On January 18th, JJ Picollo and the Royals made a surprising move, announcing another non-roster invitee to their Spring Training roster in Surprise.
If Harold Castro sounds like a familiar name to Royals fans, he should.
Castro played five seasons with the Detroit Tigers from 2018 to 2022 before playing one season with the Rockies in 2023. Last year, after not getting any offers from big league clubs, he played with the Tijuana Toros of the Mexican League. However, Castro wants to change his big league future in 2025, hoping to make the MLB roster out of Spring Training with a strong Cactus League performance.
The 31-year-old utility infielder is an intriguing player who offers versatility in the field and a peculiar bat at the plate.
Over 450 games and 1,485 PA at the Major League level with the Tigers and Rockies, Castro has a career batting average of .278. He’s a bit of a free-swinger, though, as he only has a career OBP of .303 and OPS of .669. In addition, he hasn’t provided much pop (only 16 career home runs) or speed on the basepaths (seven career stolen bases).
Hence, when Castro’s average plummeted (as in 2022 and 2023), his hitting value declined, due to his lack of ability to produce in other areas. That explains why Castro only received a Minor League deal from the Royals this winter and didn’t play with an MLB team in 2024.
Conversely, we have seen some development from Castro as a hitter in the past year, both in the Mexican and Venezuelan Winter League.
The power has ticked up, especially in the LVBP (the Venezuelan Winter League’s official name). Suppose Castro can channel that power, along with some of the better qualities he showed in the Majors. In that case, the Royals may have a possible bench player who can provide the kind of utility that Adam Frazier and Garrett Hampson did in 2024 (but with more upside).
Let’s break down what Castro has done over the past year, what he did with the Tigers and Rockies, and what his outlook with the Royals could be in Spring Training and the regular season.
Castro’s Power Surge With Toros and Leones
After posting a .589 OPS in 99 games with the Rockies, Castro was designated for assignment by Colorado and signed a deal with Tijuana for 2024. It was an interesting move by Castro not even to test the waters as a Minor League free agent. Still, the guaranteed money and playing time were likely more intriguing factors to the then-30-year-old utility player.
In 84 games and 363 plate appearances with the Toros, the Venezuelan slashed .320/.366/.447 with a .813. He scored 46 runs, collected 30 RBI, and launched six home runs, tying him for 8th on the squad with 29-year-old Tres Barrera. Castro’s strong hitting performance was a big reason Tijuana went 52-40 in the Mexican League in 2024, good for fourth in the Norte Division.
As a captain for the Toros squad, Castro’s six home runs particularly stood out in 2024. At the Major League level, Castro only hit more than six home runs once. In 2022, his last season in Detroit, he hit seven in 120 games and 443 plate appearances. Thus, Castro hit nearly as many home runs in 2024 with the Toros as in 2022 with the Tigers, but in 80 fewer plate appearances.
Castro hasn’t let up in the power department since moving to his home country of Venezuela for Winter League play. In 48 games and 193 plate appearances with Leones del Caracas, he hit 15 home runs and slashed .332/.394/.627 with a 1.021 OPS.
This isn’t the first time Castro has had a breakout performance in the LVBP.
In 34 games and 148 plate appearances with Caracas last winter, he slashed .315/.372/.492 with an .864 OPS. However, he only hit five home runs, ten fewer than his total this winter. On a positive note, he hit a walk-off home run in the LVBP championship game against Tiburones, which had Royals infielder Maikel Garcia on the squad.
The now 31-year-old utility player has tapped into a new power stroke since leaving the United States, resurrecting what was once a “lost” MLB career.
Based on that potential, it makes sense that the Royals would give him a Minor League contract for Spring Training. Not only are they familiar with him from his Tigers days (he had a career .267 average and .658 OPS against Kansas City), but he could give the Royals a power upside from the utility role that they may not get with Cavan Biggio or Braden Shewmake.
What Castro Last Did in the Majors
Smashing the ball in the Mexican and Venezuelan Winter League is nice, but it should be expected from a six-year MLB veteran. After all, both leagues have favorable hitting environments, and the pitching isn’t quite to the caliber of what Castro faced from 2018 to 2023.
