Atlanta Braves Daniel Castro Struggling In Winter League
By Jeff Schafer
Atlanta Braves shortstop/second baseman/third baseman Daniel Castro found his way into 33 games with the Braves in 2015 with 12 starts. Most of these games/starts came towards the end of the season in September.
Castro worked his way into the lineup with a hot bat in August and through the middle of September. He left August with a .300/.323/.333 slash line. Then into September 15th, he was hitting .304/.328/.393. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez got more comfortable slotting Castro into the lineup as September wore on.
With more AB’s and games the average slide a bit. He finished the season with a .240/.263/.344 slash line. He stole playing time from a struggling Jace Peterson down the stretch and that had some talking about the future.
The 23-year-old looks to be a solid utility man in the major leagues – like a Martin Prado or Omar Infante from years past in Atlanta.
The Braves sent Castro to the Mexicana del Pacifico Winter League to get extra at-bats and additional playing time. Though Castro isn’t playing like we all hoped he would.
Castro has played in 17 games for the Yaquis de Obregon and is currently hitting .141 in his 64 at-bats. The Winter League season started on October 10th and goes until December 29th. Castro still has time to turn his Winter League stats around, but as of now it’s not looking great.
Baseball Reference currently has his 2016 projections with a .258/.310/.410 slash line with 10 doubles, seven homers and two stolen bases. They think he’ll get about 250 at-bats in 2016 which would be 150 more than he got in 2015. What I think BR is suggesting would be for Castro to be a bench player and filling in when needed.
Prior to this Winter League, I would have said a good winter and a great Spring Training for Castro could have him into the Braves starting lineup. He may be playing himself out of this opportunity.
Castro will get invited to the 2016 Spring Training in hopes to get a bench spot. If he doesn’t improve in the Mexican del Pacifico and in Spring Training, he could find himself back with the Gwinnett Braves.