In a game that is focused on things like launch angle, exit velocity and being a three true outcome hitter Harold Castro of the Detroit Tigers is an offensive anomaly. When you think about these types of hitters who comes to mind? For me, Adam Dunn, Joey Gallo, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani all come to mind; and if you want to look at former Tigers Alex Avila, Carlos Pena, and Eugenio Suarez fit the bill as well.
Harold Castro is a player who manages a solid batting average and BABIP, however, lacks any sort of power and walks at an alarmingly low rate.
*Stats pulled from FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference
Compare these statistics to the league averages over the course of his career.
*Stats pulled from FanGraphs
As you can see, Castro puts up extremely positive batting averages as well as BABIP, however, his OBP and SLG are consistently well below that of league average also driving his OPS down significantly as well.
When you look further into his stats Castro is a singles machine. In his career he has a total of 212 career hits, of which, only 40 are extra base hits (27 2B, 5 3B, 8 HR) good for an XBH% of only 18.9%, meaning, he singles 81.1% of the time. Below you will find some comparisons to his fellow teammates Jeimer Candelario, Robbie Grossman, Akil Baddoo and Niko Goodrum. I’ve included Goodrum in these statistics because I have a strong suspicion that Harold Castro will be taking the bench/utility role that Goodrum had held for this team over the past couple of seasons.
*Stats calculated from totals on Baseball-Reference
Castro seems to utilize soft contact and keeping the ball on the ground (48.3 GB%) to find holes to maintain these above average batting averages. He has sprayed the ball all over the field throughout his career: 27.8% pull, 43.2% straight and 29% oppo, per Baseball Savant.
There also seems to be little to no focus on launch angle or from Castro either. To date, he has a total of 572 career batted balls, he’s barreled only 19 of those (3.3%) with an average exit velocity of 87.9 MPH, below is a closer look in comparison to his teammates from the 2021 season.
*Advanced metrics pulled from Baseball Savant
Launch angel reference:
Less than 10° = ground balls
10-25° = line drives
25-50° = fly balls
50°+ = pop ups
Even though he lacks similar numbers in 3 of the 4 metrics, Castro still managed to have a HardHit% similar to his teammates adding to his anomalistic mystique. Even more so, his career K% sits at relatively average 22.2%, however, his walk rate is horrifying low at 3.6%; even free swinging Javy Baez walks at a higher clip (4.7%).
When looking deeper into some splits, Castro slashes .339/.372/.468 with 0 outs in an inning, .266/.277/.324 with 1 out in an inning, and .271/.298/.336 with 2 outs in an inning; showing that his effectiveness at the plate is drastically different – hardly walking and little to know extra base power when outs have been recorded prior to his at-bat. Weirdly, he slashes .329/.345/.378 with 2-outs RISP; does he thrive on high stress situations with 2 outs?
H. Castro hits a walk-off single 5/15/2021
Lastly, despite a career wRC+ of 84 and OPS+ of 87 (league average is 100) and a -14.3 offensive rating, per FanGraphs, Harold Castro has still managed a positive career WAR of 0.9.
To bring things full circle and relate Castro’s numbers back to the three true outcome mentality take a look at where he ranks amongst the players I mentioned at the beginning of this post.
*Stats pulled from FanGraphs
**Formula used (HR+BB+K)/PA = TTO%
It’s safe to say that Castro is an offensive anomaly, however, you cannot say that he doesn’t provide something positive for a team off the bench. In 2021 Castro played 7 of the 9 positions on the field, RF and C being the 2 he did not, exhibiting his extreme versatility as a player. While some of the positions grade out negative, positive, and even neutral Castro seems to be the type of guy AJ Hinch may like on his bench.