Chicago Cubs: Can Starlin Castro be reborn on the North Side?

Chicago Cubs: Team has other needs to address this winter

The other benefit to getting Castro for basically nothing in terms of prospects is that it might allow you to use guys like David Bote, Victor Caratini, Ian Happ Albert Almora, or more highly-touted chips in a trade to bolster the pitching staff.

Chicago wouldn’t have to give up more than a lottery ticket type prospect to get their former standout out of Miami, allowing us plenty of other pieces to dangle in the offseason or for midseason acquisitions.

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Maybe I’m feeling a bit nostalgic. Maybe I feel bad about the fact that Starlin lost his position and his job to a guy who has sat out and will be sitting out part of the 2019 season because of a domestic abuse scandal. Perhaps, I just think the guy could help us for a year or two and be a pragmatic and logical fit given what we have currently.

In his career, Castro has proven he can hit anyone and he has been remarkably consistent despite the bad taste he probably left in some Cubs fans’ mouths from the first half of 2015 where it seemed like he did nothing but ground out weakly to the left side.

I also keep thinking about the way in which he responded to losing his position and job, how hard he worked instead of sulking, and how good he was down the stretch that year. The guy could have buried his head in the sand and told Maddon to pound sand, but he kept his head down, got better and really helped the Cubs in the magical beginning of their run.

While Starlin Castro is probably not going to be an MVP candidate next season, he will most likely be a solid 2.0 to 3.0 WAR player who plays a solid second base and doesn’t break the bank with a huge contract.

Why not use a still young and useful player from our past as a player to bridge to our future, giving him an opportunity to finish what he helped begin in the early 2010s? While some might say that could also be DJ LeMahieu, Castro might be a younger, cheaper option that gives us more flexibility and might even produce some happy vibes in our clubhouse upon coming home.