While the Texas Rangers continue to contemplate whether or not to keep Yu Darvish out for the remainder of the season, the Boston Red Sox are trying to figure out when it would be best to promote Rusney Castillo to the big leagues.
Darvish, a three-time All-Star in three MLB seasons, was placed on the disabled list on August 10 because of inflammation in his pitching elbow. With the Rangers (53-86) sitting in last place in all of Major League Baseball, the team has been contemplating whether or not to shut him down for the remainder of the season to not risk aggravating or worsening the injury. He was expected to be back after missing two starts, but he's still out of action despite "apparently healing rapidly and significantly."
According to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, the Rangers also have a financial advantage if they were to keep Darvish out for the remainder of the season. The right-hander has been on the disabled list for 25 consecutive days plus the first six days of the season that he missed because of injury, and according to his contract, after the 31st day on the DL he will begin losing $5,228.75 per day that he remains on the DL. If he sits out the rest of the year, that's nearly $120,000 that Texas will save on top of avoiding having Darvish pitch coming off a fairly significant injury when they don't need him to.
On the other hand, the Boston Red Sox don't seem to care too much about their financials. They signed Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo, 27, to a record seven-year, $72.5 million contract (for a Cuban free agent) on August 23. He made his minor league debut on Sunday in Game Two of the rookie-level Gulf Coast League championship series and was then promoted to Double-A Portland on Wednesday where he will remain for the duration of the team's playoff series. The outfielder is expected to make his debut with the team this month, but it's not known exactly when.
Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington told the Providence Journal that Castillo will join the team after he plays as many minor-league games as possible as the Red Sox see fit. The team has yet to determine what they will do with Castillo in the offseason in terms of fall and winter baseball because they're focused on getting him up to the big leagues this year to get him experience before next season.
"What we want to do is try to maximize the number of at-bats he gets and sort of balance that with the transition back to playing, so maybe there will even be off-days mixed in," said Cherington, in this Providence Journal article. "It's been a while since he's had a lot of game activity. He needs at-bats."
With the Red Sox out of playoff contention, they can afford to give Castillo sufficient time once he's promoted to the 40-man roster.