Miami Marlins designate Daniel Castano for assignment

The Miami Marlins made a roster move today. In order to make room for the recently acquired starting pitcher Johnny Cueto, The Fish designated LHP Daniel Castano for assignment. Let's take a look at Castano and see if he was worth parting ways with. To be fair, designating him for assignment doesn't mean that he's definitely gone, as he can still be retained and demoted to the Minors if no other team claims him.

The Miami Marlins potentially parted ways with Daniel Castano.

Daniel Castano was acquired by The Fish from the St.Louis Cardinals in the Marcell Ozuna trade. Castano was supposed to be a useful starting pitcher or relief pitcher for the Miami Marlins, however things didn't work out the way they were initially supposed to go. The Fish did get the 2022 NL Cy Young award winner so I'd say that it's pretty obvious on who won the trade (The Fish).

How did Daniel Castano perform with the Miami Marlins? Castano was called up for a brief stint during the shortened 2020 season. He pitched in 7 games and started 6 of them (29.2 innings). He had a 3.03 ERA/4.81 FIP with 3.6 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9. It's clear that while his ERA was impressive, everything else was not. There was definitely a lot of concern on how he would do in 2021. It didn't seem likely that he would do as good or as better as he did in 2020.

Were those concerns valid? Yes they were. Castano received 4 starts in 5 games and 21.0 innings. He pitched to a 4.87 ErA/5.14 FIP with 5.8 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9. A pretty terrible performance to be honest. He followed that up in 2022 with a 4.04 ERA/4.74 FIP in 10 games (7 starts) and 35.2 innings. He had 5.0 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 as well. It's pretty clear that with the low strikeout rates and the bad ERA's and FIP's that he wasn't turning into an ace or a useful contributor. The fact that he's going to be 28 years old this season wasn't helping him.