During last year's regular-season finale at Target Field, a longtime Twins catcher bid an emotional farewell to his team and its fans.
Jason Castro has no such plans for Sunday.
Castro's three-year contract runs out once the Twins' season does, but the fact that the expiration date is probably more than a week away has distracted him from his pending free agency. "Honestly, I haven't thought about it at all," the 32-year-old said. "We've still got some big games ahead of us."
True, but he will likely play a smaller role in them than he might have imagined when he signed that three-year, $24.5 million deal in November 2016. Castro played a huge role in the Twins' wild-card season of 2017 but missed five months last year after undergoing knee surgery. He's had a reasonably good bounceback season this summer but has gradually transitioned to a backup role behind Mitch Garver, who has enjoyed a breakout season.
Castro has started 27 games since the All-Star break, including Saturday; Garver has been behind the plate 40 times. The veteran will finish the season with around 72 starts; last season excepted, it's the first time since 2013 that he won't be in the lineup more than 100 times.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Castro's production at the plate has tailed off over the past three months, too.
"Any time you have a lot of time off in between [games], you've got to try to figure out how that works. Early on, that wasn't an issue. Usually coming out of spring training, you're kind of used to getting lots of time off, and then you ramp it up. So I've had to adjust the way I go about my work," Castro said. "It's been kind of a learning experience."
A bumpy one. Castro was one of the pleasant surprises of the first couple of months, and on May 15 he was batting .250 with seven home runs and a 1.025 OPS. But he has hit .193 since the break, with just two home runs and 40 strikeouts in 100 plate appearances.