The Indians’ center-field woes — which is how you describe it when four players combine for a 55 wRC+ and 0.2 WAR — earned them a spot on the center-field edition of my Replacement Level Killers series. On Tuesday afternoon, however, the club did something about that, acquiring 30-year-old flychaser Leonys Martin from the Tigers in exchange for 21-year-old switch-hitting Double-A shortstop Willi Castro, whom our own Eric Longenhagen called “Cleveland’s most realistic trade chip this summer” back in April.

The well-traveled Martin, who joins his fourth team since the end of the 2015 season — he spent 2016 and most of 2017 with the Mariners before being dealt to the Cubs on August 31 and then signing with the Tigers in December — is in the midst of his best offensive season, hitting .251/.321/.409 with nine homers and seven steals. As modest as that line looks, it’s good for a 98 wRC+, 16 points above his career mark and a strong turnaround from last year’s dismal .172/.232/.281 (35 wRC+) line, a performance so bad that he wound up making 388 plate appearances at Triple-A Tacoma. The uptick in production appears to be the result of a newfound ability to elevate the ball: his current ground-ball rate of 35.6 % is nearly 13 points below his pre-2018 mark and his ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio of 0.77 basically half of what it was. According to Statcast, his average launch angle has increased from 9.4 degrees for the 2015-17 seasons to 16.8, with his xwOBA jumping a neat 100 points, from .264 to .364.

So Martin is now a slightly above-average contributor relative to the combined 95 wRC+ from all MLB center fielders this year. He’s also a legitimately above-average defender (7.1 UZR, 3 DRS) whose 13.4 UZR/150 is even in line with his 2013-15 heyday with the Rangers. His overall 2.1 WAR should soon surpass his 2016 total of 2.2 for his best season since 2014. He’s a major improvement on both sides of the ball relative to what the Indians were getting from Rajai Davis, Tyler Naquin, the since-optioned Greg Allen, and the now-sidelined Bradley Zimmer.

Heading to Detroit is Castro, whom the Indians signed out of the Dominican Republic on July 2, 2013 for a reported bonus of $825,000. This spring, he placed 10th on the Indians’ top-prospect list, with a 45 FV grade overall. Wrote Longenhagen:

“Castro is a twitchy little plus-running shortstop who could be an above-average defender and hit a little bit if he can tone down his aggressiveness at the plate… He projects as an everyday shortstop and could be Cleveland’s most realistic trade chip this summer — both because Francisco Lindor exists and because the power-over-hit prospects ahead of him aren’t universally sought after while shortstops with bat-to-ball ability are.”

Castro is currently hitting just .245/.303/.350 with five homers, 13 steals, and a 6.8% walk rate for an 82 wRC+ at Double-A Akron. As Longenhagen pointed out to me, he’s +40 defensive runs over the past two seasons via Clay Davenport’s translations, though that might owe something to the frequency with which Indians minor-league teams shift. His ETA isn’t until 2020, so the rebuilding Tigers will need a stopgap if they trade or otherwise move on from pending free-agent Jose Iglesias. But for the roughly $1.18 million they paid Martin out of his $1.75 million salary, they’ve obtained a potential everyday player, which is nice work on their end as well.