You Could've Missed Willi Castro's All-Star Appearance in a Blink, But He's Not Done Shining

[Matthew Trueblood]

In MLB's Midsummer Classic, managers and broadcasts face all kinds of difficulty in trying to give notice to each All-Star and their career-defining achievement. Sometimes, things slip through the cracks.

Image courtesy of © Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

It's not really the fault of American League manager Bruce Bochy, or of the commentators or production team at FOX Sports, that Willi Castro passed only briefly across the screens of watching fans Tuesday night, without a meaningful mention of his presence or his story. Late in the MLB All-Star Game, there's a scramble to get everyone who was selected for the first (or perhaps last) time onto the field to fully enjoy and celebrate their moment, and the teams covering the game have to make quick choices about which players to profile and highlight in specific at-bats.

If we're being honest with ourselves, Castro was a fringe All-Star. Without diminishing what he's done, we can acknowledge that he was added to what is already a 30-man roster only as an injury replacement, and that that was fair; he wasn't snubbed in the initial voting or anything. Castro is not as bright a star as almost every other player who took the field Tuesday night, even though he's been one of the best players on the field for most of the Twins' season. He was the victim of simple math. Someone's screen time was going to get squeezed.

Twins fans needn't be disappointed about the lack of a shining moment for the team Tuesday night, though, because soon enough, Castro will be back to filling up the screen and the box score in games that count. As fun and flashy as he often is, this season hasn't been about his style. It's been about his substance, and he'll get to showcase that again starting Saturday. For the moment, though, let's fill the adulation gap left by FOX.

Prior to 2023, Castro had a career .245/.292/.381 batting line, with rangy but erratic defense at various positions. That was the track record that prompted a new Detroit Tigers front office to move on from him at the non-tender deadline in November 2022, and while it now looks a bit silly, it was a perfectly defensible choice at that time. The Twins, after all, only signed Castro to a minor-league deal before last season.

His 2023 was fun, chaotic, and encouraging. He was a pleasant surprise for a team perennially fighting injury issues, plugging in at multiple spots and hitting .257/.339/.411, with 33 stolen bases. That's a good campaign, and it's a meaningful step forward. It's why Castro's position with the team was never really in doubt after midseason, and why he came to camp this spring with a clear path to at least similar playing time. It was good, but it was also normal. Players Castro's age improve the way he did from 2022 to 2023 all the time. They also, frequently, regress in the wake of those step-up seasons, especially when their increased production is fueled by a .328 BABIP and includes a strikeout rate on the high side of average.

That's why what Castro has done this season, while superficially similar to last year, is not normal, and why we need to be sure we properly appreciate it. At .265/.352/.422, his production doesn't look wildly altered from last year, but you have to widen the lens to see the full scope of what he's done. Castro already has 386 plate appearances this year, which is just 23 fewer than all of last season. He's not being deployed strategically or selectively; he's the guy who facilitates strategic, selective usage of other players throughout the roster.

That's not purely out of necessity, either. Castro has made material changes that made it possible (even preferable) for Rocco Baldelli to trust him with full-time playing time. From 2021-23, the switch-hitter averaged just under 130 plate appearances as a righty batter, facing left-handed pitchers, and his OPS was just over .660. In none of those campaigns did that number crack .700. This season, he's taken such huge strides that Baldelli has already entrusted him with 92 plate appearances against lefties. In them, he's hitting .333/.370/.540. His power has exploded.

Here's a swing Castro put on a good pitch to hit against a lefty last summer.

Unfortunately, that's what Castro has looked like against lefties for much of his career. You can see that the hands work, and that this is still a tooled-up player, but the whole operation looked rushed, uneasy, and unintimidating.

Here's Castro taking a hack at a similar offering this year.

You don't see changes much bigger than that, especially from a switch-hitter on his less-used side. Brooks Lee has garnered headlines for his work to be more formidable as a righty over the winter. Castro hasn't gotten quite the same credit, but he should. This is a more hitterish setup, with the almost impatient front foot and the aggressiveness of the load. Most importantly, though, his contact point has moved. He's embraced the Twins' organizational prerogative to pull the ball in the air and hit it hard, even from his weaker side of the plate. You can see him working the barrel out in front of him more than in the past, and the result is a ferocity on contact that was absent until this season.

That change comes with some drawbacks, and anyway, lefties only make up about 25% of Castro's opposing batters. This is far from the only adaptation he's made this year. From the left side, he's become more patient, with a chase rate under 30% on pitches outside the zone. He's never been below 34.7% before. Thus, without any major mechanical changes on that side, he's also hitting it harder (and hitting it hard more often) from his historically stronger position. We covered the fact that he was showing power upside far beyond his previous career levels way back in spring training, and the regular season has borne that out starkly. His average exit velocity is up a whopping 2.7 miles per hour this year. His Barrel rate is way up. His weighted sweet-spot exit velocity is way up. 

Is Castro quite as successful on the bases as he was last year? No. Has he become a superstar? No. Still, what he's done this year isn't just a welcome development; it's genuinely remarkable. The Twins would be adrift without him. He provides versatility, value in multiple facets, and an energy that has been the missing ingredient every time the team has struggled over the last few years.

