Orioles place Welington Castillo on the disabled list

The Orioles will be shuffling catchers for at least a little while. Welington Castillo has hit the disabled list about an hour before Tuesday night’s game against the Red Sox, which could mean that Caleb Joseph will be getting plenty more chances to add to his now-overflowing RBI total.

Castillo missed Monday’s game with what the Orioles at the time called a neck spasm. The announcement that Castillo would be placed on the disabled list classified the injury as right shoulder tendinitis. Not being any kind of doctor, I’m not so sure how one of those seems like the other, but we’ll roll with it.

The move is retroactive to 5/1, which will come into play if Castillo happens to be eligible to come off the disabled list after the minimum ten days. That never really seems to happen with Orioles injuries or probably anyone’s injuries.

To replace Castillo on the roster, the Orioles selected the contract of Francisco Pena from Triple-A Norfolk. That requires a 40-man roster move to be made as well, and so the excellently-named pitcher Damien Magnifico heads to the great DFA in the sky. Magnifico had not been pitching magnificently for the Tides, coughing up seven earned runs in 6.1 innings to date.

Pena is not yet in Boston due to the late-breaking nature of this injury development. Manager Buck Showalter joked with Orioles reporters pre-game that the team was “a foul tip away from Ryan Flaherty making his debut behind the plate.” Stay safe, Caleb.

At Norfolk, Pena has played in ten games, batting .290/.333/.419 over that span.