Daniel Castano (30), a left-hander who played in the KBO League until just recently, expressed his unexpected intention to retire.메이저사이트
Castano said on his SNS on the 4th (Korea Standard Time), “After 25 years of baseball life, 9 years of professional, and 3 years of college, I have built a more important career in my life.”
Castano, who mentioned the Bible verse (Job 1:21), “I’m going to go back to my bare body because I came out of my motherhood,” said, “I’m going to put up a more important count to be a lovely husband, father, friend, believer,” and dreamed of a second life, saying, “I want to be on the other side of the stadium again.”
Castano, who was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 19th round of the 2016 MLB Rookie Draft, was not a standout player at first, as you can see from the rankings of his nominations. However, he steadily lived with a minor league team under the Miami Marlins and reached Double-A three years after joining the team, and made a surprise Major League call-up when the minor league was canceled due to COVID-19 in 2020. He showed compliance with 1-2 with an ERA of 3.03 in seven games (six starts) in his first season.
However, he failed to distinguish himself afterwards. He displayed below-average ball power and failed to overwhelm his opponents. In addition, he lost ground in the big leagues due to injury. During four seasons in the Major League through the 2023 season, he pitched in 24 games (17 starts) and recorded 2-7 with an ERA of 4.47. During the seven seasons in the Minor League, he played in 120 games (88 starts) with 42 wins and 28 losses with an ERA of 3.91.
Since then, Castano has signed a contract worth a total of 850,000 U.S. dollars with NC Dinos ahead of this season. Kang In-kwon, 52, the NC Dinos’ coach, expressed his expectations, saying, “Castano should be the first starter.” However, he lost the starting position to Kyle Hart, 32, due to cold during the spring camp.
This season, Castano recorded eight wins, six losses and a 4.35 ERA in 111 ⅔ innings in 19 games. Having consistently maintained his starting rotation, he took the mound in May due to elbow fatigue. He later succeeded in returning, but was eventually kicked out at the end of July due to his ups and downs. “The performance was not good in July, and especially if you look at the details of the game, there are aspects that were sluggish in the game against strong teams that have to fight for the semifinals,” NC’s general manager Lim Sun-nam said in a phone call with Star News.
Later, according to a source familiar with foreign news, multiple Taiwanese teams took part in efforts to recruit Castano. However, having been troubled by elbow problems, he decided to retire and ended his career at a young age.