Diego Castillo embracing role as Pirates shortstop, even if it's temporary

The surprise of spring training, Diego Castillo earned a spot on the Opening Day roster in part because of his bat. Now he’s the Pittsburgh Pirates’ starting shortstop, even if only temporarily, thanks to the consistency of his glove.

Only 47 games into his major-league career, the 24-year-old super-utility player hardly feels like a rookie anymore, at least compared to the number of newcomers who have joined the Pirates. Of the five rookies who started Friday against the Atlanta Braves, Castillo has the most major-league experience.

Even so, he still finds it “amazing” when fellow rookies ask him for advice.

“The good thing for me is that I’ve been here all year, starting from Opening Day, and I’ve been learning a lot from the veteran guys,” Castillo said, rattling off the names of Roberto Perez, Jose Quintana and Kevin Newman.

“I know how they deal with baseball. I know how they do things here in the clubhouse. Every time I see one of my teammates come from the minor leagues, I tell them they don’t like it when you do this or this. One day, we’re all going to be veterans. We’ve got to learn. We’re young. I told them, ‘When you’re here, the next day you’ve got to forget about it.’ That’s the key in the major leagues. Forget about your age. You’ve got to play like you’ve got 10 years in the big leagues.”

That’s the impression Castillo has made on Pirates manager Derek Shelton, who constantly talks about how Castillo is a “baseball player” who has the ability to do whatever he’s asked. Not only has Castillo played his natural middle infield positions, but the 5-foot-11, 185-pounder also has played third base, right field and first base — and even pitched an inning in the 21-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs on April 23.

Castillo never had played first base before “in my whole life” when Pirates bench coach Don Kelly approached him about taking grounders there during an infield practice.

“I used his glove,” Castillo said. “He said, ‘You will need it one day.’ It was that day.”

Shelton said he had “no hesitation at all” with playing Castillo at first base for the first time in the ninth inning of the 2-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 4, after Castillo pinch ran for designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach. Castillo was on the receiving end of the game’s final two outs, reinforcing a point Shelton makes about Castillo: He consistently catches everything that comes his way.

“He reacts to things. He listens. He learns,” Shelton said. “When he makes a mistake, most likely he’s not making it again — just because his baseball IQ is really high. I didn’t have any concern at all with having him there.”

Shelton learned long ago about the importance of making the routine play from a former Pirates manager. The Detroit Tigers were interested in acquiring Jhonny Peralta, who had played in Cleveland when Shelton was the hitting coach there, so Jim Leyland asked what they could expect from Peralta.

“I said, ‘He’ll catch the ball and throw it across every single time,’ ” Shelton recalled. “One thing (Leyland) said to me was, ‘That’s what you want out of your shortstop.’ If your shortstop can catch the routine play … everything else is gold.”

No wonder the Pirates didn’t have any pause about making Castillo the starting shortstop when Rodolfo Castro was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis on June 5 after committing six errors in 21 games. Before committing an error Saturday in a 10-4 loss to the Braves, Castillo had committed one error in 71 chances in 22 games at shortstop, and he made an impressive play in an 8-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 1, fielding a grounder to his left and immediately throwing to third for a forceout.

“The play he made in L.A.,” Shelton said, “was gold.”

The Pirates, however, could use more silver out of Castillo’s bat. After batting .259 in April, he slipped to .210 in May. Castillo is 2 for 22 (.090) over the first eight games of June and is hitting .210 with six doubles, two home runs and 10 RBIs this season.

There is a push for the Pirates to promote shortstop Oneil Cruz, and Newman is eligible to come off the 60-day injured list June 26, so Castillo’s stint as the starting shortstop could be a short one.

That doesn’t faze Castillo, who was acquired last July, along with Hoy Park, from the New York Yankees in the Clay Holmes trade. Coming up through the Yankees farm system taught Castillo how to handle adversity, given the abundance of talent and competition for playing time.

“I think I’m pretty good at dealing with failure,” Castillo said. “This is a game where you’re going to fail a lot. You’ve got to forget about it and go to the next page. Whether you do well or you do bad, you’ve got to go to the next page. This game’s like that. That’s the key in my mind. Every time I do a good play or an error and strike out, next page. Forget about that. … Whatever you do, you’ve got to go to the next page, next inning and keep playing.”