Cubs make big move, and Castro enters big leagues in a big way

CINCINNATI - The Cubs had two stated reasons for bringing shortstop phenom Starlin Castro to the big leagues Friday.

And if they get another benefit, that's OK with them, too.

The move had an immediate benefit when Castro hit a 3-run homer in his first major-league at-bat, an opposite-field shot to right to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead over the Reds in the second inning Friday night.

General manager Jim Hendry decided to select the 20-year-old Castro from Class AA Tennessee in the wake of the Cubs getting swept in three games at Pittsburgh.

The Cubs optioned infielder Chad Tracy to Class AAA Iowa, but the bigger moves were inserting Castro as the starting shortstop and moving Ryan Theriot from short to second base.

Getting better defense up the middle and rewarding Castro for a good start in the minor leagues were the Cubs' main talking points. But the timing of the move suggests that a little spark might not hurt this struggling ballclub, either.

"Sometimes you make changes, and that happens," Hendry said. "Hopefully the young man gets off to a good start. We're certainly not going to put a lot of pressure on him to do that. We just want him to come up and play good defense and let the offense take care of itself."

Manager Lou Piniella put Castro into the eighth spot in the batting order and said that's where he'd stay for a while. As far as providing a spark, Piniella said he was taking the longer view.

"I don't know about a spark, but, look, you can't look at this thing day to day," he said. "It gets too tiring. It gets too cumbersome. You've got to look at things over a period of time. I know here at times we go three or four games in a row and score 30 runs and we're going to the World Series.

"And all of a sudden, we score 5 runs in three games and the season's about over. You've got to look at things with a little (longevity) to them. And that's all we're doing with this move. We're not looking at today or tomorrow. We're looking at something that's going to make us better over the long haul."

Castro went to spring training with the Cubs as a nonroster player before being sent to Tennessee. In 26 games, he had a hitting line of .376/.421/.569 with 1 home run, 8 doubles, 5 triples and 20 RBI.

A native of Monte Cristy in the Dominican Republic, Castro became the youngest player to make his debut at shortstop. He said he got the call at 7 a.m. Friday from Tennessee manager Bill Dancy.

"Good, really good; I'm happy," he said when asked how he felt about the call-up. "When the manager called and said, 'You made the majors,' I said, 'Are you serious?' I said that. I didn't believe it."

Theriot took over as the Cubs' everyday shortstop early in the 2007, replacing Cesar Izturis. He earned praise from both Hendry and Piniella as he made way for the organization's top-rated prospect.

"We also felt that he (Castro) could come up and we would get better defensively having him at short and moving Ryan to second, which we think would be good for him, too," Hendry said.

"Obviously, Ryan's a quality player, a .300 hitter, but we do feel at this point in his career that he might be better suited to go on the other side of the bag."

Theriot and Castro worked out together around the second-base bag Friday afternoon. Theriot said he found out about the impending move Thursday night in Pittsburgh.

"In spring training, it was pretty evident," Theriot said. "Everybody probably kind of knew that was coming. We were all prepared. It's going to make our team better. Hopefully it'll kick-start things soon."