PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – He burst onto the scene his first road series of his Pirates career, 2B Rodolfo Castro hitting three home runs in nine at bats at the Mets. Now the 23-year-old will get a long opportunity to impress at a different position, filling in for ONeil Cruz at shortstop.
“I think in the early going he will get the majority (of starts),” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton. “We will probably play Bae over there at some point depending on shortstop depending on matchups or off-days. We are heading into a 17-day stretch and it’s not like he is going to go straight Ripken and play the whole way.”
Cruz had surgery to repair what the Pirates only specified as ‘fractured fibula’ and he’s expected to return in four months. A baseball season is typically six months, so he’s going to get a long look.
“My confidence level is high,” Shelton said. “If you look back, Rudy played a lot of short in Spring Training because we had the competition at second and we had a bunch of guys there. The days we gave Oneil off, Rudy ended up going to short and playing those days just to get the at bats. He actually got a ton of reps there in Spring Training which makes me feel a little bit better.”
“If it was a situation where he hadn’t, I may be a little more concerned because on that side of the ball you have to move your feet. You have to continue to do things that are different at second. My confidence level is high he will catch the ball.”
Not that it will be easy, Cruz brings so much to the Pirates lineup. The right-hand hitting Castro is off to a slow start, hitting .176 with a double in 17 at bats. He does have some power, the switch-hitter launced 23 home runs combined between the majors and AAA last season (12 with the Pirates).
“It’s a part of baseball,” Pirates Bryan Reynolds said of making up for the loss of Cruz. “It’s a part of all sports. Nobody is ever going to have a team that doesn’t suffer some type of setback. It’s a matter of how we respond to it and we’ve got a good, veteran group. We have young guys who are focused too. I think we’ll be able to handle it going forward.”
“It’s the depth that we’ve talked about even though we are only eight-nine games into the season,” Shelton said. “We’ve brought in veteran players. There are a couple of points here. They are able to handle those conversations in the clubhouse with their teammates and peers with how we move forward. The second thing is we have more talent depth than we’ve had before because we’ve brought in guys that have played in the big leagues.”
“Usually we were always bringing guys to the big leagues that is was their debut. Now we are getting guys who have been in the big leagues before.”
Mathias moment
Bucs called up Mark Mathias to fill Cruz’s roster spot as Cruz starts only on the 10-day injured list. The 28-year-old has played 46 MLB games and hit .256 with four homers. Through nine games at AAA Indianapolis this season, the 6’, right-hand hitting Mathias had a .333 average with a double and home run and a .460 OBP.
“I think we’ve seen Mark hit,” Shelton said. “He’s hit at the AAA level. He hit last year when he was at Texas in the big leagues a little bit. He’s going to get some reps. We are going to get some left-handed pitching. We are going to have some situations to get him in there. He can play second, both corners (outfield) and a little third base. We like that bat, that’s why we acquired him.”
Mathias came over from the Rangers for a player-to-be named later on March 11. He hit .277 in 24 games with Texas last year and overall in AAA-.322 with 10 doubles and nine home runs in 58 games.
Don’t look for him at shortstop, he hasn’t played there since high school.
“It’s good to be back up here,” Mathias said. “Unfortunately for the reason to be here, Oneil is a great player. He brings a lot to this team. I’m a utility guy, I will get my reps wherever and be prepared for whatever they need. That’s my goal here.”
Shelton said he plays on having Cruz back around the team as soon as he can saying that’s important for him.