Veteran reliever elects free agency after release from Twins

Veteran reliever Diego Castillo has elected free agency after being designated for assignment by the Twins last week, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Presumably, he first cleared outright waivers.

Minnesota signed Castillo to a minor league deal during spring training and added him to the big league roster in late May. The former Rays and Mariners righty totaled seven innings out of manager Rocco Baldelli’s bullpen and only yielded two runs, but he issued seven walks in that time as well. He’s pitched well in Triple-A St. Paul, logging 18 innings with a sharp 2.50 ERA, 29.7% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 54.4% grounder rate.

Castillo was hobbled by a trio of shoulder injuries in recent years, which dropped his fastball from the upper 90s to an average of 94.2 mph in an ugly 8 2/3-inning run with the 2023 Mariners. He struggled with Triple-A Tacoma last year as well, prompting the Mariners to remove him from the 40-man roster by passing him through waivers. That granted Castillo the right to elect free agency at season’s end, which he did. He’ll now return to the open market, this time on the heels of a nice Triple-A showing with the Twins and, more importantly, after displaying a rejuvenated fastball that sat at 95.7 mph in his brief big league stint.

Between that reinvigorated fastball, his Triple-A results and an excellent track record from 2018-22, Castillo should find interest on a new minor league deal. (The Twins, conceivably, could look to quickly bring him back on a minor league pact with new terms.) Over parts of five years from ’18-’22 between Tampa Bay and Seattle, the now-30-year-old Castillo recorded a 3.12 ERA (3.38 SIERA) with a 28.1% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate, 50.7% ground-ball rate and 1.07 HR/9. He worked both as a closer and setup man at times along the way, so he’s no stranger to leverage situations.

Castillo also has a pair of minor league options remaining, although he’s just days away from reaching five years of big league service time, at which point he’d need to consent to being optioned. If he does land back on a big league roster and stick, he’ll be controllable through the 2025 season via arbitration.