I'm honestly starting to wonder at this point if this series should go up on a different day of the week. For yet another week, a decent amount of the post is written ahead of time, only to have a team make a move or announce one on Friday and leave me scrambling to make the updates to my list. It's just funny to me how often this seems to be happening on Friday afternoon or evening. Moving on....
It's not quite clear yet (at least as of 1:00 PM here on the West Coast on Friday) how much Castillo will play, but I would assume it to be a decently substantial amount. He has the potential to be a five-category contributor at times, with counting stats the most likely help to you now. Grab him while you can, and hope that he outplays Shane Victorino enough to force the Red Sox to play him even more.
The other call up this week was a surprising one from Washington. With Jayson Werth hitting the disabled list this week, the Nationals opted to call up SS/2B prospect Wilmer Difo to take his place. Part of this was a flexibility move, as Difo's best tool may be his speed, and could allow him to play both infield spots as well as center field should the need arise. He's an interesting name for NL-only leagues and has interesting potential long-term, but I'm not expecting him to stay up or necessarily get significant playing time right now.
So who's next? Which prospect is still worth holding onto now for when they are called up to the majors later?
Graduates
Week 3: Kris Bryant, Yasmany Tomas
Week 4: Carlos Rodon, Addison Russell, Kevin Plawecki
Week 5: Dilson Herrera, Blake Swihart
Week 6: Noah Syndergaard, Austin Hedges, Eddie Rosario, Preston Tucker
Week 7: Maikel Franco, Lance McCullers Jr.
Week 8: Rusney Castillo, Wilmer Difo
Rk | Player | Team | Pos. | LW | Level | ETA | Comments |
1 | Andrew Heaney | LAA | LHP | 1 | AAA | 5/31 | Another week, another strong start for Heaney as he went six shutout innings with seven strikeouts. This week's poor outing came from C.J. Wilson, but we're not likely to see him pulled from the rotation unless he's hurt. |
2 | Carlos Correa | HOU | SS | 2 | AAA | 5/31 | The Astros are leading their division and are tied for the best record in baseball through Wednesday's games. Their biggest weakness right now is at shortstop, and I don't think it's very long now before Correa is up. |
3 | Hector Olivera | LAD | 3B/2B | NR | XST | 7/1 | With Olivera officially passing his physical and heading out to extended spring training, it sounds like he could be in the majors in a month or so. Since he's already on the 40-man roster, he's a more likely call up than Seager in my opinion. |
4 | Corey Seager | LAD | SS/3B | 4 | AAA | 6/15 | While Olivera could be used at third base or second, we could see Seager holding down shortstop if Jimmy Rollins doesn't show additional improvement. He had a four hit game last week, but otherwise has been hitting about the same as before. |
5 | Rob Refsnyder | NYY | 2B | 6 | AAA | 6/15 | The Yankees are currently tied for first place in their division in spite of Stephen Drew hitting below the Mendoza line. Refsnyder has been heating up at AAA, and it really seems like it should just be a matter of time. |
6 | Aaron Nola | PHI | RHP | NR | AA | 7/1 | The Phillies' brass went down to see Nola's start on Wednesday, and it seems like they may only be waiting for the Super Two deadline to pass. The rotation seems to be Hamels + Harang and three dudes, so there should be plenty of opportunity, even without a trade. |
7 | Francisco Lindor | CLE | SS | 7 | AAA | 6/15 | Daniel Kelley noted the reasons why Lindor is a worthwhile hedge at this point in this week's Ticker, so I won't rehash the same points here. |
8 | Steven Matz | NYM | LHP | 8 | AAA | 7/15 | It's extremely unlikely at this point that Thor will return to the minors given how well he's pitched so far (note: this will likely mean his start on Friday night went terribly), so it's hard with Matz to see a spot opening up right now without another injury. |
9 | Marco Gonzales | STL | LHP | 10 | AAA | 6/15 | Jaime Garcia returned to make his first start this week, but has a brutal injury history and struggled with his command in his first start. I think if he continues to struggle the Cardinals turn to Gonzales as the next option now that he's healthy. |
10 | Eduardo Rodriguez | BOS | LHP | 9 | AAA | 6/25 | His teammate Brian Johnson has been pitching even better lately, but the edge goes to Rodriguez for me only because he's on the same schedule as Steven Wright currently. |