The Arizona Diamondbacks have declined salary arbitration with catcher Welington Castillo. The 29-year-old has since elected free agency and the Atlanta Braves are reportedly among the teams interested in his services.

The Braves have made no secret about their desire to add a catcher. Currently, the team is slated to enter 2017 with a combination of Tyler Flowers, Anthony Recker, and Tuffy Gosewisch behind the plate. Flowers, the presumptive starter, has just one year remaining on the two-year deal he signed with the club last offseason and doesn’t appear to be in the team’s long-term plans. Meanwhile, Recker and Gosewisch are both 33-year-olds who have never topped 200 plate appearances at the major league level. Additionally, despite their impressive farm system, Atlanta does not have any well-regarded catching prospects in the upper-levels of the minors.

Given their less than desirable catching situation, the Braves have been linked to a number of available backstops this offseason – most notably Brian McCann, Jason Castro, and Matt Wieters. McCann (traded to the Houston Astros) and Castro (signed with the Minnesota Twins) are no longer on the market. Wieters is still a free agent but many expect him to receive a contract out of Atlanta’s comfort zone.

Now, it seems the best all-around option may have just become available over night. On Friday, a new name was added to the free agent pool – Welington Castillo.

Castillo still had one year of team control remaining but will enter the open market early after the Diamondbacks opted not to tender him an arbitration contract. Though he was set to receive a substantial raise ($3.7 million salary in 2016 vs. a projected $5.9 million in 2017), the Dominican-born backstop still seemed like a solid value for Arizona.

At age 29, Castillo is more or less a finished a product. He isn’t among the league’s elites at the position but has shown good pop for a catcher and grades as a strong defender. Though rating systems have disagreed on his pitch framing, he controls the run game fairly well. In 2016, his seven defensive runs saved (DRS) ranked fifth at the position (third among qualified catchers).

Castro’s deal (three years/$24.5 million) will probably be the benchmark for Castillo. While that’s pricier than Atlanta’s current options, it isn’t unreasonable for a good defensive catcher with a roughly league average bat. Wieters will almost certainly obtain a larger guarantee than that despite similar production over the past three to four seasons.

In the days since he became a free agent, Castillo has already received interest from the Braves, the Baltimore Orioles, and the Tampa Bay Rays. He was an unexpected addition to this weak free agent class and teams have taken notice. His time on the market could be brief and could very well conclude with a three-year deal in Atlanta. Expect him to be a popular name at the Winter Meetings.

Scott Ferris covers the Braves as a Staff Writer for Outside Pitch MLB. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottHFerris.

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