Pirates A to Z: Power surge prompted Diego Castillo's addition to 40-man roster

During the offseason, the Tribune-Review will offer Pirates A to Z: An alphabetical player-by-player look at the 40-man roster, with the final week focusing on players added after the season ended.

Player: Diego Castillo

Position: Second base, shortstop, third base

Throws: Right

Bats: Right

Age: 24

Height: 5-foot-11

Weight: 185 pounds

2021 MLB statistics: Castillo batted .278/.355/.487 with 24 doubles, 19 home runs and 55 RBIs in 86 games in Double-A and 18 in Triple-A.

Contract: Not yet eligible for arbitration.

Acquired: In a trade with the New York Yankees, along with Hoy Park, in exchange for Clay Holmes in July.

This past season: When the Pirates dealt Holmes before the trade deadline, they acquired a pair of infielders who were once double-play partners in Castillo and Park.

Where Park moved up to Triple-A and ranked among the East League hitting leaders, Castillo took a big step forward at Double-A Somerset last season after toiling for two years at High-A Tampa.

The Pirates took a risk in trading for Castillo, a Venezuelan who signed with the Yankees for $750,000 in 2014. With seven years of minor league service — he was credited for a season during the pandemic in 2020 — Castillo was eligible for free agency in October.

Before the trade, Castillo displayed power that he hadn’t flashed before. He was batting .277 with an .850 OPS, 18 doubles, 11 home runs and 32 RBIs in 58 games. That was the same number of doubles and one fewer RBI than he had in 114 games in 2019, and three more homers than he’d had in his previous five minor league seasons.

The first Altoona home run for Diego Castillo puts us on the board! We trail 8-2 entering the ninth.

LISTEN: https://t.co/aioWvW3Svf pic.twitter.com/GKyszOud1F

— Altoona Curve (@AltoonaCurve) July 31, 2021

At Double-A Altoona, Castillo continued to rake. He batted .282/.342/.445 with three doubles, five homers and six RBIs in 28 games before being promoted to Triple-A Indianapolis in September. Castillo then batted .278 with a .914 OPS, three doubles, three homers and seven RBIs in 18 games at Indy.

The Pirates prevented Castillo from becoming a free agent by adding him to their 40-man roster on Nov. 7. To make room, they designated right-hander Jose Soriano for assignment. The top pick in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft, Soriano underwent Tommy John revision surgery last summer. He was returned to the Los Angeles Angels for $50,000.

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington cited Castillo’s “terrific year offensively,” along with his defensive versatility as attractive features.

“He’s a guy that can play all the infield spots,” Cherington said. “Makes a ton of contact. Started to get into more power this year. Another kid that’s just a grinder and works hard and loves baseball.

“We felt he was a guy we wanted to keep and he’s part of that young 40-man infield group that we’ll learn more about in spring training and the coming year.”

A leap and a snag from Diego Castillo! The play saves a run and sends us to the bottom of the fifth. We lead 3-0!

LISTEN: https://t.co/aioWvW3Svf pic.twitter.com/LkgzjoLgsD

— Altoona Curve (@AltoonaCurve) August 19, 2021

The future: Castillo will go into spring training as one of a number of candidates to compete for the starting job at second base, although he’s probably the biggest longshot — and might be better suited for shortstop.

Rodolfo Castro, Michael Chavis, Tucupita Marcano, Park and Cole Tucker all have major league experience, so Castillo is likely to ticketed to start the season at Indianapolis. Like Castro, Chavis and Park, he can play second base, third base or shortstop.

“There are a lot of candidates, and I think there is time to figure that out,” Cherington said. “It’s probably an area in the infield where we’re less likely to add externally, at least in terms of rostered players. We think we’ve got a number of guys who all have the potential to be good major league players and help us, but, similar to the pitching, a lot of them have not proven themselves fully at the major league level. We want to give guys opportunities to do that. That will be fun, I think, to watch that play out in spring training and during the season.”