So here we all were, basking in the glory of defeating Roy Halladay and minding our own business, and suddenly the Cubs Twitterverse is abuzz about a tweet. The tweet causing the commotion is from Enrique Rojas:
#Cubs call up catcher Wellington Castillo, agent said.
— Enrique Rojas/ESPN (@Enrique_Rojas1) April 28, 2012
Of course, nobody on the Cubs beat has said anything about it.
A few Cubs blogs have re-tweeted it and Kevin Goldstein is shocked:
I just can't win. RT @Enrique_Rojas1: #Cubs call up catcher Wellington Castillo, agent said.
— Kevin Goldstein (@Kevin_Goldstein) April 28, 2012
@espnchijon Do you know what's going on there? who's hurt/down?
— Kevin Goldstein (@Kevin_Goldstein) April 28, 2012
So what are the possibilities?
1) There is a Soto trade about to be completed.
There have been rumors about the Rays being interested in Soto since their catchers have been practically useless, so it's possible. But there really hasn't been anything lately. Alvin would claim that is a sign it is true because only trades that nobody sees coming are the the ones that get done.
2) Soto or Clevenger is hurt.
Anything is possible with this new tight-lipped front office, but Soto played all night and didn't seem to be having any problems out there. Clevenger did not appear in the game tonight and there has been no mention of any injury to him after the Cardinals series.
3) Enrique Rojas is full of shit.
Goldstein seems to be taking the tweet at face value and claims Rojas is as good as it gets, but something like this going uncorroborated for such a long time (Twitter-wise) is odd.
4) Welington threatened to "accidentally" stab Brett Jackson or Anthony Rizzo if he wasn't called up.
Let's face it, the man does have a history.
We are probably going to have to take a wait-and-see approach.
UPDATE
#Cubs expected to call up Welington Castillo tmrw, with Steve Clevenger to DL (via @pwsullivan). trib.in/IiTMWj
— Amanda Kaschube (@amandakaschube) April 28, 2012
Sullivan wins the race to figure out what the hell was going on. Do you believe in miracles? Yes!
I can’t argue with you today.
it’s also possible soto could be dfa’ed, no? not that i find that at all likely.
@ GW:
I had thought of that but with his relatively cheap contract and that extra year of arbitration it doesn’t make all that much sense.
The phantom injury or the mystery trade seems more likely.
@ GW:
Do you know if Soto would have to clear waivers before he could be outrighted to the minors at this point?
Rice Cube wrote:
I’d be shocked if he didn’t.
@ Aisle424:
I might have worded that wrong…I wanted to know whether he has to be exposed to waivers. If his case is like Wells, then maybe a DFA makes sense because they don’t have to risk losing him.
Rice Cube wrote:
Yeah. I’d be shocked if he didn’t have to be exposed to waivers. He’s been up for 4+ years. I can’t imagine they are DFAing him. It almost has to be a trade or an injury. He’s a cost controlled catcher who, even when hitting like shit, is still probably better than a lot of catchers.
@ Rice Cube:
There’s no way in hell they’re just cutting Soto. Surely not.
It’s a phantom injury. It’ll be like Ian Stewart or someone like that. LaHair or someone, maybe. Clevenger can play first.
Were you guys talking about this earlier? I just saw it. I think that’s one of the few times you should slide into 1B, although it looked like he was tagged out before he reached the bag. Angles are bad though.
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20958215&c_id=mlb
option 3 seems the most likely to me.
I can’t see them bringing Castillo up unless they plan on using him everyday. From what I understood, the reason he didn’t make the club in the Spring was because they wanted him to get regular at bats and play everyday…. something “significant” must be coming tomorrow, whether it be an injury or a trade, but I’ve been stalking MLB messageboards and there isn’t anything out there.
@ Heather:
It is eerily quiet.
Also, everybody put their pants back on. There’s a lady present. Let’s not scare her away right away. I’m looking at you, RC.
Sullivan is first. He even beat Nick Cafardo.
@ Aisle424:
I’ll try not to lift my kilt.
Berselius wrote:
That explains a LOT.
@ Suburban kid:
That’s actually what I thought he said when I first read that.
See, you guys are crazy. They aren’t dropping Geo. At a little above league average, he was one of the most valuable players on the team last year, and this year.
@ Aisle424:
Wonder what Clev’s injury is? Maybe tearduct malfunction prevent appropriate response to this team.
@ mobile skip:
/Hermaphrodite Pageboy
There should be an image of Mr. Kot-TER here, but every time I try to embed it something called rel=”nofollow gets added to the tag and then the pic doesn’t show up.
With no Clevenger around we should get ready for a 15 day losing streak
@ Suburban kid:
I was able to post an image with an account that has the same role as you. I’m not sure what’s happening when you try to post an image.
@ mb21:
I suspect that it has something to do with the image host
@ Berselius:
#1 pick here we come!
@ Rice Cube:
I still can’t believe Sullivan was the one who got the Clevenger injury news first.
@ Berselius:
I wouldn’t have said anything, only I tried three different images and it happened with each one.
My own bad luck.
/Cubs fan’d
@ Suburban kid:
You let it happen to you.
Aisle424 wrote:
Hobbit was in the right place when he read a tweet from the Dominican.
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/28/home-plate-umpire-jeff-kellogg-tackled-a-fan-last-night/
Inge: cut. Abreu: cut. Soriano: ……
@ josh:
Maybe there’s a rule of threes in play here?
@ josh:
Those guys are owed $6 million and $9 million respectively. Isn’t Soriano owed something like $50 million? He’s one hot streak away from the Cubs saving five or ten million.
/rose colored glasses’d
Cole Hamels would be an interesting sign…I’d take him for the Cain deal. 6 for ~120M.
Am I taking crazy pills?
@ Suburban kid:
Fine, fine. Stupid contract.
http://www.obstructedview.net/news-and-rumors/the-children-are-the-future-cubs-minor-league-update-sponsored-by-the-city-of-racine.html