Rayner Castillo aka “the Dragon” brims with potential.

Of all the Detroit Tigers prospect awards for 2024 we have discussed behind the scenes, this one was the toughest call. There are several standout performances across all the levels this season, especially when it comes to pitching.

For example, our TMLR Pitcher of the Year winner, Jaden Hamm, made his way onto the Baseball America Top 100 list, seemly out of nowhere. He could easily been given the award. Or could also make a case for a pair of left-handers in Gabriel Reyes, who struck out 64 in 47 innings of work at Lakeland or Jake Miller, who struck out 104 in 87 innings of work mainly between Lakeland and West Michigan. Lael Lockhart Jr in his first full season in the Tigers minor league system, also made a strong case after putting up solid numbers after his call-up to Toledo.

Gabriel Reyes has been having solid night down in Lakeland: 5IP 2H 1ER 1BB 9K pic.twitter.com/QN69pSVM6s

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) August 28, 2024

But right-hander Rayner Castillo(23rd on our TMLR Top 31) takes the award based on his advanced command of the strike zone and, like his teammate Josue Briceño, has a ton of upside based on his age (20) and has experienced a lot of growth in his first full season in Single-A ball. Here’s what Jerry had to say on Castillo.

One guy in A+ had 99+ IP, 30%+ K%, 8% or lower BB% this year. As as matter of fact, only 8 players have had that in one season in A+ since 2006. And for that alone, I had to go with Jaden Hamm for my pitchers of the year. And it’s nothing against the other guys, but what a year that was! Rayner Castillo quickly moved from the CPX league to Lakeland where he saw his Ks go down, but also saw his BBs take a dip as well. His 2.52 was 9th out of 58 guys with at least 60 IP and did so as the 7th youngest in that group. Lael Lockhart had a very good year despite what the numbers say. He threw 3 pitches 150 times and generated a 35%+ Whiff%, which is extremely good.

Castillo’s bread and butter was getting hitters to make contact with his power sinker. That resulted in a 58.6% ground ball rate, best among pitchers who threw 60 or more innings in the FSL. He held hitters to just a .201 batting average, posting a FIP of 3.98. The next step for Rayner is get more swings and misses with his fastball, which can touch 96-97, and continuing to develop a slider which has looked really impressive in Arizona this month.

Rayner Castillo got into trouble but limited the damage by getting Tre’ Morgan to swing over three straight sliders. pic.twitter.com/7eb0B5JSMg

— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) October 16, 2024

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