Why Keep Starlin Castro?

Starlin Castro has been an easy target for criticism over the span of his five seasons in the majors. From his errant throws in the field to the baserunning blunders, Castro has started off his career with plenty to go on the blooper reel. But accompanying those miscues were plenty of stats to keep a numbers junky like me pleased. So today I am going to play part agent, part fan and explain why the shortstop should stay on the North Side for many years to come.

Since the day number 13 got called up to the bigs, he has done nothing but hit. At age 25, Castro has already played five years in the league accumulating 846 hits in that time. At the pace that he is on, barring any major injuries (knock on wood) he should get to 3,000 hits by the time he is only 36 years old. That is an incredible feat, and even though though a lot has to go right in order for that to happen it is still amazing mentioning a player and 3,000 hits in the same sentence. All this draws natural comparisons to The Captain, Derek Jeter. A shortstop that got the call at a young age by a major organization, Catro and Jeter have the same type of approach at the plate, a gap to gap hitter (Starlin obviously not going the other way nearly as much) that could also turn on a pitch if needed. Obviously Castro is going to need to be very durable and have a long career in order to truly draw better comparisons, but through his age 24 season Castro has recorded 258 more hits than what Jeter had. It is a very small sample size but at such a young age the three time All-Star seems to be on his way to a special career.

Now to his competition. From the day he was drafted in 2011, fans though Javier Baez was chasing after Starlin Castro’s job and the day would come that he would push out the incumbent from shortstop with a trade imminent. Well Baez got the callup, but at second base, not short. Castro seemed to have won the job for the time being. Now the big competition seems to be Addison Russell. Sure, Russell is the number 3 prospect in the minors according to Baseball America, but I think Castro is up to the challenge and as long as he keeps performing, the position is his to lose.

My suggestion in an ideal situation:

Starlin Castro continues his reign as one of the best shortstops in the National League playing up the middle with Addison Russell. Javier Baez makes a smooth transition to the hot corner where the Cubbies are able to keep three natural shortstops in the infield (a great problem to have for any team). The move to third from Baez sends Kris Bryant to the outfield where his skills fit nicely.

-GH