Twins' Willians Astudillo: On doorstep of majors

Astudillo is impressing the Twins' organization at Triple-A Rochester and is on the doorstep of the majors after Jason Castro went down for the year with a torn meniscus, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.

Astudillo has one of the most fascinating profiles of any player in affiliated baseball. Over nine minor-league seasons, the round-bodied catcher has a remarkable 3.1 percent strikeout rate. Getting the bat on the ball is more or less all he can do, though, as he's combined a .309 batting average with a 3.4 percent walk rate and a .092 ISO. That's a solid offensive profile for a catcher, but the problem is that Astudillo is a catcher in name only, having earned poor reviews defensively throughout his career. The Twins have had him catch almost exclusively in the minors this season and he's now just one injury away from finally getting a chance to see if his profile plays at the major-league level.