The Los Angeles Dodgers selected the contract of Fabio Castillo and immediately optioned him to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Justin Marks was designated for assignment to create room for Castillo on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster.
The paper move comes on a Dodgers’ off day and essentially leaves Castillo where he’s been since late April. Though, it does protect the team from the right-hander potentially opting out of his deal. A similar situation unfolded and led to the Dodgers calling up Brandon Morrow last month.
Castillo signed a Minor League contract in January. He began the season with Oklahoma City, but was demoted to Double-A Tulsa after just one start. Castillo went 0-1 with a 1.29 ERA in seven innings across three relief appearances for the Drillers.
Since rejoining Oklahoma City, the 28-year-old is 3-2 with one save and a 2.73 ERA over eight games (six starts). Castillo collected 35 strikeouts against nine walks over that span.
He’s 35-54 with 25 saves and a 4.43 ERA in 347 games (57 starts) over 11 Minor League seasons with the Texas Rangers (2006-12), San Francisco Giants (2013), Baltimore Orioles (2014), Cincinnati Reds (2014), San Diego Padres (2016) and Dodgers (2017) systems.
Castillo was signed by the Rangers in July 2005 as an amateur free agent. He’s yet to pitch in the Majors.
The Dodgers’ 40-man roster remains full. There was shuffling on Wednesday, when Chris Heston was claimed off waivers by the Minnesota Twins, which opened a spot. However, the Dodgers then reinstated Brock Stewart from the 60-day disabled list and optioned him to Oklahoma City.
