Monte Carmelo Castillo (June 8, 1958 – November 15, 2015) was an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catc ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

who played for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

and

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

. Castillo died of heart problems on November 15, 2015.

Baseball career

In 631 games over 10 seasons, Castillo posted a .252

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(383-for-1519) with 190 runs, 55

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

, 197

RBIs A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

and 90

bases on balls A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Se ...

. He recorded a .953

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, divi ...

as an outfielder. Signed as a free agent by the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citizen ...

in 1978, Castillo was taken by the Indians on December 5 of that year in the Rule 5 Double-A draft. He had played for two minor teams in the Phillies organization in 1978. Castillo spent 1979 split between Low-A Batavia and Single-A Waterloo, before spending the entire 1980 season with Waterloo again. In 1981, he was moved up to Double-A Chattanooga, and in 1982, he was promoted to Triple-A Charleston. He would begin 1983 with Charleston before his promotion to the Major Leagues, his debut coming on July 17, 1982 in Cleveland against the California Angels. He would go 0-for-3 with a strikeout while playing left field. Castillo would spend some time in the 1983 season back at Triple-A Charleston, with multiple promotions to the Indians. He would only play 23 games in the majors that year, but hit a respectable .278 in that time. 1984 would be his first full season, platooning in right field with

George Vukovich George Stephen Vukovich (born June 24, 1956) is a former right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Indians in all or part of six seasons from 1980–1985. Listed at 6' 0" , 198 lb. , Vukovich bat ...

, and appearing in 87 games overall. Castillo would spend some time at Triple-A Maine in 1985, while also appearing in 67 major league games that year. He would again spend full years in the majors in 1986, 1987 and 1988 with the Indians. In 1986, he would platoon with

Cory Snyder James Cory Snyder (born November 11, 1962) is an American former professional baseball right fielder and the manager of the Northern Colorado Owlz. He played nine seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1986 to 1994 for the Cleveland Indians ...

and

Joe Carter Joseph Chris Carter (born March 7, 1960) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder and first baseman for the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, San Diego Padres, Toronto Blue Jays, ...

in right field and

Andre Thornton André Thornton (born August 13, 1949), nicknamed "Thunder", is an American former professional baseball player and business entrepreneur. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman and designated hitter from to , most prominently as ...

designated hitter The designated hitter (DH) is a baseball player who bats in place of another position player, most commonly the pitcher. The position is authorized by Major League Baseball Rule 5.11. It was adopted by the American League in 1973 and later by ...

. Castillo would play more games than he did previously in a season in 1987, appearing in 89 games and again platooning with Snyder and

Pat Tabler Patrick Sean Tabler (born February 2, 1958) is an American former Major League Baseball player. After retiring professional baseball, he became a color analyst for the Toronto Blue Jays on the Canadian sports television networks TSN and Sportsn ...

at DH. He tied his career high with 11 home runs and set a career high with 220 at-bats and 17 doubles. 1988 would be more of a down year for Castillo, not seeing as much playing time. On March 26, 1989, just before the start of the season, Castillo was dealt to the Twins for pitcher Keith Atherton. 1989 would be a solid season for him, playing in a career-high 94 games while seeing most of his time in right field in a platoon with

Randy Bush Randy is a given name, popular in the United States and Canada. It is primarily a masculine name. It was originally derived from the names Randall, Randolf, Randolph, as well as Bertrand and Andrew, and may be a short form (hypocorism) of the ...

. 1990 would see Castillo relegated to more of a bench role, and his 1991 season did not start off well, resulting in him being released by the Twins on May 10. On May 25, Castillo would sign with the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. The Brewers are named for the city's association wi ...

, and was assigned to Triple-A Denver, where he would spend the rest of the season. The Twins would go on to win the

1991 World Series The 1991 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) held after the 1991 season. The 88th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Minnesota Twins ...

. Castillo spent the 1992 season in the Mexican Baseball League before retiring.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castillo, Carmelo 1958 births 2015 deaths Auburn Sunsets players Batavia Trojans players Charleston Charlies players Chattanooga Lookouts players Cleveland Indians players Denver Zephyrs players Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in Mexico Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in the United States Helena Phillies players Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic Maine Guides players Minnesota Twins players Olmecas de Tabasco players People from San Francisco de Macorís Waterloo Indians players