However, that doesn’t mean Castro isn’t without potential and some intriguing skills at the plate.
One area in which Castro excelled was in launching the ball.
Statcast metrics show he has a career Sweet-Spot% of 40.6% at the Major League level. The league average is typically around 33.2%. Thus, Castro has a percentage that is 7.4% better than the average MLB hitter when it comes to launching the ball and finding that Sweet Spot (which tends to correlate with base hits and run production).
Castros’ rolling Sweet-Spot% chart over his career demonstrates that this has been a consistent skill that he’s demonstrated each season in some capacity since 2019.
The Venezuelan utility man was productive in this category in 2021 and 2022 when he was an essential member of the Tigers squad. He did see a dip in Sweet-Spot% initially with the Rockies but ended up bouncing back in the latter half of the season in 2023.
Regarding Process+, decision-making at the plate has always been Castro’s poorest trait as a hitter. He swings at pitches outside of the strike zone far too much, as demonstrated by his career 41.3% chase rate. When he can launch the ball and make consistent contact (like in 2022 with Detroit), he has the characteristics of a productive hitter (at least on a Process+ end).
When he doesn’t do those two things, the results can get ugly, as in 2023 with Colorado.
Here’s how those two seasons’ Process+ charts compare.
The free-swinging approach will always be an Achilles heel for Castro as a professional, especially in the Major Leagues.
That said, if his power increase is legitimate, and if he can get back to his high-contact ways of 2022, the Royals could have a bargain hitter on their hands on their bench who could give players like Garcia, Michael Massey, Jonathan India, and even Hunter Renfroe a spell (thanks to Castro’s switch-hitting ability).
Final Thoughts On Castro
Even though there is much to like about Castro (more than I initially thought), the chips are stacked against Castro to make the Royals squad out of Spring Training.
First, Shewmake has the edge in getting the utility role off the bench because he’s on the 40-man roster already. Biggio also has more of a prospect pedigree, though I think his name is more significant than his performance at the MLB level. Lastly, even though Castro can play multiple positions in the field, he hasn’t shown a prowess defensively at any spot in the field. His career FRV (fielding run value) is 29 runs below average via Savant.
Based on these factors, Castro will likely start the season in Omaha if he decides to stay in the Royals organization (he could opt out and try with another team or go back to Mexico).
However, we see players come out of nowhere to be successful stories later in their careers. Sam Long is a prime example for the Royals in 2024, as he went from fringe reliever to playoff setup man, thanks to adjustments he made with the help of the Royals’ pitching coaches.
Could hitting coach Alec Zumwalt help Castro transition what he did in Mexico and Venezuela to the United States in Cactus League play? Furthermore, could Castro gel with this squad, especially since the Royals have countrymen such as Garcia, Salvador Perez, and Carlos Hernandez on the team (as of now)?
There’s a lot to be hopeful about with Castro, and his swing can look quite pretty, especially when he gets into a ball like this home run off Ben Lively (then of the Reds) back in 2023.
The odds are long against Castro this spring when he reports to Surprise in less than a month.
However, Royals fans shouldn’t be shocked if Castro mashes in the Cactus League and makes his case for an Opening Day roster spot.
Photo Credit: Ashley Landis | AP
Interesting prospects on Castro. He has a .303 OBP, but now he spanks the ball with more power. Im going to guess here. At age 30-31, he may have lost a touch of quickness in his swing causing his downturn. At the lower level leagues, he may have sorted out a solution that may, or not, include better conditioning, a more selective approach to maximize contact… There are a number of possibilities. Also. If itvis now a more dangerous bat it may give pitchers pause to chsllenge him. If they try to coax him to swing at balls outside the zone. It is possible that it can get his OBP to .310. That we can use.
It is intriguing because if Maikel can hit .280 with .310+ OBP then we can platoon these two and use the one on the bench as a late inning defender. Im just saying, if the position were to net .285 with .325 OBP and 22-28 home runs, it would be a cuasi-middle of the order bat.
It will near watching.
[…] thought Castro would be utilized for Triple-A depth when he signed a Minor League deal this offseason. After all, he hadn’t played in the Majors […]