Starlin Castro is one of the best young players the Chicago Cubs have seen in a long long time. I’ve raved for two years about his offensive capabilities and why he reminds me so much of Derek Jeter. Like Jeter, Castro has the God-given ability to hit line drives and hit with power to the opposite field. He’s improving as a base runner and has shown he’s a better defensive shortstop. Yes, he needs to improve on his plate discipline, but no one can deny he has Jeter-like talents.
Well, the Cubs have made a huge move and locked Castro down for 7 years at $60 million. This looks like a huge contract, but when you understand the meaning behind it, it’s freaking genius–one that I love and one I wrote about several months ago, by the way.
The Cubs are basically paying for Castro’s arbitration years. If he kept putting up these kinds of numbers, the Cubs could eventually have owed him $14-15 million in arbitration, which would make his contract extension worth maybe $100-120 million. This allows the Cubs some flexibility in payroll and that’s incredibly good news.
The Cubs now have a cornerstone. That’s incredibly important when you’re going out there trying to persuade free agents to come in and build this organization. Hopefully Anthony Rizzo is next, but I absolutely love this move as it’s taking a page out of the Tampa Bay Rays book of moves.
Hopefully Castro continues to improve and make the Cubs look ever smarter over the next few years.
It’s a very good move by the new regime and I love it.
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