Willi Castro’s Future on the Twins Is Up in the Air

Utility players in baseball have become so much more popular over the years, with Ben Zobrist becoming the face of the term for well over a decade. A utilityman is best defined as a player who is capable of competently playing multiple positions around the diamond, typically in both the infield and the outfield.

Nowadays, every team needs to have at least one of them on their 26-man roster. A modern day bench usually consists of a backup catcher, backup infielder, backup outfielder and a “free spot”. Having a player who can singlehandedly fill a handful of roles is the perfect way to utilize said free spot.

The Minnesota Twins happen to roster one of the very best at this art in Willi Castro. The switch-hitter began his career as a middle infielder on the Detroit Tigers before really finding his stride on the Twins. Over the past two seasons, both on the Twins, Castro has been an above-average hitter and turned into a super-utility player if there ever was one.

In fact, just this past year Castro became the only player in MLB history to make at least 25 appearances at five or more positions in a single season. In 2024, he logged 25+ games at second base (40), third base (27), shortstop (56), left field (34), and center field (30). Just for good measure, he pitched two scoreless innings out of the bullpen, too.

Willi Castro: Utilityman Extraordinaire

Castro, 27, is such a fascinating player because he’s flexible enough to be the Twins’ jack-of-all-trades that they so desperately need. This past season, he finished in the 73rd percentile in Outs Above Average and 83rd in Arm Strength. On the surface, this makes him a solid fit at virtually any position on the diamond, even shortstop and center field, which are widely considered to be the most difficult outside of catcher.

Castro posted 3 OAA at shortstop, 1 at third base and broke even at left field and second base in 2024. In center, he had -3 OAA, which is less than ideal, but he’s got the tools to at least competently play the position when it’s needed. Utility players don’t have to be an everyday starter at one single position, which is part of what makes them so valuable. Castro is a perfectly adequate occasional starter in center, but he’s not quite able to play there on a nightly basis. And that’s fine.

On offense, he’s hit 21 home runs while posting a .729 OPS and 103 OPS+ since joining the Twins prior to the 2023 campaign. Castro is by no means a candidate to bring home a Silver Slugger, but he’s a flexible player who has considerable value on both sides of the ball. Heck, he’s also 47-for-61 in stolen base attempts over the past two years.

Payroll Concerns Lead to Uncertain Future

The Twins are having themselves a weird offseason, mostly because they’re fresh off of a winning season but are simultaneously looking to trade away their top players in order to shed salary. Oddly enough, they’re not the only team in the AL Central doing so as last year’s division champs, the Cleveland Guardians, are in a similar boat.

As of right now, the only new player projected to be on their 2025 Opening Day roster is Eiberson Castellano, a Rule 5 selection from the Phillies. The Twins have yet to sign or trade for a single player that will break camp with them in the upcoming season.

Carlos Correa and Pablo Lopez have been the popular names thrown around the rumor mill, but don’t you dare sleep on Castro, who just made the first All-Star Game of his career and won the 2024 Twins’ Team MVP Award in the process.

He’s proven time and time again that he’s valuable in more ways than one. However, the clock may just be ticking on his time in Minnesota. The 2025 season is going to be his walk year, as he’s set to hit the open market. The pressure is on for him to perform, but he’s shown that he can handle everyday at-bats at multiple positions, so it’s just going to be about him doing what he’s used to doing already.

Trade Chip or Extension Candidate?

MLB Trade Rumors projected Castro would earn $6.2 million in arbitration this offseason. On Thursday, it was announced that the two sides came to an agreement on a $6.4 million salary for the upcoming season.

To most teams, this is a small amount to pay, especially for what they’re getting from him. To the Twins, who wouldn’t stop penny-pinching if their lives depended on it, this likely makes Castro much more of a trade chip than an extension candidate.

All signs are trending towards Castro being moved at some point in the not-so-distant future. The Twins aren’t in a position to sign him to a long-term contract as they’re actively looking to decrease payroll.

What makes this a particularly curious situation for the Twins is that his versatility should, in theory, help with their desire to cut payroll. Moving other position players becomes a bit easier to swallow when you know you have a player like Castro as a fallback option. At virtually every position on the diamond, he’s either the top or second-best backup, so there’s not many players whose production he couldn’t seamlessly replace (outside of Correa, of course).

All things considered, there are far worse fallback options out there.

An interesting comparison would be putting Castro alongside Tommy Edman, who just recently earned a five-year, $74 million contract extension from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Of course, Edman has been a better player than Castro has for a longer period of time, so the latter isn’t quite going to get the same amount of money in free agency than the former did.

However, the two aren’t all that different. They both play the same positions (Edman is the better CF, Castro is the better SS), they’re both switch-hitters and they both have equal pop and speed.

Why Willi Castro Is Good as Gone

At the end of the day, the Twins are going to trade Castro. Making this move all the more easy on them is the fact that they already have his replacement on hand in Brooks Lee.

Lee, 23, was the club’s first-round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft and made his big league debut this past season. He’s a switch-hitter who can bounce around the infield, but he’s got a better eye and has more pop than Castro does. Sure, he doesn’t play the outfield (yet) like Castro, but he’s younger, cheaper and has some more shine on him thanks to the whole first-round pick thing.

Michael Helman and Austin Martin are both projected to make the Twins’ Opening Day roster, but neither are likely to have the same output as Castro has over the past few years. In the end, it feels like the Twins are mishandling their roster and are heading towards another fourth-place finish.

The club has done next to nothing to upgrade their roster, instead choosing to sit on their hands and watch each of their free agents sign elsewhere while bringing aboard no new faces of their own.

Minnesota deserves a tip of the cap for turning Castro’s career trajectory around after his first few uneventful years on the Tigers. He’s become one of the more prominent and well-known utility players in the league, but it seems that he’s playing for a contract elsewhere much more than he is for a contract extension to stay with the Twins long-term.