The Woes of Starlin Castro

Last August, the Cubs signed young shortstop Starlin Castro to a 7 year 60 million dollar deal. He was supposed to be one of their franchise players, along with first baseman Anthony Rizzo, and lead the Cubs into a new era of success. In his first 3 seasons at the major league level, Castro hit a robust .297/.336/.425 with 27 homers and 185 RBI overall. It seemed like the Cubs truly had found their franchise shortstop for the foreseeable future. ..

Then 2013 happened. Castro has essentially fallen off of a cliff this year, the first season after signing his monster contract. He’s hit just .242/.283/.341 with 3 homers and 22 RBI on the season. In particular, June has been absolutely brutal on Castro, as he sports the worst batting average in baseball during the month, and it isn’t particularly close. Castro has hit a horrid .071/.188/.143 during the month of June, with no homers and just 1 RBI.

Castro’s strikeouts are up, as he’s whiffed 46 times in 255 at bats (18 percent) as opposed to just 100 in 648 at bats in 2012 (15 percent.) His defense has also been an issue, which it usually is, as he looks distracted and bored often times in the field. Speaking of Castro’s tendency to be distracted, could he be distracted by his big contract? Maybe now that he’s signed a big money deal, has he stopped trying at the plate? Castro has been known to lack focus in the past. Could this be a big example of that, or is it just a slump? The Cubs definitely hope it’s the latter.