Max Castillo

Maximo Alberto Castillo
(La Papa)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 280 lb.

• Debut June 19, 2022

• Born May 4, 1999 in Caracas, Distrito Capital Venezuela

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Biographical Information

Max Castillo was not considered a top prospect when he made his major league debut with the Toronto Blue Jays on June 19, 2022. He had been called up from the AAA Buffalo Bisons where he was a starter, after having begin the year in AA with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, going a combined 5-1, 1.92 between the two stops. A number of Buffalo pitchers had received a call to give a hand in the Blue Jays' bullpen, given a rash of injuries there, whereas the group of starters for the big league club was very stable. In his debut, which came on the same day he was called up, he had the unfortunate assignment of facing the red-hot New York Yankees after Yusei Kikuchi and Adam Cimber had combined to give them 6 runs over the first 5 innings. Max was not much better, as he gave up a pair of solo homers in his sole inning of work, to Kyle Higashioka and Marwin Gonzalez, to make the score 8-3 in the middle of the 6th. Somehow, the Jays managed to come back and win the game, 10-9. He returned to Buffalo after the game.

Castillo was originally signed by Toronto on September 25, 2015 as an international amateur free agent out of Venezuela. He began pitching in their system in 2016 and methodically made it through all the levels in the system, starting with the DSL Blue Jays, but also stopping with the GCL Blue Jays, Bluefield Blue Jays, Lansing Lugnuts, Dunedin Blue Jays, before New Hampshire and Toronto. Indeed, the only affiliate for which he did not pitch were the Vancouver Canadians of the Northwest League. He put up some good win/loss records during his apprenticeship, including going 6-0 for Bluefield in 2017, 10-5 for Lansing in 2018 and 11-5 for Dunedin in 2019, along with an ERA of 2.69. He was emerging as an interesting fringe prospect at that point, but then missed the entire 2020 season when the minor leagues were shut down by the Coronavirus pandemic. When he returned in 2021, he was assigned to New Hampshire in the Eastern League and had another solid won/loss mark, at 11-4, but his 4.85 ERA was not so impressive and kept him off most prospect lists. He was hardly mentioned as someone to watch when spring training got under way in 2022.

After his initial rough outing, he was sent back to AAA but returned to the majors on June 24th when Yimi Garcia was placed on the injured list. He showed that he could be a useful major league pitcher the next day when Kikuchi was again chased early in a start against the Milwaukee Brewers, after completing only two innings. Trent Thornton pitched two scoreless innings, then Maximo got the ball and proceeded to go four innings during which he allowed only 1 hit and struck out 7 batters. His combined good work with Thornton not only saved Toronto's bullpen from potential disaster, but allowed the Jays to almost mount another great comeback: trailing 5-0 when Kikuchi was chased from the game, they managed to close the gap to 5-4 and had the tying run on base when closer Josh Hader recorded the final out. Diaz had impressed enough that observers immediately began to say that he should be the one starting the game the next time the ineffective Kikuchi was scheduled to start in a few days' time. He ended up making 9 appearances for Toronto, including a couple of starts with no decisions and a 3.05 ERA in 20 2/3 innings. On August 2nd, he was traded to the Kansas City Royals along with Samad Taylor in return for OF/IF Whit Merrifield.

Related Sites

• Max Castillo on mlb.com