Two seasons ago I came across a player that stood out from everyone else on the field, he played with a raw passion for the game like id never seen, and being only 19 at the time, it gave me confidence that I would see his name again on bigger rosters. Now his name sits on the list with 39 other guys, and though he still has a lot to smooth out, Willi Castro has come a long way since our interview in 2015.
He was signed by the Indians in 2013 as an undrafted free agent with an added signing bonus of $825,000, and was sent to play rookie ball in Arizona. It was two seasons before Castro got promoted to single A with the Scrappers. His offense was aggressive as was his base running and stealing abilities, while his defense was shaky but what caught my attention right away.
The thing about Castro’s defensive is that he’s always on his toes, ready to jump at anything. His instincts and ability to read a situation through the batter stems from a lifetime of studying and perfecting his craft. This was more than likely inherited from his father who was also a shortstop in the minor leagues after being drafted by the Detroit Tigers. He urged him to become a switch hitter, he instilled in Willi the combination of light-footedness and precision to be a good shortstop, and made sure his son knew through the good days or the bad games you always have to hustle. This is what’s behind the passion and attitude that he plays with and why it caught my eye so quickly.
In 2016, Castro started the season off with another promotion this time to full-A with the Lake County Captains. He did well, hit above a .250 in double the games played the year before. He built upon his push for extra bases, stole into the double digits for a second year and increase his OPS from a .633 to a .657. His errors still shown like a beacon of things that needed work, but he worked his way into his first All Star invite, along with teammates Tyler Krieger, Francisco Mejia and Thomas Pannone. Castro went 1 for 2 with an RBI for the winning MID East All-Stars. All of this propelled him forward for another promotion, to high-A in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Castro played just three games with the Hillcats in 2016, wrapping up his first full season.
He continued the progressive trend into his best season to date in 2017, playing the entire year with the Hellcats and claiming his second All-Star honor. He finished the year not quite at the top of the pack (3rd in RBI [58], 3rd in SB [19], 4th in BA [.290] and 38 XBH), but put together a season good enough to exceed expectations, slashing a .290/.337/.424 through 469 at bats.
The switch hitting short stop has work through his four seasons of minor league ball, putting him on the block as a minor league free agent this off season, making him eligible for the rule 5 draft in December. To protect Castro from being picked up by other teams, the Indians added him to their 40-man roster, along with SS Yu-Cheng Chang, INF Eric Stamets, RHP Julian Merryweather and newly claimed INF Rob Refsynder.
Just because Castro has been added to the 40-man roster doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to be up in Cleveland anytime soon. With Chang ahead of him, who will probably be in triple-A in 2018, I would expect Castro to be in Akron for the upcoming season. As far as when he will make it up to Cleveland, aside from Chang being ahead of him, is another big roadblock for Castro, a name we all know, Mr. Smile Francisco Lindor, so it could be a while before we see him in Progressive Field.
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