Cincinnati Reds 2018 season awards: Starting Pitcher of the Year

As we pass out the Cincinnati Reds 2018 season awards, today we focus on the Starting Pitcher of the Year. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much competition for Luis Castillo.

Blog Red Machine is handing out awards for the Cincinnati Reds 2018 season. Today we’re passing out the Starting Pitcher of the Year Award. There’s really only one player who’s deserving of the award, and while Luis Castillo had a nice season on the mound, there wasn’t much competition.

The Reds sent 10 starting pitchers to the mound in 2018 and only Castillo got to double-figures in wins. Castillo went 10-12 on the season with a 4.30 ERA. Castillo was shut down before his final scheduled start of the season after throwing almost 170 innings on the year.

Castillo did not get off to a good start to the 2018 season. In his 6 starts during the opening month of April, Castillo was a shell of the player Reds fans saw burst onto the scene in 2017. Castillo was 1-3 through 28.2 innings pitched and was sporting a 7.85 ERA. Castillo allowed multiple home runs in 2 of his first 6 starts.

The month of May was much kinder to Castillo. He seemed to find a better groove. Opposing batters went from hitting .304 in April to .236 in May. His ERA was only3.48 in six starts during May.

June reared its ugly head and took away all Castillo’s momentum, but he rebounded in July and only allowed one home run the entire month after surrendering six long balls in just five games during June.

Luis Castillo had no better performance than he did against the St. Louis Cardinals on September 1st. La Piedra went 6.2 innings and allowed only 2 hits, 2 walks, and struck out 11 batters. Castillo and the Reds shut out the Cardinals that evening 4-0.

That game was a precursor for how the entire month of September was going to unfold for Castillo. He went 3-1, with his lone loss coming against the San Diego Padres on September 6th. Castillo struck out 34 batters in 5 games and had an impressive ERA of 1.06.

No one on the team, however, allowed more home runs, and Castillo will have to get that under control heading into 2019. Castillo allowed 29 round-trippers, which was the third most in the National League.

The 2018 season was none too kind to almost every Cincinnati Reds starter, but Luis Castillo showed flashes of brilliance. He has one of the best changeups in the game and had the best ERA, WHIP, and SO9 on the team. Castillo has a great opportunity to be the Opening Day starter for Cincinnati next season.