The last line of Baseball-Reference’s explanation of MLB’s Restricted List notes that while it can be used for, “players who are out of organized baseball but are not free agents,” it is also, “... used to place a player who is unavailable to play for non-baseball reasons, such as personal issues or trouble with the law.”
Starlin Castro, who was placed on the Restricted List in advance of the series finale with the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday, was put on it so he could deal with a family matter apparently.
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“He has some family matters that he needs to attend to,” Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez told reporters in his pregame Zoom call on Wednesday afternoon.