodriguez? Or anyone else?
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