Astros place Jason Castro on IL, recall Garrett Stubbs

The Astros have placed catcher Jason Castro on the injured list with a knee injury, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. Fellow catcher Garrett Stubbs has been recalled to take his place.

Signed to a two-year, $7M deal in the offseason, Castro has been serving as the club’s backup catcher, behind Martin Maldonado. In 55 games and 152 plate appearances, Castro has a line of .190/.320/.333, numbers that aren’t too far from his career line of .228/.313/.387. He’s long been known as a defense-first catcher, with the limited offensive output being part of the deal. However, as he’s aged and accrued more injuries, his defensive contributions have started to sag.

As for Stubbs, he’s been pushing the third string catcher experience to the max, having been optioned six times already this season, but only getting into nine big-league games with 25 plate appearances. In 34 Triple-A games this year, the 28-year-old has a solid line of .280/.415/.383, for a wRC+ of 110.