Diego Castillo is Hitting a Lot of Homers and Very Little Else

ST. PETERSBURG – Diego Castillo has hit six home runs in his last 46 plate appearances, as of this writing.

Diego Castillo also has seven hits in that span, and just one walk.

The Pirates called up Castillo at the start of the season, after a strong performance in Spring Training that saw him hit for a 1.281 OPS, with six homers in 38 plate appearances.

The power is impressive, and the recent resurgence is a reminder of the impact that Castillo can have at the plate.

“I think he’s getting the ball up, which is good,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “When the ball stays up and he’s able to get his A-swing off, we’ve seen him be able to get the ball elevated.”

Castillo said the key to getting this type of home run producing swing is getting a feel for his barrel.

“I think when I’m hitting that well, it’s not thinking mechanically,” said Castillo. “I recognize where the barrel is of my bat, so I can feel it real well. It doesn’t matter whatever they throw, I know my barrel is going to attack, and I think that’s the key.”

Castillo also said that keeping his body quiet, trying not to think about his approach, and believing in his abilities are keys to the home run surge.

“The real key is believing it,” said Castillo. “Telling yourself that you can do it right now, let’s go. That’s for me, the key, talking to myself.”

The power is great to see from a middle infielder. Without the average or on-base ability to back it up, it won’t be enough to keep Castillo in the majors long-term. In order for that to happen, he will need to find a way to hit, while hitting for power.

Castillo said that he feels he has gotten tight with his body on pitches on the outside part of the plate. He’s also looking to pull the ball more to right field. The latter has been accomplished more in the recent surge, with Castillo showing good pull-side power to the tune of a season 1.053 OPS to the pull side.

Just looking at these numbers, you might assume that Castillo needs to be less aggressive. That’s surprisingly not the case. Castillo’s called strike rate ranks fifth on the team. His swinging strike rate ranks 15th. He swings the bat 43.4% of the time, which ranks 20th on the team.

Castillo also gets a first pitch ball 40% of the time, and only sees pitches in the zone 43% of the time. He should be drawing more walks with those numbers.

We know that Castillo can make hard contact when the barrel finds the ball. His numbers indicate that he makes good swing decisions, but might actually be too conservative at times in that regard. At the same time, he’s not conservative enough, as he’s going to swing his way to an outcome in most at-bats.

There’s a lot to like about what we’ve seen from the 24-year-old Castillo so far, though he’ll need to figure out how to hit more than home runs to remain in the majors long-term.