Chicago Cubs: Ranking the greatest players of the decade – #10-1

Chicago Cubs: No. 8: Starlin Castro

Starlin Castro came up to the Chicago Cubs in 2010 with lots of hype. Though he wasn’t around when the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, he still had a nice six-year run with the club.

Castro made a big splash right away, homering and driving in six runs in his big league debut in Cincinnati on May 7, 2010. Castro didn’t show a lot of power that year, only homering two more times, yet he proved to be a skilled hitter, finishing the year with a .300 batting average. In 2011, Castro batted .307 and led the league with 207 hits. He also stole 22 bases.

Castro was up-and-down over the next four seasons but still put together a nice Cubs career. He batted .281 in his time in Chicago and led the league in at-bats three times. It was nice to see Castro get to play in the 2015 postseason, and he hit a key home run in Game 3 of the NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals.

After the 2015 season, with Javier Baez and Addison Russell emerging as middle infield options, the Cubs traded Castro to the New York Yankees. He spent two years there before spending 2018 and 2019 with the Miami Marlins. Though it doesn’t seem likely, in a previous article I threw out the idea of maybe bringing Castro back to play second base in 2020.