Marlins Designate Daniel Castano For Assignment

The Marlins have designated left-hander Daniel Castano for assignment, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. Left-hander Josh Simpson has been recalled to take his place on the roster and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.

Castano, 28, was outrighted off Miami’s roster in the offseason but selected back onto it in April. He was outrighted again in June and could have elected free agency but decided to stay in the organization. He got added back to the roster on the weekend but has now been bumped off yet again.

Around those transactions, Castano has made just two appearances in the majors this year, allowing seven earned runs in three innings. He’s spent most of his time in Triple-A, tossing 57 2/3 innings at that level with a 4.06 earned run average, 22.4% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 45.4% ground ball rate.

The Marlins will place Castano back on waivers in the coming days and it’s possible the same sequence of events plays out as earlier in the year, with Castano clearing and then accepting an outright assignment, though that will be determined in due time.

As for Simpson, now 26, he was a 32nd round selection of the Marlins in the 2019 draft. Last year, he split his time between Double-A and Triple-A with a combined 3.97 ERA in 68 innings, walking 12.4% of batters but with a massive 40.7% strikeout rate. That got him added to the 40-man roster in November, to prevent him from being available in the Rule 5 draft.

Here in 2023, he’s mostly been in Triple-A, carrying over a similar profile. He has struck out 37.9% of batters faced in his 32 innings for Jacksonville but also given out walks at a 15.2% rate, leading to an ERA of 4.50 at that level this year. Despite the obvious control issues, the Marlins will bump him up to the majors to see how his stuff plays against big league hitters.