Pittsburgh Pirates: Four Trade Targets Based On Winning Percentage Added

Willi Castro - WPA: +1.73

The Minnesota Twins are looking to cut some payroll. While many have them moving Jorge Polanco or Max Kepler to do so, Willi Castro may also get some calls. Castro is a super-utility man who can play pretty much anywhere he needs to. He is also coming off a decent season with the bat.

The switch-hitter mostly played a part-time role, coming to the plate 409 times in 124 games played. However, he posted a respectable .257/.339/.411 slash line, .327 wOBA, and 109 wRC+. Castro struck out at a 24.2% rate, with an 8.3% walk rate. He also had a .157 isolated slugging percentage.

Most of his time was spent in the Twins’ outfield, where he had zero defensive runs saved and -2 outs above average. However, he has over 700 career innings logged at both second base and shortstop and also played 219 frames at the hot corner this year. While Castro isn’t elite at anything, he does a lot of things at an average level. He is a jack of all trades, master of none.

The only thing you could argue he does at a well above-average level is run the bases. He went 33-38 in stolen base attempts and was worth +6.4 base running runs. Castro was in the 82nd percentile of sprint speed as well.

Castro clocked in with a +1.73 WPA, which ranked in the top 50 among players with 200+ plate appearances. For a part-time utility man, that’s definitely good, if not impressive. A lot of that stems from his .999 OPS in high-leverage situations in 2023. He also batted over .300 with a .905 OPS in late and close games.

The only thing is Castro may be hard to pry from the Twins. Both Kepler and Polanco could get moved because they have one year of control remaining. Castro, on the other hand, has two more years left on his contract, both via arbitration. But if there’s any chance the Twins would listen to a deal involving Castro, the Pirates should at least consider it.