A rare case where fandom was right, and Mike Hazen was not.
Overview
- Rating: 2.77
- 2024 stats: 11 G, 13.2 IP, 5.93 ERA, 5.73 FIP, 1.683 WHIP, -0.1 bWAR
- Date of birth: December 24, 1994 (age 29 season)
- 2024 earnings: $5 million
- 2025 status: Free agent
2024 review
The seeds for this were sown in August 2023. Castro signed as a free agent in December 2022 on a deal with a vesting option for 2024. That was triggered when Castro reached 60 games, which happened in a 3-2 win over the Reds at Chase Field. As a result, Miguel earned a salary of $5 million for this season, and there were a lot of Diamondback fans who wondered why we allowed this to happen. For the truth was, Castro had been not very good in 2023. At the time the option kicked in, he had an ERA over five. He did pitch better down the stretch, not allowing a run in his final 14 regular season appearances, but struggled in the post-season, including a walk-off homer to his first batter in Game 1 of the World Series.
That left a bad taste, and he was therefore not exactly a fan favorite, coming in #34 in our end of season rankings, with a score of 4.51. I heard quite a lot of grumbling that paying $5 million for a pitcher who had basically been only league average in 2022 and 2023, was excessive, and the money could have been better spent elsewhere. However, Makakilo took his usual optimistic view, concluding before the post-season, “Castro was an excellent addition to the bullpen.” He was certainly a workhorse: his 75 appearances led the National League in 2023, and he made eight more in the playoffs. I can see the argument that the team needed someone like this, who could pitch in close to half the team’s games.
However, it turned out that the playoffs were a harbinger of bad things to come for Castro. He pitched on Opening Day, working the seventh inning of the 16-1 blowout win against Colorado, retiring the Rockies’ hitters in order with one strikeout. It might have been his best outing of the season: it was certainly the only appearance in which Miguel did not allow at least one hit. Though April 16th is another candidate: in a Wrigley Field slugfest, Castro came in just after Kyle Nelson allowed a grand-slam, giving the Cubs an 11-8 lead, and stabilized things with 2.1 scoreless innings. That allowed the offense to come back for a dramatic 12-11 win in extras.
Unfortunately, Castro would begin to experience shoulder discomfort shortly after. He made only one more appearance before being hitting the Injured List on April 23rd, as the problem grew worse. Manager Torey Lovullo said, somewhat cryptically: “We’ve been trying to get that information from him, give him some treatment. I’ve been staying away from him for that reason, it just hasn’t been responding in a favorable way so we decided that putting him on the IL would be the best thing for him and this team.” It would be more than two months before Castro would take the mound again, and a further three weeks on rehab assignments in the majors until he rejoined the D-backs on July 13th.
Instead of providing a boost to the bullpen for the second half, Miguel’s stay with the team proved short-lived. After three more appearances, allowing four runs on eight hits over five innings, he was designated for assignment to make room for the trade deadline arrival of Dylan Floro. This may have been related to a dramatic drop-off in velocity. In 2023, his sinker averaged 96.8 mph. This year, the average was 94.6 mph, and it was lower still when he came off the Injured List. In his final outing against the Nationals on July 29th, the sinker was all the way down to 92.7 mph. It may also explain the lack of interest in a 29-year-old with a career ERA+ of 104, and why the team simply cut Castro after he cleared waivers.
He wouldn’t be the first reliever to simply burn up through overuse. The classic example is Oscar Villarreal. In 2003, he appeared in a team record 86 games as a 21-year old rookie, with a sparkling 2.57 ERA. Injury limited him to eighteen IP the following year, and Oscar pitched his final game in the majors in 2008, at the grand old age of 26 (though Villarreal continued to pitch in Mexico until 2017). He and Byung-Hyun Kim (84 in 2001), are the only pitchers on the D-backs to play more often in a season than Castro’s 83 total appearances in 2023. But there’s little doubt that Miguel failed to produce anything like $5 million worth of production this year. In hindsight, that option should have remained unvested.
2025 outlook
It was a dramatic collapse for Castro, who went from pitching in the World Series to being unemployed and unwanted in nine months. The sudden nature of his departure, definitely makes me wonder if there were still health issues – Lovullo’s comments above perhaps make more sense in that light. However, he has ten years and 419 games worth of experience, before his thirtieth birthday, and that’s likely going to count for something. I can see some team giving Castro a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training, as a low-cost gamble. Whether he can still produce at a high enough level to contribute to a major-league roster seems less certain.