Jason Castro is coming off a breakout season with the Houston Astros, but one achievement off the field made 2013 a memorable year for the starting catcher.
Castro was voted into his first All-Star Game last summer after three years in The Show, with a slash line of .276/.350/.485 (130 OPS+). He hit 35 doubles, 18 homers and 56 RBI in 120 games, and to put the cherry on top of a very positive year, Castro earned his degree from Stanford University, according to MLB.com.
When he was drafted out of Stanford in 2008, Castro was 25 units shy of earning his degree. He got 15 out of the way in 2010, but hampered by injury rehab during each offseason, he never had a chance to finish the last two classes — until now.
“That was my intention my whole time, to graduate,” Castro said via cell phone while vacationing in Hawaii. “I was so close when I was [drafted]. It wasn’t a question of getting it. It was question of when.”
As soon as the 2013 season was over, Castro hightailed it back to Northern California to finish up. A few weeks ago he turned in his last term paper, took one final exam and became a college graduate.
Castro said he hopes to play in the majors for years to come, but it’s nice to know that he always has a fallback option.
“We can’t play baseball as long as we’d like,” Castro said. “At some point, I’ll probably put [the degree] to use. Who knows what, but just having it and knowing it’s something done and out of the way, when baseball is over, it’s nice.”
Photo via Twitter/@EvoShield
