Wild Things Sign RHP Ryan Castellanos
WASHINGTON, Pa. (Jan. 8) - Today the Washington Wild Things announced the signing of right-handed pitcher Ryan Castellanos to a contract.
Castellanos, whose brother Nick plays in the big leagues with the Detroit Tigers, played his college ball at the University of Illinois for two years before transferring to Nova Southeastern University (Fla.) for his third and final collegiate season.
He was drafted in the 25th round of the 2015 MLB Amateur Draft, and played in the Tigers' organizations for three seasons.
"Coming from a college with a championship mentality, we value Ryan’s experience throwing in big games. During his tenure with the Tigers we saw an ability to work deep into games and put his team in position to win," said Wild Things' general manager Steven Zavacky. "Ryan is an aggressive worker on the mound, attacking hitters and historically keeping the ball on the ground. We know he is going to pound the zone and compete."
Ryan, a 23-year old, played in high school at Archbishop McCarthy before playing at the next level. In two seasons with the Fighting Illini, Castellanos pitched in 24 games (16 starts), and was 7-5. In 102 innings at Illinois, he surrendered 60 earned runs but just six home runs, and walked only 16 batters. After transferring to Nova Southeastern, Ryan was 9-3 with a career-best 3.23 earned run average in 15 appearances. All but one of those were starts, and he logged 97.2 innings, gave up 35 earned runs, walked 17 and struck out 61.
After being drafted by Detroit, Castellanos pitched for the Gulf Coast League Tigers (rookie-ball level), before being promoted as high as Advanced-A ball with Lakeland in 2015. He played at two levels, Low-A and Single-A, in 2016, and for Connecticut in the New York-Penn League in 2017, before his release. He walked 34 and struck out 91 hitters in his three seasons in the Detroit organization and held a record of 16-13.
Castellanos now joins the Wild Things for Spring Training in late April, and looks to make an impact on the mound for a team coming off its successful 2017 campaign.
Writer's Note: We're hoping to hear from Castellanos, at which point we will add more to the story.
