Adrian Del Castillo Talks About Terrific 2024 Start with Reno

The Diamondbacks catcher prospect discusses his hot start to 2024, automated strike zones, and working with two Gold Glovers this spring.

Adrian Del Castillo has been the biggest development in the Diamondbacks minor league system in 2024. The 24-year-old catcher currently sports a .370/.403/.699 slash with nine doubles and five home runs in his first 18 games, backed up by having a strong quality of contact profile. He's regularly squaring up baseballs, with his 26 batted balls of 100+ MPH ranking second amongst all Triple-A hitters. He also ranks in the Top 20 for hard-hit rate and barrels per plate appearance.

"I've been feeling well at the plate," said Del Castillo. "The numbers have been strong and just having fun every day, coming here and enjoying it with the guys."

Playing in the Pacific Coast League's offense-inflating environment is tough on pitchers and makes it tougher to evaluate hitters who don't have a strong approach at the plate to begin with. Reno, in particular, has high elevation, dry air, and a wind tunnel in right field, causing the ball to carry. It can be easy for a left-handed hitter to sell out and chase those results, but that's not what the organization is looking for.

"I'm just looking for a good pitch to hit, put a good swing on it. Try to hit a good part of the bat and let the ball do what it does. So I'm not trying to think of everything else."

At the catcher position, defense is valued highly in the organization. Looking at the major league roster, there are three Gold Gloves between Gabriel Moreno and Tucker Barnhart. Del Castillo is labeled as a bat-first catcher, with a below-average arm behind the plate in terms of raw arm strength but is recording pop times to second in the 1.95-2.00 according to his FanGraphs scouting report from last season. He's working hard with catching coordinator Robby Robertson to improve that facet of his game.

"It's gotten a lot better since last year. That's one thing that a lot of people have told me. I'm still working on it 100%. I'm still trying my hardest to be back there and doing a good job. Our new catching coordinator, Robby, has helped me a ton."

As a catcher playing at the Triple-A level, Del Castillo has experience working with both the automatic ball-strike system (ABS) and the challenge system. Each week, they play under ABS Tuesdays through Thursdays and the challenge system on Fridays through Sundays. He prefers the challenge system over ABS, as there's still some element of framing involved and "you can't fool the computer".

Like with replay challenges, there's an element of strategy involved when it comes to challenging ball and strike calls. Teams start with three challenges, losing one if they fail to overturn a call. The system works by showing the pitch on the video board on a graphic in front of the teams and the fans. The whole process takes about 20-30 seconds, providing minimal disruption to the flow of the game. Del Castillo described it as a "little game within the game" and that overturned calls can go both ways.

His 2024 season began with an invite to his first ever big league Spring Training. There he got to work with Moreno and Barnhart. He spent that time learning from the two catchers and how they handle pitchers. Del Castillo awaits an opportunity to showcase himself at the big league level, but the early returns in 2024 are promising for getting the call later in the season.

"All I can do right now is be the best player I can, show up every day, work hard, and nothing else I can do."