The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran reliever Miguel Castro, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The Premier Talent Sports client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee.
Castro just turned 31 a few weeks ago, but the well-traveled right-hander has already pitched for seven teams across parts of 11 major league seasons. Because he debuted as a 20-year-old and has managed to stick in the majors for the bulk of the past decade, he’s just three days from reaching nine full years of major league service time.
Castro began the 2025 season in the Astros organization but didn’t appear in a big league game with Houston. The ‘Stros traded him to the White Sox last May in exchange for international bonus pool space. Castro was immediately selected to the major league roster but made only six appearances before suffering a torn patellar tendon in his knee while covering the bag on a grounder to first base. He missed the remainder of the season.
In parts of 11 seasons, Castro has pitched 466 2/3 innings, almost exclusively in relief. (He has four “starts” in his career, though they’ve been as an opener in a bullpen game.) Listed at an incredibly lanky 6’7″ and 201 pounds, Castro owns a lifetime 4.24 ERA in the big leagues. His strikeout and walk rates of 20.4% and 11.7%, respectively, are both worse than average. He’s typically been a well above-average ground-ball pitcher, however, thanks in large part to a power sinker that has averaged 96.5 mph in his career. That number sat at 95.1 mph during last year’s small sample of six MLB innings but was at 95.6 mph in Triple-A.
The Angels’ bullpen currently features several veterans looking to rebound from injury and/or poor performance. Robert Stephenson, Kirby Yates and Jordan Romano all fit that description. Lefty Drew Pomeranz had a terrific 2025 showing with the Cubs, but that marked his first MLB work since 2021, so the 37-year-old is something of a wild card himself. Given the glaring lack of proven relievers in rookie skipper Kurt Suzuki‘s bullpen, there should be plenty of opportunity for the veteran Castro to win a spot this spring, unless the Halos have some further guaranteed deals or trades coming to fortify the relief corps.
Doh! Thought they were getting a deal on Willi. The Rockies strike again!
Must be a Cuban Missile Crises. 2 Castro’s signed today.
Castros are hot tonight!
How tall is he?
6-7 you child.
He has a very live arm, but as the season wears on he tends to have fewer positive results. But his live arm is why teams continue to seek him out.
But what position will he play?
One word T-R-A-S-H
The Astros missed out on 2 Castros?
The Angels are trying to build a pitching staff of ex-Jays this offseason.
They got Manoah for the rotation, and they already have Kikuchi. Yates (never actually got into a game due to injury,) Romano and Castro for the pen.
I found something very disturbing about the minor league rule 5 draft
The Angels just led all of MLB in losing players.
Us being ranked as the worst farm system other teams saw value I find this so unfair. The worst team in baseball gets rated of their prospects
Seven Halos were snatched in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft — the most of any team. That’s not a typo. While MLB rankings keep calling the Angels’ farm system “bottom tier,” rival front offices clearly saw value where the rankings didn’t.
Here’s who got poached:
• Nick Jones (LHP) → Royals
• Jake Madden (RHP) → Pirates
• Mason Erla (RHP) → Nationals
• Coleman Crow (RHP) → Mets
• Eric Torres (LHP) → Giants
• Werner Blakely (INF) → Rays
• D’Shawn Knowles (OF) → Guardians
So either:
1. The Angels are sitting on underrated depth, or
2. They just let seven usable arms and bats walk for free.
Yep. A bunch of us noticed this.
The Angels actually traded a few of those players, so they didn’t let them “walk for free”.
The Angels also traded away Kyle Bradish and a host of others.
The team is simply inept at identifying talent.
Also, Mason Erla is still with the Angels.
Or we have better players that were protected
AI post?
Literally none of these were “poached” what are you talking about? Torres and Knowles were simply released and Torres and Jones are still with the team. This reads like an AI post that shockingly got 0 players right. Astounding.
*Erla and Jones are still with the team.
Fidel
Anaheim Island of Misfit Players. Their give away nights are unisex arm slings and crutches.
This team is going to have its first 100 loss season. At this stage I don’t understand why they are even holding on to Adell, Detmers, and Soriano. Might as well trade Schanuel as well.
The plan is clearly to reduce payroll as much as possible for either a sale or prolonged lockout.
The roster, as of today, is worse than last year’s. I’m still hoping for some roster improvements in the coming weeks but not holding my breath.
The Angels payroll is currently $80 million less than last year if you look at actual cash outlay.
Arte just lost both his TV deal and the Skaggs trial.
I’m holding out hope as well, but it looks really bad on the horizon.
@Halo Arte didn’t “lose” the TV deal. The Angels and several other teams cancelled the agreement that had with Fanduel. They will get a TV deal either with MLB or someone else.
And there is no word. But I’d assuming the Arte won’t have pay the Skaggs family all at once. I’m thinking its going to in installments..
I’ve read most of the Skaggs settlement will be paid by insurance, but I’m no expert there. If so, his insurance rates will skyrocket.
I understand Arte moved on from FanDuel but he lost the expected revenue from that deal and has no idea how much TV money he’ll be able to cobble together now. We shall see.
Holy crap the angels just signed another player coming off injury
The guy can’t pitch to under a four ERA and is unlike this 34 th. roster
This is fast becoming the worst roster in baseball. The Rockies the White Sox were playing kids the angels don’t have a lot of kids this roster just sucks.
Moronassian. Is running the team into the ground and was when they were spending money. This man would run a team into the ground on MLB the show on his XBOX.
Operation extreme redundancy is rolling down the river beautifully
Welp, hopefully some of these signings perform well and turn into good trade bait at the deadline.
Now it’s being reported we just picked up Josh Lowe from Tampa in a deal
The dude hit .220 last year with 106 strikeouts and just under 400 at bats
And shockingly enough has a major career history with injury problems he fits right in
Keep the chit rolling!