Frame game: Twins hoping Castro aids arms

MINNEAPOLIS — The concept of pitch framing is certainly nothing new, but over the last five years, it’s become a measurable statistic to see how much impact a catcher has on his pitching staff in terms of getting strikes called on pitches inside and outside the zone.

The new Twins front office, led by Derek Falvey and Thad Levine, understands the value of pitch framing, and that is a major reason why the club signed Jason Castro to a three-year deal worth $24.5 million. Castro is coming off a down year offensively, but his defensive metrics stand out, and he should be a boost to a pitching staff that had the second-worst ERA in the Majors last year.

Castro had 96 more strikes called last year than expected, which was the fifth-highest total in the Majors, according to Statcorner.com. It’s a big improvement on last year’s primary catcher Kurt Suzuki, who cost the Twins 38 strikes. So even if the pitching staff mostly remains the same, it should benefit from Castro’s receiving ability.

“The whole idea of signing Jason Castro, a lot of it was measured on the impact of catching on a staff,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. “As we’ve learned more about how to quantify that, it’s probably been a little bit of an undervalued position for guys that handle some of those types of things better than others. We thought that was a big piece in trying to at …

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