The Mets traded for Miguel Castro before the 2020 Trade Deady. Some thought that giving up Mets prospect Kevin Smith, was to steep. Mainly, because the Mets lacked upper level starting pitching depth. I was a huge fan of this trade and saw the upside Castro has. A potential dominant reliever for the back end of the pen.

Miguel Castro has the stuff, but hasn’t been that good at the Major League level. Castro owns a 4.29 ERA and 1.43 WHIP over 283 career innings. However in 2020, we saw a great increasement of strikeouts in his game.

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Castro’s best pitches are his high 90’s sinker and his slider. His slider provides a high spin rate of 2933 RPM in 2020 and 3029 RPM in 2019. His whiff percentage on his slider was a strong 48.3%. The expected slash line against his slider is ridiculous (.149/.179/.197). That’s crazy and shows that’s a pitch hitters have a lot of issues with. Hopefully he can use it more and more, because his fastball gets hit pretty hard.

One concern in 2020, was that his exit velo went up 3.9mph. His average exit velo in 2020 was high at 91 MPH. However, in 2019 and 2018 he was just above 87 MPH which is solid. If he can combine his 2020 whiff %, K% and barrel % (see below) to his 2019 exit velo and hard hit numbers, he will be a terrific dominant arm.

As you can also see, his expected numbers (XERA, xwOBA, XBA, XSLG) are all above league average. If he is able to put it all together, WATCH OUT!

Also read: Mets Trade Target: Ramon Laureano

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