I love when the minor league free agents are signed one by one so they can be granted all the attention they deserve. Today's failure is Fabio Castro, a 25 year old southpaw who will receive an invitation to spring training. I liked doing this with Brandon McCarthy earlier, so again, here's Castro's career to date in a nutshell. Tell me how good you think he is.
Post-2001: signed by White Sox as international free agent
Post-2005: selected by Royals in Rule 5 Draft
Post-2005: traded to Rangers for Esteban German
Mid-2006: traded to Phillies for Daniel Haigwood
Mid-2008: traded to Blue Jays for then-40 year old Matt Stairs
Post-2010: signed by Mariners as minor league free agent
Castro's always been young, and he's always been just interesting enough to catch the eye of multiple organizations, but his career highlight is either getting traded as a PTBNL for a guy old enough to coach, or having the name of a handsome totalitarian. Things haven't gone quite as he planned.
In Castro's defense, he isn't a pile of crap. Listed at 5'Figgins, he's neither big enough to constitute a pile, nor lousy enough to be considered crappy and worthless. The lefty is able to reach the very low 90s with his fastball, and he complements his heat with a usable curve and change. He's started 62 games in the minors over the past three seasons and has an accordingly broad repertoire. His problem is strikes. Whether as a starter or a reliever, he doesn't throw strikes. That's been what's held him back, and that's what'll continue to hold him back until he works something out. You'd think it'd be easy to address the mechanics of a little person, but it turns out they have just as many moving parts as the rest of us, and some of them you can't even see.
Castro doesn't have Justin Miller's chance of breaking camp, I think, because Miller has done more, and he's done it more recently. But as a lefty with youth and stuff on his side, there's always the chance that he puts something together, be it in March or Tacoma, and these fliers are basically risk-free. "Why the hell not," that's what I always say. Literally, that's what I always say. Our podcasts are just the worst.