I think, much like Schwarber, most of Castellanos’ label of being a bad outfielder comes from his first season as a full-time outfielder in which he was abjectly awful.
In both cases since then they’ve been below average in Castellanos’ case and actually deceptively good in Schwarber’s case. I think if you were to put a very good fielding center fielder between them - someone like Robles or Kiermeier - they’d be a perfectly adequate outfield defense. Unfortunately, the Cubs do not currently have a very good fielding center fielder.
But more to the point, signing Castellanos when you still have Schwarber and Heyward on the roster makes no sense. And trading Schwarber and signing Castellanos makes no sense for a team that’s claiming they want to cut payroll.
A Castellanos signing really only makes sense if the Cubs have a) somehow unloaded Heyward and b) acquired a starting center fielder.
In both cases since then they’ve been below average in Castellanos’ case and actually deceptively good in Schwarber’s case. I think if you were to put a very good fielding center fielder between them - someone like Robles or Kiermeier - they’d be a perfectly adequate outfield defense. Unfortunately, the Cubs do not currently have a very good fielding center fielder.
But more to the point, signing Castellanos when you still have Schwarber and Heyward on the roster makes no sense. And trading Schwarber and signing Castellanos makes no sense for a team that’s claiming they want to cut payroll.
A Castellanos signing really only makes sense if the Cubs have a) somehow unloaded Heyward and b) acquired a starting center fielder.