Angels Should Bring In Willi Castro

The Angels roster is severely lacking in depth. With pitchers and catchers reporting in just over six weeks there are serious holes at second base, third base, and in the outfield. The team lacks the resources to fill all of these needs with free agents nor are there prospects on the horizon that look MLB ready.

One way to address this lack of depth would be to bring in players capable of playing multiple positions. Last year the Angels acquired Oswald Peraza and over the off season they added Vaugh Grissom. Both players were shortstops as prospects and both have played multiple positions at the big league level. Neither has established himself as a viable MLB starter so the amount of depth they provide is seriously in doubt.

Signing free agent Willi Castro would give the Angels an established MLB caliber player capable of playing on both the dirt and grass while providing decent offense. It won't catch headlines or get fans excited, but these are the types of moves winning organizations make to solidify their lineups.

Willi Castro is a cheat code to establishing depth.

In taking a look at his FanGraphs page you can clearly see Castro brought a lot of gloves with him to the ballpark. 48 games at second base, another 23 at third and 5 at shortstop gave him 76 games on the dirt. Then he added another 89 games on the grass. His defense ranks best at third and in left field and while he won't win a Gold Glove elsewhere he won't embarrass himself, either. He just should not play shortstop outside of a late game injury replacement.

Castro's offense is solid and could improve.

Offensively, Castro carries a career wRC+ of 95. That ranks him 5% below league average which is slightly better than the average MLB starting second baseman or shortstop. If he simply carries his career .313 on base percentage for the Angels it would be a marked improvement over many players who took the field for them in 2025.

The data shows there's also good reason. to believe Castro's offense will improve from 2025 to 2026. Last season he walked and struck out at his career normal rates and his ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average) was in line with his career norms. However, his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) dropped from .315 to .286 from 2024 to 2025.

BABIP is a great way to measure a player's luck. Generally it will even out over the course of a full MLB season, but that is not always the case. Castro's career BABIP is .308 including last year's drop. Simply returning to his normal batted ball luck would give Castro a nice little jump in his batting average and overall offensive stats.

For a player who turns 29 about a month into the season, Castro is a pretty safe bet to continue being a valuable and versatile piece of a quality ball club. And with legitimate reason to expect an improvement in offensive performance that is already solid, he's a great signing for a team low on depth like the Angels to make.