Infielder Starlin Castro has signed a two-year deal with the Nationals, per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal. According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, the deal is for two years and $12 million.
Castro spent the last two years with the Marlins after being traded by the Yankees in the Giancarlo Stanton blockbuster. He hit .270 with 22 home runs and 86 RBIs last season. His league average .733 OPS across two seasons in Miami was one of the best, which was by design. The Marlins have fielded a mostly non-competitive roster since trading Stanton and 2018 MVP Christian Yelich.
This offseason, the Marlins acquired Orioles infielder Jonathan Villar, making the veteran expendable. The Marlins declined his $16 million option, making him a free agent.
A shortstop by trade, Castro also has experience at second and third base. The latter may be especially useful if Washington fails to sign Josh Donaldson to replace Anthony Rendon, who left the defending champions for the Angels.
The still 29-year-old's career has followed an uncanny, cyclical, and personally-unfortunate pattern of suffering through his team's growing pains until getting a brief taste of success, only to get dumped from the now-contender right as they were ready for takeoff.
First, after being one of the few respectable players on the Cubs, who tanked their way to respectability, Castro helped the 2015 Cubs to the NLCS, where they were swept by the Mets. Castro was traded to a retooling Yankees squad right as the team that developed the young star broke their 96-long championship drought without him.
Next year, Castro was a key contributor to a Yankees team that played their way after hitting .300/.338/.454 and making his fourth All-Star team. The Yankees rewarded Castro by exchanging his contract with Miami to partially offset the remaining dollars from Stanton's record-setting $325 million deal. The Yankees won 103 games in 2019, almost as many as the Marlins (120) since Castro arrived two years ago.
Castro is the second Nationals deal announced Friday _ the defending champions signed veteran relief ace Will Harris away from the Astros. Harris lost Game 7 of the Series to Houston.
Fortunately, Castro has as good a chance as ever to play meaningful ballgames. If the still-strong Nationals core repeats, hopefully Castro will still be around for the champagne.
