Minnesota Twins Get Another 2024 All-Star – Willi Castro

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Minnesota Twins
Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Twins landed just one All-Star on the 2024 American League roster, when they were announced recently. But as always, other players bow out due to injury, or other reasons, allowing more names to be added to each roster.

On Thursday, Twins do-it-all utility man Willi Castro was named as a replacement in the AL, for injured Jose Altuve. It’s Castro’s first ever appearance in the Mid-Summer Classic. And there’s no doubt, that in the Spring, he would have been one of the least likely Twins to earn this honor

But there’s nobody more deserving of an All-Star appearance next week than Castro. Mr. Utility Man has already played nearly every position on the field, other than catcher, 1st base and right field. Yes, he’s even pitched 1.1 innings.

But his versatility is uncanny. Not only can Willi Castro play all of these different positions, but he actually plays them as a good defender. The only place the advanced numbers show a real drop-off from the average fielder is in center, where he is a -3 defensive runs saved above average.

Related: Gleeman Has Little Faith in Minnesota Twins at Trade Deadline

Willi has always been a pretty good hitter, but he has reached another level in 2024. Through 93 games, Castro is batting .268 with a .784 OPS, 121 OPS+ and 2.7 bWAR. The 27-year-old has hit 7 homers, 5 triples, scored a team high 54 runs and batted in 29 more (8th on the Twins). He’s been the total package all the way around.

A couple of weeks ago, Carlos Correa called him the 2024 team MVP. Prior to this recent stretch where everyone has gotten hot around him, nobody would have argued.

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