Luis Castro (minors04)

Luis Ricardo Castro

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 175 lb.

• Born September 19, 1995 in Caja Seca, Zulia Venezuela

BR register page

Biographical Information

Luis Castro has been a minor league MVP and has been on the Venezuelan national team.

Castro was originally signed by the Colorado Rockies. He hit .264/.359/.336 for the 2013 DSL Rockies, fielding .890 at the hot corner. Coming to the US, he batted .301/.380/.374 for the '14 Grand Junction Rockies while improving his defense at 3B to .921. Moving to second with the 2015 Boise Hawks, he fielded .911 there and struggled at the plate as well (.219/.290/.318). In his Venezuelan League debut, he batted .231/.286/.385 in 9 games for the Bravos de Margarita.

Back with Boise in 2016, he hit better (.255/.362/.418), stole 11 bases in 12 tries and scored 47 tuns in 58 games. Now at first base mostly, he fielded .988 there. He tied Manuel Geraldo for 2nd in the Northwest League in runs (4 behind Bryson Brigman) and tied Willie Abreu for 7th in home runs (6). The next year, he played for Boise (.286/.327/.429 in 25 G) and the Asheville Tourists (.244/.279/.390 in 12 G). He split 2018 between Boise (.349/.441/.594 in 30 G) and the Lancaster JetHawks (.354/.431/.552 in 27 G). In the winter, he hit .290/.347/.450 for the Bravos.

Castro was very sharp in 2019 with the JetHawks (.317/.425/.584, 25 HR, 93 R, 98 RBI, 14 SB, 51 BB in 106 G) but slumped to .220/.382/.339 in 20 games for the Hartford Yard Goats. He was second in the California League in average (.008 behind Luis Campusano), led in OBP (.023 ahead of Luis Alejandro Basabe), led in slugging (.075 ahead of Campusano and Donovan Casey), led in OPS (104 ahead of Campusano), led in errors at 1B (10), led in runs (one ahead of Ryan Vilade), led in dingers (two ahead of Casey Golden), led in RBI (17 more than Campusano), was 2nd in total bases (225, 12 behind Vilade), was 6th in walks and tied Marcus Chiu for the most times plunked (19). He was named the Cal League All-Star first baseman and split MVP honors with Campusano; it was the first tie for the award since 1980's Candy Maldonado and Jaime Cocanower. He also was among the Rockies farm chain leaders in runs (106, 3 behind Sam Hilliard), 3rd in homers (27, after Hilliard and Roberto Ramos), tied Ramos for the RBI lead (105) and led in walks (73, 5 ahead of Grant Lavigne). In the affiliated minors that year, he was 3rd in runs behind only Hilliard and Luis Robert.

He then made Venezuela's team for the 2019 Premier 12. He was their starting first baseman and got his first hit off Kota Nakagawa of champion Japan. He later had a four-hit day against Puerto Rico. In Venezuela's three games, he hit .417/.462/.585. He tied Diego Rincones for the team lead in hits (5) and tied Alí Castillo for the team lead in doubles (2).

Notable Achievements

• 2019 MVP California League Lodi Dodgers