They'll have to find ways to keep him fresh and healthy down the stretch. Late in 2022, he suffered a hamstring strain, and he missed time with an oblique strain last summer. There are, shockingly, few players the team could less afford to lose than Castro. That very fact, though, is a testament to the wonderful season he's having, and even if Tuesday didn't find him in a national spotlight, we can spend a bit of the remaining interstitial time before the season resumes giving him much-deserved praise for an extraordinary first half.

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[Whitey333]

The Twins get very few props from the national media or even the baseball world as well.  They very seldom are taken very seriously.  It's unfortunate in that the team is doing fairly well.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

"interstitial time" ?  I had to look that one up. Great use of a new word which I have just added to my vocabulary. Thanks Mathew.  Also, this was a wonderful article. I hope Willi reads it. 

[Dman]

He really makes it easy for Rocco to mix and match players throughout the game since he can play so many positions well.  I have really enjoyed watching the bat develop as well.  He has the tools and if he keeps working hard he will be back in another All Star game.

[LambchoP]

Super utility guys are becoming more and more important in the game, especially ones like Castro who can not just play multiple positions, but play them WELL. Glad he got an all-star nod, he's earned it:)

[DJL44]

Since you mentioned the All-Star Game production team at FOX sports...

Why all the athlete interviews during the game? There were multiple batters who nobody saw because they cut away from the ACTUAL GAME for stupid interviews with athletes. I have a feeling FOX would rather skip the game entirely and show 3 hours of interviews with the players. Listening to an athlete spout cliches is so much better than watching an athlete do athletic things, right? Maybe the Twins can have Christian Vazquez host a lecture series this weekend instead of playing the games.

It isn't just FOX who has this problem; NBC insisted on interviewing track stars at the Olympic trials immediately after their event ended which led to interviews like this:

Interviewer: "How does it feel to win the race?"

Athlete: "It feels <huff, puff, wheeze> good to win <huff, puff, wheeze> I worked <huff, puff, wheeze> really hard"

Interviewer: "Are you going to try to win again at the Olympics?"

Athlete: "Yes, I'm <huff, puff, wheeze> going to give <huff, puff, wheeze> it my best shot <huff, puff, wheeze> and hopefully <huff, puff, wheeze> things will work out. <vomits on the grass>" 

[Doctor Gast]

I'm very happy that Castro got the well-deserved experience of being an All-Star. IMO they should have a super-utility selection in the ASG, much like they have in Silver Slugger & GG. IMO Castro would unbiasedly win but AS selection is 100% biased. I credit Castro as being the anchor after all the holes that had to be filled due to many injuries at one time. He filled them admirably & kept us from going too far adrift, making it much more difficult to get back on course.

[Parfigliano]

TC would definitely have fewer wins if they didnt have Willi's versatility.

[Parfigliano]

27 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Since you mentioned the All-Star Game production team at FOX sports...

Why all the athlete interviews during the game? There were multiple batters who nobody saw because they cut away from the ACTUAL GAME for stupid interviews with athletes. I have a feeling FOX would rather skip the game entirely and show 3 hours of interviews with the players. Listening to an athlete spout cliches is so much better than watching an athlete do athletic things, right? Maybe the Twins can have Christian Vazquez host a lecture series this weekend instead of playing the games.

It isn't just FOX who has this problem; NBC insisted on interviewing track stars at the Olympic trials immediately after their event ended which led to interviews like this:

Interviewer: "How does it feel to win the race?"

Athlete: "It feels <huff, puff, wheeze> good to win <huff, puff, wheeze> I worked <huff, puff, wheeze> really hard"

Interviewer: "Are you going to try to win again at the Olympics?"

Athlete: "Yes, I'm <huff, puff, wheeze> going to give <huff, puff, wheeze> it my best shot <huff, puff, wheeze> and hopefully <huff, puff, wheeze> things will work out. <vomits on the grass>" 

Nice Vasquez dig

[Brandon]

The national media likes to highlight a specific player.  so when a player stands out offensively you see the adulation of the media.  When Mauer and Morneau were hitting they would talk about them. not like Jeter but still.  The current Twins offense is build on a team effort with the team third in the American League in runs while having their best RBI guy with 47 (24th in the AL) compared with Judges 83.  on HRs the Twins are 4th in the league with their best HR hitter at 14 (25th in the AL) compared with Judges 32.  You can insert over 20 players in place of Judge before you get to our top ranked hitter.

[IaBeanCounter]

It seems that there are fewer pure DH players (i.e. Nelson Cruz).  Perhaps the final voted position could be changed to DH/Utility player.   

[Shaitan]

I read this whole article and I still don't know what happened with Castro at the ASG. Did he play? What position? When?

[Blyleven2011]

If they knew in advance he wasn't going to make  an appearance in the game ...

Willie should have participated  in the homerun derby ...

Just kidding  !!!

Also wasn't arraez selected to the Allstar game , I did not see his name in the box score ...

I missed lot  being on the road ...

[AceWrigley]

Ok, for those who missed it, Willi pinch-hit for DH David Fry with 2 outs in the 8th inning and grounded out 3B-1B.