Detroit Tigers: 3 players to ditch before the end of the season

UTIL Willi Castro

At this point, we know the kind of player Willi Castro is. He strikes out a lot, never walks, whiffs at pretty much everything, doesn’t hit the ball hard, can’t play the infield and can barely play the outfield.

Funny enough, his strikeout rate of 19.3% is actually the lowest of his career. That’s a very solid number. What’s not so funny is his career low 3.6% walk rate. His walk rate for his career to this point was hovering around 5%, so his already poor plate discipline has gotten even worse this season.

His hard hit rate of 28.2% is also a career low. Combine all this with the fact that he’s a well-below average defender no matter where he plays and it’s a wonder why A.J. Hinch continues to put him in the lineup every day.

With the exception of his 2020 season where he had an insanely high .448 BABIP, his slash line has been roughly the same every year. He’s usually got an OPS hovering around .625. That’s not even close to major league caliber. But for whatever reason, Hinch seems to like him.

I’ve always believed there’s a good player somewhere inside Willi Castro. He’s a pretty good athlete and he’s fast on the basepaths. And at just 25 years old, you’d hope that there’s still time for him to figure things out. But if that does happen, it probably won’t be with the Tigers.

It’s time to let Willi Castro go. If they want an outfielder, I’d much rather see Daz Cameron get some more at-bats with the big league club. If they want an infielder, I’d pick Kody Clemens for the same reason. Both of those guys are largely unproven. Willi Castro has proven that he isn’t a major league caliber player. It’s time to end this experiment.