The Twins Have Found Their New Willi Castro With Austin Martin
Austin Martin is making a name for himself as the go-to utility player in Minnesota.
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During the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Willi Castro was one of the most valuable players on the Minnesota Twins. In 2025, he would be traded at the deadline to the Chicago Cubs, and his departure left a rather uniquely sized hole on the Twins roster to fill.
While the Twins have certainly had their struggles of late, they seem to have replaced Castro quite seamlessly with Austin Martin.
I say that the hole left by Castro was unique for a variety of reasons. In 2024, Castro played in 158 games for the Twins. In those games, he logged at least 100 innings at second base, shortstop, third base, left field, and center field. He was a true utility player, providing average- to slightly-below-average defense at five different positions.
Castro’s utility led him to being one of the Twins most valuable players. Over the 2023-24 seasons, Castro was the Twins’ second-most valuable player by fWAR with 5.4. He only trailed Carlos Correa.
His departure ultimately left a large pair of shoes to fill. However, the Twins already had his replacement in house. Martin is perfectly equipped to fill the Willi Castro role moving forward.
Stats were taken prior to play on May 4.
The Value of Austin Martin
The former fifth-overall pick and top prospect seemed to have lost a lot of his pedigree following his move to Minnesota.
Martin peaked at No. 22 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 in 2021 with Toronto. By 2023, he had fallen off the list entirely. By the time he made his debut in 2024, there were serious doubt as to whether he had what it takes to stick in the majors.
Over the last three seasons, Martin has only improved in his marginal playing time in the majors. A -0.2 fWAR in 93 games in 2024 turned into a 1.0 fWAR in 50 games in 2025. He now looks like he has taken another step forward in 2026.
Unique Profile at the Plate
I am a big fan of what Martin does at the plate. It all starts with what he did last season in 181 plate appearances.
Among the 370 players with at least 180 plate appearances in 2025, Martin was 39th in walk rate, 42nd in batting average, and 17th in on-base percentage. It became clear the type of profile that you were going to get at the plate with Martin.
Despite being in the bottom of the league in bat speed and exit velocity, he was still going to find a way to be productive.
He has only improved upon that trend this season. Martin is not quite qualified this season, but here are some of his ranks among those with at least 80 plate appearances: He ranks 14th in wRC+, third in wlak rate, and first in OBP. He isn’t chasing, he isn’t whiffing, and he is making as much contact in the strike zone as anyone.
Martin is even finding a way to slug a little bit. Of his 24 hits, five of them have gone for extra bases. The lack of hard contact might catch up with him, but he is still going to walk and maintain his plate discipline.
One stat that I am sure a lot of you old heads and traditionalist will like is that Martin is currently seeing 4.4 pitches per at bat this season. For context, last season Juan Soto saw 4.1 pitches per at bat.
While this is a very different profile than Willi Castro, Martin is filling Castro’s role of a scrappy hitter in the lineup. Castro found ways to outperform a lot of his expected stats, and Martin is doing the same thing.
In a lineup full of players prone to very hot and cold streaks, Martin profiles as a hitter that should stay steady without super-high highs but also avoiding the lowest of lows.
Utility
As stated earlier, the most valuable thing that Willi Castro provided the Twins was his utility. Is Austin Martin currently doing that? No, but can he? Yes, he can.
Let it be known that there were a number of factors at play in 2024 that resulted in the Twins playing Castro all over the diamond.
First was the fact that the Twins’ center fielder and shortstop were both prone to injury. Castro was also a switch-hitter, allowing him to play every day, platooning with the Twins’ outfielders.
Martin has neither going for him right now. Despite that, he has very similar positional versatility to that of Castro.
Martin was drafted as a shortstop out of Vanderbilt. He played the majority of his innings in the minors at that position, despite not playing there since 2022. He also played his fair share of second base, left field, and center field as a prospect.
Martin has spelled Byron Buxton in center field a handful of times the last couple of seasons. He has also seen some time at second, but he is yet to play shortstop in the majors.
The one thing that Martin does have over Castro is he plays strong defense at a specific position. Castro is average at best when playing any of the positions listed. Martin, however, has turned into a strong defensive left fielder.
At the position over the last two seasons, he has logged 371 innings with +7 defensive runs saved and +3 outs above average.
In 2023, Willi Castro came out of nowhere and turned into one of the biggest impact players the Twins would have over the next two seasons. Martin has been flying under the radar for the last year, but that should no longer be the case.
Do not be surprised if two years from now we are talking about him as one of the most important players the Twins have had the last couple of years.
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Growing up in Baltimore and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Harrison has been around baseball his whole life. He attended Northern State University as well as Oklahoma State University…