Mets Ink Xorge Carillo, Assign Him to Brooklyn

The Mets have signed catcher Xorge Carillo out of Arizona State and assigned him to the Brooklyn Cyclones. The Cyclones now have four catchers. The others are Nelfi Zapata, Amauris Valdez, and Juan Torres (now in his sixth year with the Mets organization, and he's only 22).

Though a big man — the ASU site lists him at 239 pounds — Carillo's not a power hitter. Over his college career he hit only nine home runs. Over the last three, the most he hit in one season was two.

In four college seasons, starting with 2008, Carillo hit .347, .366, .353, and .330. He played his first two seasons at Central Arizona, a two-year school.

The Mets selection of him in 2011 in the 14th round was the fourth time he was selected in the MLB draft.

In a news article about him, it stated that "Carrillo was limited to 16 games in his first season at ASU because of arm and knee injuries. He was prepared to sign with San Diego a year ago as a 23rd-round draft pick but wasn't fully healed." Carillo said that the injuries and the playing time they caused him to miss "made me a lot more mature." The article also states that his first name is pronounced "hooray."

Carillo was one of two catchers on ASU's team this season who were drafted. Florida drafted the other catcher, Austin Barnes, in the ninth round. In 2011, Carillo started in 30 games; whereas, Barnes started in 41. Neither showed much power: each only had one homer in 2011; however, Carillo had the higher batting average, slugging percentage, and OBP. See this page for their 2011 stats.

What I'd like to know is what caused the noticeable drop in 2011 in Carillo's batting average.