Meet The New Guys: Anthony Castro

On December 7th the Blue Jays added some young pitching depth to their 40 man roster by acquiring the right handed Anthony Castro off waivers from the Detroit Tigers. Castro will be headed into his age 26 season in 2021 with the Blue Jays, and will likely only be used as a bullpen/depth option as the team attempts to take a leap towards contention.

Castro was somewhat of a surprise player to be found on the waiver wire, as he is only 25 years old, and was a rated prospect for Detroit. Now a Blue Jay, Castro ranks 19th in the organization, as he has yet to surpass his rookie eligibility. In the minor leagues Castro had last appeared in AA, his highest minor league level to date. In 2020 he made the Tigers 60 player pool, and made his debut. In his first major league season he would only get into one game where he pitched one inning out of the bullpen. He finished the year with an 18.00 ERA.

As a minor leaguer Castro found a high rate of success at rookie ball, single A, and high A. Since joining the AA team however, Castro has struggled to accumulate any kind of success. Across parts of two seasons at AA, Castro pitched to a 4.73 ERA in 112.1 innings pitched, a significantly higher number than his 2.93 ERA in 116.2 innings at high A. Without any minor league stats to compare to in 2020, it remains to be seen how much improvement he has made since his poor 2019 campaign.

According to his MLB.com scouting reports, Castro is most well known for his fastball-slider combination, a common combination for the Blue Jays staff who worked with Nate Pearson and Ken Giles the past few seasons. Perhaps a fresh start can find that success of old with Castro.

As for Castro’s future with Toronto, there is a lot of uncertainty. Scouting reports project him to be a future reliever, but he has statistically been a much better pitcher out of the rotation. Toronto is seeking rotation help, but a young, inexperienced, and unproven arm likely isn’t a favourable option. It still remains undetermined how he will fit with the team, but it appears most likely that he will find himself back in the minors next season, as he still has two minor league options remaining. He might not have a clear fit on the team, but when a team has a chance to add a rated prospect at age 25 with minor league options remaining for free, they really have no choice but to go with the extremely low risk project.