Welington Castillo a late scratch from Orioles lineup due to knee sprain

When the Orioles announced their starting lineup for Thursday’s series finale, Welington Castillo was in the lineup as the catcher. Just minutes before the game began, he was scratched and replaced with Caleb Joseph.

During the game, the Orioles gave the reason for the late scratch: Castillo has a sprained left knee. When this was revealed on the MASN broadcast, Gary Thorne’s reaction said it all, “That’s not good.”

Castillo has already been on the disabled list twice this season. A sprained knee sounds like the kind of thing that would put him back on the DL for a third time with a third different injury.

That’s not guaranteed, but it just doesn’t sound good, and it’s harder to keep a catcher off the DL because there’s no backup while one of them is nursing an injury. Prepare for more of the Caleb Joseph-Francisco Pena tandem. We’ll find out how serious it is after the game is over.

After the game, manager Buck Showalter said on MASN that Castillo suffered the sprained knee when he slipped on a step coming into the clubhouse before batting practice. It sounded like they’re going to do some further checking on Castillo’s status and be prepared for the possibility of a roster move for Friday. Showalter said he hopes it’s not DL-able, but that’s still to be determined.