CHCIAGO -- Chicago Cubs first-year manager Dale Sveum might have been hardest on Starlin Castro this season, but he also showed him the utmost respect.

Although Sveum didn’t exactly come out and say it, he suggested that Castro will end up playing in all 162 games, meaning that even if he does go with a lineup made up entirely of reserves for the season finale Wednesday, Castro will be featured in some capacity.

“Yeah, there’s no reason not to (play Castro),” Sveum said. “Like I said, at this point now, you can get your rest during the winter. We have two night games and a day game so at this point there is no reason to rest anybody for no reasons.

There were a number of situations that drew Sveum’s ire this season and Castro was involved in his fair share of them. He forgot how many outs there were on defense, made a particularly poor decision on the bases and seemed lackluster in the field at times.

Sveum still stuck with his young shortstop, though, even when saying at one point that he was considering benching Castro for at least a game for disciplinary reasons.

Much of Castro’s distractions seemed to come from midseason contract negotiations that were finally resolved in late August. After a contract extension was finalized, Castro took off again offensively.

He entered Monday’s game batting .285 after his average had dropped as low as .272 on Aug. 14.

“It’s still something to hang your hat on, too, to play in 162 games,” Sveum said. “It doesn’t happen very often anymore.”