New National David DeJesus was asked about Starlin Castro's recent problems. He told reporters that Castro needs to become a club house leader, "on and off the field." The "off the field" comment was quite puzzling, especially from a recent teammate.
Castro came to the big leagues out of necessity. He has a quick free swinging bat that could handle major league pitching. The Cubs were about to blow up the team, but needed someone to give fans a reason to come to games. Like a zoo or a circus, the big top banner was that the Cubs finally had a "home grown" superstar in the making in Castro.
After a stunning debut, Castro racked up 390 hits in his first two professional seasons. He was a two time All Star. His fielding was below par, but we were told he was still young. He would improve in all facets of his game.
Now in his fourth season, Castro looks broken. He does not like hitting 8th in the lineup. He told his manager so. But afterward, he went 0-4 with a strikeout and a massively spastic error on a routine double play throw to first. He has 15 errors so far this season. That does not include mental errors or lapses in the field, including allowing a runner from third to score on an infield fly out.
Castro is batting a career low .240, with 7 HR and 32 RBI. He has only 3 RBI total in the second half of the season. He has only 8 stolen bases (Soriano had 10 when he was traded). Castro has a negative 0.7 WAR, which means he is playing below a AAA player value.
Why such a huge tailspin? There are several things, factual and speculation, that are cited as reasons. First, the Cubs front office has a philosophy that players should have a high OBP which means that walks are just as important as hits. Castro, as free swinger, rarely walked. The Cubs wanted him to take more pitches. They wanted him to wait for a pitch that he could drive for a home run. They wanted more power production from him. Well, there are some players who do not fit the high OBP, power to the alley mode.
Second, there are too many voices in his head. He has gone through a handful of batting coaches, including three this season (Rowson, Deer and Sveum). Maybe Castro cannot process so much information or guidance. Castro could be confused by mixed signals. Or maybe, Castro has tuned them all out. In any case, he should have been able to revert to his old hitting ways but this year he has been unable to do so.
Third, Sveum said that at some point Castro needs to figure things out for himself. When a manager washes his hands of the issue and puts everything on the player to fix himself, that is not quite the role of a manager. A manager is supposed to be the one in charge of getting the team to play its best by putting players in the best opportunity to succeed. By Sveum calling out Castro and demoting him in the lineup is like letting Castro hang out to dry. Perhaps, Castro needs to be coddled and not criticized by his manager. Positive reinforcement instead of negative actions.
Fourth, Castro is a highly paid professional. He should take it upon himself to be prepared to play every day. Which brings us back to the DeJesus "off the field" comment. We don't know what DeJesus meant but we can infer that Castro may be partying too much off the field which could affect his ability to play. Soriano, his mentor, liked to party and have a good time. He got angry when his manager would not tell him in advance if he would have a day off so he could party harder. Perhaps, some of Soriano's bad social habits have rubbed off on Castro.
Fifth, the lack of concentration and focus especially in the field has most fans worried that something is wrong with Castro. Speculation has run the gambit from having an attention deficit disorder to laziness to being hungover. Only his manager and teammates would know for sure, but those same potential demons were in play during his first All-Star years. Another rationale is that once Castro signed his big money contract extension, the incentive to perform well faded from his consciousness. Often times, players with big contracts underperform just as players who are in the last year of their contracts tend to overperform. A contract or a starting job is a key motivator for athletes. Part of the problem is that Castro has no current competition for his starting shortstop job. Such security could lead to a lax attitude toward his own game.
Can this tailspin be corrected? Only time will tell. But Castro has become Sveum's whipping boy when things go wrong. Anthony Rizzo is having a similar bad season, but Rizzo does not get the same attention or team scrutiny that Castro has received to date.
