BOSTON -- We're nearing the one-year anniversary of the Red Sox winning the Rusney Castillo sweepstakes.
A few weeks ago, that isn't something Dave Dombrowski would have been celebrating.
Now? He'll cut the cake.
At this time last year, Dombrowski was president and general manager of the Tigers. He was very interested in signing Castillo, though not as someone who would help the Tigers in 2014 (don't forget, they were already a very good team last year and Dombrowski didn't feel Castillo was ready for that jump). But Dombrowski saw Castillo as Detroit's starting center fielder in 2015. Not based on Castillo's workouts for major-league teams, but on what he'd accomplished previously in tournaments around the world.
"[We] were looking at him as a center fielder," Dombrowski said last year. "He can play center field, he can run, he has some power. But just the workouts, well, we would never have made the offer that we made. We had to have some background information on him or else we would not have even come close to the type of stuff we offered him."
The Tigers made their offer, but were told they weren't a finalist. Castillo ended up signing a seven-year, $72.5 million deal with the Red Sox, instead.
Today, Dombrowski is director of Baseball Operations for the Sox. He's said he's going to use the rest of the season to evaluate everybody. But we already know he's already done plenty of evaluating on Castillo, and liked him enough to make him a substantial offer.
Boston Red Sox
Castillo has hit .291 (52-for-179) with 6 home runs and 25 RBI over 55 major-league games since signing with Boston. He played 10 games with the Red Sox in 2014 and spent much of 2015 with the Triple-A PawSox before being recalled after Shane Victorino was traded to the Angels on July 27.
Since rejoining the team he's hit .333 with 3 home runs, 13 RBI, and 2 steals. He's reached base in each of his last 11 games.
"We knew that it was going to take a little bit of time for him, but that timeframe is upon us and each and every day we're watching him go out there and improve," interim manager Torey Lovullo said before Thursday's game. "We're talking about swing plane, the path to the ball is more direct, the balance is there offensively. Defensively he's starting to get some of our concepts and understand what it takes to be a successful player on both sides of the baseball. And on top of that, he's starting to learn about our baserunning techniques and our thoughts.
"[It] takes time. We can't fast-forward that. But it's upon us now and we're watching that pay dividends."
If Dombrowski still feels Castillo has the capability to be a starting major-league outfielder -- and there's no reason to think otherwise at this point -- there's a chance somebody else in the outfield is heading out of Boston this winter.
In speaking with reporters after his introductory press conference, it didn't sound like Dombrowski is committed to prolonging the Hanley Ramirez outfield experiment past this season. That said, he's big into star talent . . . and Ramirez has that capability, even though it's been a bit of a down year for him.
There won't be many suitors lining up to trade for a DH making over $20 million a season,. But if Dombrowski packages Ramirez (and pays some of his contract) with a top prospect in the farm system, he could net something of real value in return.
But he's not the only potential tradee among current Red Sox outfielders.
Jackie Bradley Jr. "wowed" Dombrowski on his first night at Fenway on Wednesday, and has really improved at the plate over the last couple weeks. If Bradley keeps it up through the remainder of the season, he could become a highly-coveted outfielder and a nice sell-high candidate.
Mookie Betts is another outfielder with nothing but upside, and has already shown he belongs in the major leagues.
Both Betts and Bradley are young and under team control, and that makes them even more enticing to teams.
Of course, the Sox can always go the free-agency route to acquire an ace . . . such as Johnny Cueto, who starts tonight for the Royals against the Sox.
But if an ace becomes available via trade this offseason, Dombrowski's faith in Castillo could make it a lot easier for him to part with another big piece of the outfield pie.