Twins Select Willi Castro

The Twins announced their Opening Day roster this evening. Among the group was infielder Willi Castro, indicating Minnesota has selected his contract. Minnesota had a vacancy on the 40-man roster after losing Dennis Santana on waivers a couple weeks ago, so no additional move was necessary.

Castro, 26 next month, heads into what’ll be his fifth consecutive year logging some MLB time. He’d previously spent his entire career with the Tigers, hitting .245/.292/.381 over 303 games for Minnesota’s division foes. That included a .241/.284/.367 line over 392 plate appearances last season. The switch-hitter kept his strikeouts to a decent 20.9% clip but only connected on eight home runs while walking 3.8% of the time.

While Castro’s overall offensive production has been tepid, he’s been solid against left-handed pitching in his career. He owns a .275/.302/.409 slash in 306 plate appearances as a right-handed batter. By comparison, he carries a .233/.288/.370 line against northpaws, striking out significantly more often from the left side of the dish.

Detroit non-tendered him at the end of last season. Castro caught on with Minnesota on a minor league pact and picked up ten hits (including a trio of homers) in 40 at-bats this spring. A 19:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio isn’t ideal but the overall production was solid.

Castro is a versatile defensive option, albeit a player who has never really excelled at any one position. He’s logged a decent amount of playing time at both middle infield positions and the corner outfield spots, with sporadic work in center field and at third base. Public defensive grades haven’t been fond of his work anywhere, with particularly glaring reviews of his shortstop defense. That he’s able to play virtually anywhere nevertheless earns him a spot on the Minnesota bench as the Twins deal with a few injuries headed into the year.

Jorge Polanco is starting the year on the 10-day injured list as he works back from right knee issues that ended his ’22 campaign early. First baseman Alex Kirilloff is also opening the season on the IL, while top prospect Royce Lewis continues to rehab from last year’s ACL tear. Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com tweeted this evening that Lewis is taking at-bats and could soon progress to running the bases. It’s a promising development but he’ll obviously still open the year on the injured list.

Nick Gordon is in the lineup as Minnesota’s Opening Day second baseman. He’ll presumably hold that role until Polanco returns, with Castro, Donovan Solano and Kyle Farmer on hand as depth infielders. Castro still has a minor league option year remaining, so the Twins could send him down to Triple-A St. Paul without having to run him through waivers now that he’s back on a 40-man roster.