{"id":728532,"date":"2026-06-17T19:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T19:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/728532\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T19:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T19:03:14","slug":"is-this-guy-the-next-willi-castro-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/728532\/","title":{"rendered":"Is This Guy the Next Willi Castro? – Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSometimes, our experiences become our prison wardens, rather than our teachers. Every player we don\u2019t like is \u201cjust another Miguel San\u00f3<\/a>.\u201d When Derek Shelton<\/a> manages the bullpen well, he \u201creminds me of Tom Kelly<\/a>.\u201d When the bullpen blows up, Shelton \u201chas too much Rocco Baldelli<\/a> in him.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOne such trope is figuring out who The Next Willi Castro<\/a> is. If you don\u2019t believe me when I say people are hung up on the idea of finding the Next Willi Castro, a couple of quick Twitter searches showed me that the following players have been called the Next Willi Castro or the New Willi Castro: Kody Clemens<\/a>, Austin Martin<\/a>, Vidal Bruj\u00e1n<\/a>, Tristan Gray<\/a>, Dan Altavilla<\/a>, and Ryan Kreidler<\/a>. Our own Eric Blonigen<\/a> asked last year if Thomas Hatch<\/a> was the Next Willi Castro.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tTo paraphrase the honorable Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, I don\u2019t know how to define a Willi Castro, but I know one when I see one, and it is hot, hot, HOT!\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, I lied. I think I\u2019ve defined a Willi Castro. Or at least I\u2019ve tried to. In the never-ending search to find the Next Willi Castro, it\u2019s important to know what we\u2019re looking for.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is a Willi Castro?
Willi Castro played two and a half seasons for the Minnesota Twins. He was a roughly league-average hitter; he played every position except first base and catcher; and he stole a handful of bases. Prior to coming to Minnesota, he was an exciting prospect for the Tigers who fizzled out and was released. Minnesota signed him to a minor-league contract, but gave him $1.8 million when he made the team. Given this, he would probably be classified as a late bloomer. He was traded at the 2025 trade deadline for Ryan Gallagher<\/a> and Sam Armstrong<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tObviously, no current Twins are going to map perfectly onto that. But if we\u2019re going to continue to ask \u201cis Mickey Gasper<\/a> the Next Willi Castro??\u201d, the least we can do is try to attack this scientifically.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPositional Flexibility
Love it or hate it, the Twins prefer players who can play multiple positions. That\u2019s probably the most obvious place to start the Willi Castro discussion. It\u2019s probably his most notable feature (though not the only Willi Castro feature).\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Twins have several players with positional flexibility. Ryan Kreidler has played short, third, center, and left, and he can also play second and right, essentially matching Castro\u2019s flexibility, though with better fielding. Kody Clemens has played all three outfield spots, second, and first. He can also be an emergency option at third.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAustin Martin has lost positional flexibility over the years, and is now mostly confined to right field. Royce Lewis<\/a> can play first, second, and third, and he\u2019s allegedly asked to play the outfield as well\u2014probably in an effort to establish himself as the Next Willi Castro. Orlando Arcia<\/a> is technically still in the system, and he played all four infield positions and pitched.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe newest Twin, Kyler Fedko<\/a>, can play all three outfield positions and first base, and he\u2019s also played a little second base in the minors. Luke Keaschall<\/a> is a second baseman, but he\u2019s played first and outfield in the minors, so maybe someday he\u2019ll be in the running.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m giving Willi Castro points to Kreidler, Clemens, Arcia, and Fedko, because they all have at least five positions in their bag.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeed
The Twins haven\u2019t been very fast in a long time. But Castro was. Anyone on the team who has a red bubble (anything over league-average) for sprint speed wins a Willi Castro point here. Byron Buxton<\/a>, Keaschall, Kreidler, Martin, Clemens, Lewis. Fedko doesn\u2019t have a competitive sprint in the majors yet, but I\u2019ll add him in.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLate Blooming
Castro had a rough first four seasons in the major leagues, playing at roughly replacement level. He wasn\u2019t old when he joined the Twins, but he was 26 with little MLB success.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tClemens certainly fits this criterion, as he seems to have finally become an everyday-caliber player in his late 20s. Martin is trending in that direction, as well. Fedko went from being a non-prospect to being on an MLB roster at 26. Trevor Larnach<\/a> might fit the bill, too, but he\u2019s basically been who he\u2019s always been this year. Kreidler has played well, but probably not enough to have \u201cbloomed\u201d yet.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBut let\u2019s not forget the pitchers. Yoendrys G\u00f3mez<\/a> is 26 and might be developing into a real late-inning arm. Joe Ryan<\/a> and Bailey Ober<\/a> were both old when they debuted (25), but only Ober was surprising, performance-wise. I\u2019ll give points to Clemens, Martin, Fedko, G\u00f3mez, and Ober.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAverage or Better Hitter
This is pretty easy. If your OPS+ is 100 or higher this season, you get a point: Buxton, Clemens, Kreidler, Larnach, Gabriel Gonz\u00e1lez, and Ryan Jeffers<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSigned to a Minor League Contract
The Twins got Castro as a 26-year-old MiLB free agent. What a steal! Other players on the team to have been acquired as such are: John Klein<\/a>, Cody Laweryson<\/a>, and I guess Emmanuel Rodriguez<\/a>, if you wanna get technical. I\u2019d also give a point here to players purchased or claimed on waivers: Clemens, Kreidler, G\u00f3mez, Justin Lawrence<\/a>, Anthony Banda<\/a>, and Taylor Rashi<\/a> (I bet you didn\u2019t expect Taylor Rashi to score a Next Willi Castro point). Half-points to Gray, Alex Jackson<\/a>, Eric Orze<\/a>, and Garrett Acton<\/a> for being acquired in unremarkable trades.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPlayed for the Tigers
Yes, we\u2019re getting this granular. The funny thing is, though, the top candidates for the role, Clemens and Kreidler, both played for Detroit. They\u2019re the only two guys on the current roster to have done so.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tTraded at the Deadline
Castro was part of the 2025 selloff. Now this hasn\u2019t happened yet, but I\u2019m gonna boldly predict who it\u2019ll be this year: Josh Bell<\/a>, Matt Wallner<\/a>, Larnach, Banda, Lewis, Ryan, and Clemens. If you disagree, argue with the wall.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFinal Tally
.5 Willi Castro points: Acton, Gray, Jackson, Orze
1 Willi Castro point: Arcia, Bell, Gonzalez, Jeffers, Keaschall, Klein, Laweryson, Lawrence, Ober, Rashi, Rodriguez, Ryan, Wallner
2 Willi Castro points: Banda, Buxton, Fedko, G\u00f3mez, Larnach, Lewis, Martin
5 Willi Castro points: Kredlier
7 Willi Castro points: Clemens\n<\/p>\n

\n\tKody Clemens went seven-for-seven in this very scientific, peer-reviewed analysis (Matthew Trueblood is, after all, a peer who reviewed this before publication). Congratulations, Kody. You are the Next Willi Castro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes, our experiences become our prison wardens, rather than our teachers. Every player we don\u2019t like is \u201cjust…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[4992,5,461,12696,822,60,3190,4,1131,13629,148,27],"class_list":["post-728532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-twins","tag-austin-martin","tag-baseball","tag-kody-clemens","tag-kyler-fedko","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-minnesotatwins","tag-mlb","tag-orlando-arcia","tag-ryan-kreidler","tag-twins","tag-yoendrys-gomez"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116767005317615266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}