The Pittsburgh Pirates have made their 23rd signing since the new international signing period started back on July 2nd. Today they officially added 16-year-old shortstop Jesus Castillo from Venezuela.
The Pirates needed to wait until Castillo turned 16, which happened on Friday. That will make him one of the youngest players in the Dominican Summer League next year. He’s a switch-hitter who grew a lot this last year, now standing 5’11”, 160 pounds. He’s described as having very natural instincts on defense, with solid hand-eye coordination. Castillo is very athletic and projects to stay at shortstop.
The Pirates went for a lot of pitching on day one of the signing period. They added some interesting outfielders, but two of the more interesting players from day one were shortstops Javier Rivas and Delfin Ramirez. They also added Taiwanese shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng last week, though he’s slightly older than this trio and will begin his career in the U.S. We won’t announce Castillo’s bonus because he’s from Venezuela, but he was one of the top targets for the Pirates during this signing period, so he would rate right up there with these other shortstops.
Here’s a video
Here’s the full list of players signed, along with bonuses where available.
Here’s a photo of Castillo at his signing
