Opinions on Starlin Castro range from an in his prime building block, to a possible stopgap, to a fringe regular. Given his highs and lows, that's not surprising. His previous hitting suggest reasons for both hope and pessimism. However, 2016 is in the books and Castro can't improve on it. Why do many fans comment that Castro was good? In the NY Daily News "Keep him or dump him" poll (obviously completely non-scientific) 92% of fans selected "keep him". Strange since Castro was not good in 2016, and even his offensive was below average compared to the other AL second baseman.
Here are the 15 players who mostly manned second base in the AL. (note the poorer players on the list played closer to a half season)
Player |
Ave |
OBP |
SLG |
HR |
Runs |
RBI |
RC+ |
SB |
BsR |
Jose Altuve |
0.338 |
0.396 |
0.531 |
24 |
108 |
96 |
150 |
30 |
0.2 |
Robinson Cano |
0.298 |
0.350 |
0.533 |
39 |
107 |
103 |
138 |
0 |
-1.8 |
Brian Dozier |
0.268 |
0.340 |
0.546 |
42 |
104 |
99 |
132 |
18 |
5.5 |
Ian Kinsler |
0.288 |
0.348 |
0.484 |
28 |
117 |
83 |
123 |
14 |
3.6 |
Dustin Pedroia |
0.318 |
0.376 |
0.449 |
15 |
105 |
74 |
120 |
7 |
-4.5 |
Jason Kipnis |
0.275 |
0.343 |
0.469 |
23 |
91 |
82 |
117 |
15 |
1.1 |
Logan Forsythe |
0.264 |
0.333 |
0.444 |
20 |
76 |
52 |
113 |
6 |
0.3 |
Devon Travis |
0.300 |
0.332 |
0.454 |
11 |
54 |
50 |
109 |
4 |
2.5 |
Rougned Odor |
0.271 |
0.296 |
0.502 |
33 |
89 |
88 |
106 |
14 |
4.1 |
Jonathan Schoop |
0.267 |
0.298 |
0.454 |
25 |
82 |
82 |
97 |
1 |
-0.5 |
Starlin Castro |
0.270 |
0.300 |
0.433 |
21 |
63 |
70 |
94 |
4 |
-1.6 |
Brett Lawrie |
0.248 |
0.310 |
0.413 |
12 |
35 |
36 |
92 |
7 |
3.3 |
Whit Merrifield |
0.283 |
0.323 |
0.392 |
2 |
44 |
29 |
89 |
8 |
3.7 |
Johnny Giavotella |
0.260 |
0.287 |
0.376 |
6 |
44 |
31 |
80 |
4 |
-2.1 |
Jed Lowrie |
0.263 |
0.314 |
0.322 |
2 |
30 |
27 |
77 |
0 |
-4.2 |
In Castro's best categories, he was average. He finished 9th in average, .001 behind the 8th place so I'll grant that he averagely hit for average. Most people cite Castro's home runs as why he was good in 2916. But his 21 home runs was only 8th among his fellow second base man. Unfortunately Castro was very poor at not making outs, or as we commonly read it on the baseball card, OBP. His OBP was 12th, beating out only Schoop, Odor and Giavotella. In other news, the Angels traded for a replacement for Giavotella. In slugging percentage, he finished 11th. Playing everyday doesn't mean playing well everyday.
So yes, Castro didn't kill the team like Stephen Drew did or Lowrie and Giavotella did out west. But let's stop pretending that his 2016 play was satisfactory. It wasn't. The Cubs are thrilled to not be paying his salary. Cashman should be seeing if a team is willing to deal some pitching or prospects for Castro's "potential" and previous All-Star appearances.