Willi Castro As The Minnesota Twins 1st Base Fill-In???

[Matthew Lenz]

Fresh off the heels of the somewhat surprising news that the Twins are looking for a veteran back up shortstop, Dan Hayes drops this little nugget in response to a fan's question.

Willi Castro the first basemen? Whaaaaaat? If you're wondering, Castro has seven positions throughout his career. He's never played catcher and he's never played first base in his professional career. As in he has 0.0 (or 0 0/3 if you prefer that format) innings at first.

In the last few days, the Twins have addressed their two biggest needs. A left-handed reliever and a corner outfield who can handle left-handed pitching. Lower in the priority list has been a first basemen to back up Miranda, but I'm not sure anyone would have guessed that Castro would be a viable option. In fact, Castro grades out as a negative defender at nearly every position he plays aside from third base. I don't know about you but I'm not thrilled that the contingency plan behind Miranda looks to be Castro (or Julien) as of right now. Maybe the need for a back up first basemen is bigger than we initially thought.

What do you make of this news?

View full rumor

[Cory Engelhardt]

I have a hard time seeing Castro being a primary 1B. 

[Doctor Gast]

I don't like the idea of Julien being our backup 1Bman. But Castro at 1B is a waste of talent that can be better put to use at other positions. I & others have suggested giving Lewis a shot at 1B. It makes more sense to me but you better let him know well before spring training.

[Parfigliano]

The FO seem on a mission to assure that Willi start 130+ games this year.

[Jocko87]

11 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

The FO seem on a mission to assure that Willi start 130+ games this year.

Getting paid as a 6 million dollar man requires it.  Ref Vazquez, Paddock, Bader, Gallo et Al. 

[stringer bell]

The defensive numbers are not great for Willi, but I believe if he isn't overused and sticks to 2B, LF and 3B, his defensive stats will be better. Castro is definitely stretched at shortstop and center field, but in '23 when he played a large majority of his time at third and left, he was very good. 

[dxpavelka]

I can think of at least a dozen guys (some internal, some external) I'd rather see at 1B than Castro.  Or Miranda. Or Julien.

[ddubbl1]

what about Mike Ford? former 1st baseman of Yankees. We signed him to camp and maybe he works out for us. 16 bombs in 2023. 32 years old with more experience. I want Castro as daily 2b and Lee as backup. Miranda can be backup fir 1st base. Julienn we can trade away or send back to St Paul after he cost us over 5 games from his fielding errors and 47 strike 3s he stood and watched go by last year. 

[C_frommn]

When you consider the owners. anything is possible, any one can see we need legitimate first base help. but they have sat on there hands and done nothing except get rid of players that could make a difference.

[stringer bell]

IF Miranda can sustain what he did for pretty long stretches, having him at first would be fine. I’m also okay with Castro getting near-regular at-bats. Not comfortable slotting Lee as a backup. I hope he wins a job and thrives. 

[Parfigliano]

4 hours ago, ddubbl1 said:

what about Mike Ford? former 1st baseman of Yankees. We signed him to camp and maybe he works out for us. 16 bombs in 2023. 32 years old with more experience. I want Castro as daily 2b and Lee as backup. Miranda can be backup fir 1st base. Julienn we can trade away or send back to St Paul after he cost us over 5 games from his fielding errors and 47 strike 3s he stood and watched go by last year. 

I trust you will apologize to Edouard Julien when he thrives this year.

[thelanges5]

Please, please trade for Diaz or Mountcastle. Are we really going to F-around and find out what it looks like to not have a real 1B?

[JBK]

It seems as though the Twins aren't truly concerned about 1B.  They will plug in everybody to play according to what Rocco's tablet tells him to do that day.  I recommend they put Jeffers at 1B since he doesn't "frame" well enough.  Bottom line is the Twins will not spend while they are for sale.  

[NotAboutWinning]

1B is easy. You just shift your aging slugger there. Oh wait, first you need a slugger... Never mind 🫤

[BillyBallLives]

"First base is easy?"

Tell that to the guy who just turned a routine grounder into a three-base error.

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, BillyBallLives said:

"First base is easy?"

Tell that to the guy who just turned a routine grounder into a three-base error.

How many errors of any kind were first-basemen charged with last season?  222.

How many home runs did first-basemen hit last season? 670.

One of these is of more importance than the other (not every error leads to a run, while every home run does), and is also more frequent.  Of course a slick-fielding first baseman is valuable, but if he doesn't hit home runs at a pace which keeps up with his peers, he's dragging his team down, one plate appearance at a time.

Elephant-rabbit stew, and we keep wanting to talk about the rabbit.

 

[RpR]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

How many errors of any kind were first-basemen charged with last season?  222.

How many home runs did first-basemen hit last season? 670.

One of these is of more importance than the other (not every error leads to a run, while every home run does), and is also more frequent.  Of course a slick-fielding first baseman is valuable, but if he doesn't hit home runs at a pace which keeps up with his peers, he's dragging his team down, one plate appearance at a time.

Santana had 594 chances to hit a home run, but had 1251 chanes to possibly screw up (He only did 4 times.)

Your numbers do not work..

[ashbury]

26 minutes ago, RpR said:

Santana had 594 chances to hit a home run, but had 1251 chanes to possibly screw up (He only did 4 times.)

Your numbers do not work..

Fielding percentages are far higher than batting averages.  Rare is the Dick Stuart (Dr. Strangeglove) type who screws up enough to lose his first base job if he's hitting homers, and of course now there's the DH to bail such a player out.  Yours is a much poorer comparison.

[Shaitan]

On 2/6/2025 at 2:42 PM, Jocko87 said:

Getting paid as a 6 million dollar man requires it.  Ref Vazquez, Paddock, Bader, Gallo et Al. 

I will pay to watch Paddock play 130 games at 1B this year.

[stringer bell]

8 hours ago, ashbury said:

Fielding percentages are far higher than batting averages.  Rare is the Dick Stuart (Dr. Strangeglove) type who screws up enough to lose his first base job if he's hitting homers, and of course now there's the DH to bail such a player out.  Yours is a much poorer comparison.

Santana won a Gold Glove not because he was only charged with four errors. He won by converting tough plays into outs while handling the routine ones as well. I remember a slugging outfielder (Juan Gonzalez?) was asked how he would make up for a couple misplays in the outfield and he said "swing the bat". I think he was correct.

I'd like to see a defense like the Twins had in the early 2000s, with plus defenders everywhere, but I'm okay with competence at the three lower spectrum positions and average is acceptable at second and third if they hit well enough. 

Up until the All-Star break, the Twins graded out in the middle of the pack in Defensive Runs Saved. It was only with the losses of Correa and Buxton and higher use of inferior defenders that the overall rating slipped. The Twins defense lost two good defensive players, so it will be a challenge to get to middle-of-the-pack, but good health would be a great start for improvement in run prevention by the defense.

[ashbury]

24 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Santana won a Gold Glove not because he was only charged with four errors. He won by converting tough plays into outs while handling the routine ones as well.

I started out replying to someone referring to 3-base errors, so I discussed on the terms presented.    It's not really how I judge defense, but was fine for conversation's sake.  Still, for one of the two players on the Twins who managed to put in a full season's worth of plate appearances, Santana's counting stats on offense don't really stand out versus the league.  His glove is what made him arguably a slightly above-average player in 2024, and I give him credit for it, but it takes multiple bad plays to amount to an actual run scored in most cases, while an HR is guaranteed to score 1 and might knock in 1 or 2 or 3 others.  It's virtually impossible for any player who isn't up-the-middle to prevent enough runs to make up for so-so offense.