Travis Wood, Welington Castillo drawing inquiries from teams

When the Chicago Cubs acquired Miguel Montero in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks earlier this offseason, rumors began to swirl that Welington Castillo could be on his way out of town. Then, the team signed Jon Lester‘s former batterymate in Boston, David Ross, and Castillo’s departure seemed like a sure thing.

However, here we are in the first week of February and the team still has a trio of proven big league backstops on the 40-man roster – including the aforementioned Castillo. According to David Kaplan of CSN Chicago, the team is receiving calls on both Castillo and left-hander Travis Wood.

Castillo is one of the weaker catchers in terms of his work behind the plate, but has showed all the tools to be a legitimate threat at the dish. Last season, he set several career-highs, hitting 13 home runs and driving in 46 runs in 110 games, adding 19 doubles, as well.

Meanwhile, Ross has been Lester’s personal catcher over the last couple of seasons with the Red Sox, and the pair has seen incredible results. Montero was picked up for practically nothing on the Cubs’ behalf – giving the team an entirely new group of catchers heading into 2015.

Several teams have been tied to the Cubs backstop this offseason, but lately the rumors have slowed to a crawl, with scarce mention of Castillo in recent weeks. According to Kaplan, the Philadelphia Phillies are among those interested, which hardly comes as a surprise given the team’s primary catcher, Carlos Ruiz, is heading into his age 36 season.

As for Wood, it stands to reason that he would be incredibly valuable to any number of clubs – both in the American and National Leagues given he is just one year removed from an All-Star selection. That season, he posted a 3.11 earned run average, notching nine wins in the process.

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Last year, however, he took a step backward by most measures, making 31 starts in which he struggled to a 5.03 ERA. Control issues plagued the southpaw all season long and he failed to maintain any level of consistency during the campaign. However, several other measures, indicate that he wasn’t quite as bad as his earned run average indicated – including his 4.38 FIP, which showed he was notably better than his other numbers showed.

Wood and Castillo represent a pair of the less-mentioned trade chips in the hands of Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer, but, if packaged, the duo could net a nice return heading into camp.

Next: Cubs claim former Boston left-hander Britton