Miguel Castro is healthy, which somehow makes his DFA more baffling

Earlier Sunday, in order to make a 40-man roster spot for Kyle Freeland, the Colorado Rockies designated Miguel Castro for assignment. This move is a head-scratcher, to say the least. Castro is a high potential 22-year-old reliever, who was rushed to the big leagues by the Toronto Blue Jays prior to being moved to Colorado in the Troy Tulowitzki deal.

Jeff Hoffman and Jesus Tinoco are the only people left in the Rockies organization that were part of the Tulo trade.

Tulo trade aside, Miguel Castro is a young, hard throwing righty that has already spent parts of two seasons in the big leagues. At times he has flashed some serious bright spots.

Last year Castro got hurt and looked pretty bad after returning from injury last season in both MLB and Triple-A, but it’s still pretty early to be giving up on this level of a young arm. So maybe he wasn’t healthy?

“Castro is fully healthy, but when you add a man to the 40-man roster, somebody has to come off,” general manager Jeff Bridich told the Denver Post. “We had to clear a space for Kyle and this is the move we made.”

In 32-and-a-third big league innings, he a plus 5.50 ERA but his 8.4 strikeouts per nine are a hint of what could be there.

“I think he’s still a developing pitcher who was pushed to the big leagues at a very early age with Toronto,” Bridich said. “I think when those sorts of things happen, and they happen with a number of players seemingly every year, sometimes it takes long for those guys to develop.

It’s even more shocking when you consider what Drew Creasman wrote for BSN Denver earlier today.

It’s especially surprising given the number of players on the current roster with nowhere near Castro’s potential. Do Jordan Lyles and Scott Oberg really need spots so bad that it necessitated someone described by Bridich as just important to the trade as Hoffman? Why didn’t they just place Rayan Gonzalez on the 60-day Disabled List, knowing he will need Tommy John surgery? Did a place really need to be kept for Chad Qualls? All of these options represent less exciting potential than Castro displayed as recently as the beginning of last season, thwarting MLB competition as a 21-year-old.

The answer to Gonzalez is that the Rockies didn’t want to eat a year of his service time with him on the 60-day DL. But really? Not to knock the 26-year-old Gonzalez but he’s never pitched above Double-A. And it’s not like Bridich has been one to care about service time as evidence by his handling of Trevor Story, Antonio Senzatela and Freeland. Add Bridich’s usual laissez-faire motto to service time with the fact that Gonzalez would be at the youngest 31-years-old assuming he accumulated a year this year and was never called down by the time the Rockies lost team control and Bridich’s explanation doesn’t add up.

“So I don’t think it’s any more complicated than that. It’s just about becoming a more consistent pitcher,” Birdich remarked on Castro. “He has a plus fastball, and a plus slider and a body that you can dream off of, but others were pitching better.”

So the Rockies gave up on that 22-year-old ‘body that you can dream off” for Chad Qualls? Okay then.