Yankees: Ranking the Best Moves of the 2015-2016 Offseason

Trading Adam Warren to the Chicago Cubs for Starlin Castro

Full disclosure: I hated this trade at the time and still am not Castro’s biggest fan. If given the choice, I would still prefer the Yankees dump him this winter and let Rob Refsnyder hold down the fort until Tyler Wade and eventually Gleyber Torres is ready.

That said, this trade definitely worked out well for the Yankees this year, especially since they were able to re-acquire Warren as a throw in at the trade deadline after he was awful during his brief stint for the Cubs.

Castro hit .270/.300/.433 (93 OPS+) in 610  plate appearances during his first year in pinstripes. That isn’t quite peak Castro when he was one of the National League’s best young shortstops, but it’s better than some of the clunker-seasons he’s put together in recent years.

Notably, Castro hit a career-high 21 home runs and 71 RBI this season, although that could be just as much a reflection of the record-setting home run totals many mediocre hitters racked up this year as much as an improvement by the erratic second baseman.

Overall, Castro was worth just 1.2 wins above replacement according to Baseball-Reference, which is a well below average starter, but like Hicks, he did show the ability to play at a higher level in short spurts this year.

There is a non-zero chance that Castro turns into the superstar he looked like in his first few seasons and this turns into a complete steal for New York. Far more likely however, it is a minor win that provided the club with a placeholder at second base until Gleyber Torres or Jorge Mateo are ready.