2025 Fantasy Baseball: Willi Castro Profile, Preview, Predictions
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Willi Castro's flexibility in 2024 gave him the best opportunity of his career. His loss of speed was disappointing. Will he get enough at-bats this year to support his ADP?
Willi Castro golfs one out to give the Twins the lead. pic.twitter.com/njoeLW2n3A
— MLB (@MLB) August 13, 2024
2B – Willi Castro, MIN (ADP – 233.5)
The Twins gave Castro the best playing time opportunity in his six years in the majors, leading to career highs in most categories except stolen bases (14). He saw time at 2B, 3B, SS, and OF. There has been minimal change in his average hit rate (1.558), and he continues to have weakness in his RBI rate (12). Castro upped his walk rate (8.0), close to the league average, while striking out 23.6% of the time.
After the All-Star break in 2024, he only hit .219 with 35 runs, five home runs, 30 RBIs, and four stolen bases despite his best overall production coming in August (.240/19/4/18/2 over 104 at-bats). Castro has growth in his exit velocity (87.4 – mph) and hard-hit rate (36.1), with a few more line drives (21.9%) at the expense of his fly-ball rate (37.8).
Over 1,923 at-bats in the majors, Castro has a .248 batting average with 283 runs, 45 home runs, 195 RBIs, and 65 stolen bases. His profile with 500 at-bats came to 73 runs, 12 home runs, 51 RBIs, and 17 steals. The Twins gave him 198 at-bats from the leadoff position (.293/38/5/26/3) last season, but I don’t see him as a long-term solution for that job in 2025.
Fantasy Outlook: Castro hit the ball harder last year, an area he needs more follow-through in this year to keep a starting job. I don’t trust him to hit more home runs, so Castro must run more to maintain playable fantasy value. Minnesota doesn’t list him as a starter at any position in late February, suggesting a sharp decline in at-bats, even with his multi-position eligibility. He’s not my type of dance partner, so I’ll avoid him this draft season.
RANKINGS
Top 5 Catchers | Catchers 6-10 | Catchers 11-15
Top 5 First Basemen | First Basemen 6-10 | First Basemen 11-15
Top 5 Second Basemen | Second Basemen 6-10 | Second Basemen 11-15
Top 5 Shortstops | Shortstops 6-10 | Shortstops 11-15
Top 5 Third Basemen | Third Basemen 6-10 | Third Basemen 11-15
With 20+ years of experience in the high-stakes fantasy market, I aim to research and compete at the highest level in baseball and football each season. I've contributed as a writer/analyst for Sports Draft Daily, ScoutPro, Scout Fantasy, Fulltime Fantasy, FFToolbox, and Sports Illustrated Fantasy. I'm honored to be in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship Hall of Fame. My drafting philosophy is risk-averse yet open to betting on potential game-changers. I approach player selection with a neutral perspective, acknowledging that fantasy sports are inherently unpredictable due to injuries, performance dips, and managerial decisions. My work focuses on these main areas: - Season-long fantasy baseball and football - BestBall Baseball and Football Events - Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS): DraftKings, FanDuel, and Underdog - Long Shot Player Prop Parlays for NFL I participate in various leagues and contests, including NFBC, NFFC, RTSports, FFPC, DraftKings, Underdog Fantasy, FanDuel, and FFWC, with the goal of leveraging my extensive experience and research for success in each game format. A fantasy follower can expect in-depth profiles of NFL and MLB players, along with season-long and weekly projections for each fantasy football season. In addition, I have many strategy articles to help develop fantasy players' learning curves.
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