Rodolfo Castro

Castro showed enough flashes in his age-23 season in 2022 that he seemed a reasonable bet to emerge from a group of similarly young and vaguely interesting Pirates and establish himself as a regular. Instead, his 2023 campaign represented a significant step back. His wRC+ dropped from 101 to 69, and he found himself traded across the state at the deadline to a Phillies team that didn't have much use for him. He only received 32 plate appearances for his new club, grabbing three hits while striking out 12 times. Castro has now come to the plate 627 times across three big-league seasons, meaning he's had effectively one full season's worth of opportunities, and it's hard to see him as anything more than a bench player. A respectable barrel rate (7.6%) has helped him to 22 homers, but he's struck out 27.9% of the time while slashing .219/.292/.380 and has added just six steals. His path to fantasy relevance in 2024 likely involves him failing to win a bench spot in Philadelphia and getting traded to a team in desperate need of infield help, but even then, there's no guarantee he plays regularly. Read Past Outlooks