MIAMI -- Not to be overlooked in Friday’s 7-1 loss to the Braves at Marlins Park is the fact that Starlin Castro surpassed the 1,500 career-hit plateau.
Castro reached the milestone with his second-inning double, and he added an RBI single in the ninth.
Entering Saturday, Castro’s 1,501 hits are the sixth most in the Majors since he broke in as a 20-year-old rookie in 2010.
At age 29, the veteran second baseman still has plenty of time to reach even more benchmarks.
“Starlin’s got a lot left,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “You see guys sometimes get better at this age. I think you look at him as old, just because of how long you’ve seen him. There’s a lot left in there.”
Castro made his MLB debut with the Cubs on May 7, 2010, against the Reds. His first big league hit was a home run off Homer Bailey. Hit No. 1,500 was a double off Mike Soroka.
Because of where the Marlins are in their rebuilding process and Castro’s contract status, there is a chance he won’t be with Miami after the July 31 Trade Deadline.
Castro is drawing some interest, but until something happens, he's anchoring second base for Miami.
“As guys get older, they’ve got to work harder to say at that level,” Mattingly said.
With a history of durability, Castro could realistically top 2,000 hits before he calls it a career.
“When I got to the big leagues for the first time, I didn’t know if I’d get 1,000 hits,” Castro said. “Now, I got 1,500.”
Since 2010, when Castro broke into the big leagues, the leaders in hits during that span heading into play on Saturday are: Robinson Cano (1,636), Nick Markakis (1,591), Adam Jones (1,584), Andrew McCutchen (1,540), Miguel Cabrera (1,517) and Castro.
“I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing,” Castro said. “Trying to stay healthy. Take care of myself and just play. If you can stay healthy, a lot of good things can happen.”
Vanderbilt watch
The Marlins are closely watching Vanderbilt in the NCAA Super Regional. When their season ends, they are expected to quickly lock up the services of their No. 1 pick in the 2019 MLB Draft.
With the fourth overall pick, Miami took outfielder JJ Bleday. No signing issues are expected with Bleday, but nothing will be completed contractually until Vanderbilt’s season ends.
Twitter words with Brewers
There was some back and forth on social media this week between the Marlins' and Brewers' Twitter accounts. Miami took two of three from Milwaukee at Miller Park last week.
One tweet from the Brewers dealt with thanking the Marlins for trading them Christian Yelich, the reigning National League MVP. In the deal that was completed after the 2017 season, Miami received Lewis Brinson, Monte Harrison, Isan Diaz and Jordan Yamamoto.
Mattingly said time will tell how the trade fully plays out.
“You never know in three years what that trade might look like,” Mattingly said. “We knew what we were giving up in that trade. There is no re-found magic. The ball flies out of Milwaukee. He hit 21 homers here [in 2016].
“If [Marlins Park] is that ballpark, he would have probably hit 40. It wasn’t like we were getting tricked. We knew what we were doing. But we’ll see in a couple of years what it looks like.”