The Seattle Mariners acquired right-hander Luis Castillo from the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night in the first major move before Major League Baseball’s Aug. 2 trade deadline. In return, the Mariners sent four prospects to Cincinnati: shortstops Noelvi Marte and Edwin Arroyo and right-handers Levi Stoudt and Andrew Moore.
The Mariners, currently the second team in the American League, are trying to make the postseason for the first time since 2001. Castillo should bolster a rotation, both this season and next, that already includes the Cy Young Award winner and Robbie Ray. quality youngsters Logan Gilbert and George Kirby. His addition comes at a high prospect cost for the Mariners, but it shows how serious top executive Jerry Dipoto is about ending the longest playoff drought in the sport.
As for Cincinnati, Castillo’s departure is the latest (though not the last) part of an ongoing rebuild that dates back to last winter. The Reds are in full talent-hoarding mode right now, and it’s fair to write that they got a nice return on their ace and his remaining season and a half of team control.
Here at CBS Sports, we’re nothing but judicial, and that means providing near-instant analysis of the big trades this time of year. Below you will find “ratings” for both the Mariners and the Reds, along with explanations of those ratings.
With that out of the way, let’s start by summarizing the deal:
Sailors receive
The reds receive
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SS Noelvi Marte
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SS Edwin Arroyo
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RHP Levi Stoudt
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RHP Andrew Moore
Sailor grade: A
That’s the kind of trade you make when you haven’t made the playoffs in over two decades. Seriously, though, this is a welcome sight in a few ways, starting with how it rewards a passionate (and tormented) Seattle fan base and extending to how it taps into the counterculture in the league as a whole.
Teams are too happy these days to take a postseason spot for granted. Its executives will make a marginal update or two in the margins. If the chips fall as they may and it’s enough to make the playoffs, great; otherwise, why risk losing sweet, sweet upside for anything less than a division title?
The Mariners won’t win the AL West. They will enter Saturday as close to the Houston Astros as the San Diego Padres are to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Adding Castillo bolsters their postseason odds and, more importantly, makes them a more dangerous October opponent.
Note that the new playoff format eliminates the only wild card game; the top two finishers in each league will have a bye while the others will play a best-of-three series at the best team’s stadium. The Mariners now have a better chance of hosting this series and can field a three-game rotation that includes Castillo, the reigning Cy Young Award winner, and Logan Gilbert, one of the sport’s most promising young starters. This is a tough set of matchups for the Toronto Blue Jays or any other team looking to navigate their way forward.
Assuming the exit package, as good as it is, wouldn’t have been enough for Juan Soto or Shohei Ohtani, then Castillo was the most impactful player the Mariners could have gotten back. In other words, the 29-year-old Castillo could get the assignment for the first game. After missing the start of the season due to shoulder issues, he has bounced back to post a 2.86 ERA (160 ERA+) and a 3.21 walk ratio in 14 starts . Since the start of the pandemic era, he ranks seventh in wins above replacement among starters. He’s also under team control through the end of next season, and despite the aforementioned shoulder issue, has made a full roster of starts every year since 2018. The Mariners should feel optimistic that Castillo can offer them many quality outings. from now until winter 2023.
Castillo’s signature presentation is his change. It is one of, if not the best of its kind and he has often used it as his main offering throughout his career. However, Castillo’s change has not been the focus of his attention so far this season; Instead, that honor goes to his four-seam fastball, which averages 97 mph and has produced a .125 batting average against and a career-high 38.7 percent whiff rate among pitchers with at least 300 four-seamer pitchers bowled to date. Castillo also sinks his fastball and throws a slider, but for our money, it’s the four-seamer and changeup that make him good.
Most people would have agreed going into Friday morning that it would be great to see the Mariners break out and that Castillo was the best pitcher on the market. Now that the cost is known, there is likely to be some disagreement now as to whether or not this trade was worth what comes next. It was a lot to give up, to be sure, and this trade will limit Seattle’s ability to make more moves, this summer and into the future. The addition of Castillo could end up being the difference between the Mariners winning a playoff series (or more) and not.
We’re giving the Mariners a grade because we think teams, especially those who aren’t the usual suspects, prioritizing deep playoff potential is healthier for the sport, and because we really like Castillo as a pitcher. We would understand if someone gave them a worse grade because of the large amount of talent they gave up for a relatively short-term fix.
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Red grade: A
It’s become fashionable for struggling teams to hit the reset button by trading every player approaching free agency or the seven-figure bench. There is no easier way for a CEO to gain additional job security than to invoke a five-year rebuilding plan. In this way, the owner saves a lot of money and the executive does not have to deliver results. Just trust the process, man. Skepticism bordering on cynicism is justified whenever a team embarks on this path.
The worst, most cowardly of these situations, the ones where the clear goal is to save the owner money at the expense of the team, looks a lot like what the Reds did in the offseason. They rushed off catcher Tucker Barnhart for a non-prospect and dealt lefty Wade Miley off waivers to the Chicago Cubs. Both moves were inexplicable, even at the time, and suggested the Reds would take the long, hard and cheap route back to relevance. (It didn’t help that the owner’s son, a replacement-level outfit, pitched to the fans early in the season.) This trade, on the other hand, is rebuilding well.
The Reds extracted the two best prospects from a good Seattle farm system in exchange for a year and a half of Castillo in a market deal that feels ripped from the past. Teams these days generally don’t recoup that much potential capital for pitchers this close to free agency. Throw in Cincinnati’s selection of Cam Collier, easily the best value in the first round, and the Reds have added three high position player prospects to their farm system in a matter of weeks.
Of course, it’s never easy to trade a pitcher of Castillo’s caliber, especially when he stands out as one of the franchise’s biggest recent R&D wins. (The Reds acquired Castillo from the Miami Marlins in 2017 for Dan Straily; Castillo made 137 starts for the Reds after that, compared to Straily’s 56 with the Fish.) To do it now, and for this return, is a defensible baseball decision on multiple levels.
Castillo, while largely durable throughout his career, missed the start of the season due to shoulder issues. His impending free agency means the Reds had to make a call, either by extending him or trading him; the former felt like a dubious decision given the Reds’ placement on the win curve and the risks associated with giving a veteran starter, even a very good one, a long-term contract worth his market
Marte, 20, entered the spring ranked by CBS Sports as the 11th best prospect in the sport. He has spent the year in High-A, where he has faced competition that is, on average, close to three years his senior. That hasn’t stopped him from hitting .275/.363/.462 or tallying 34 extra-base hits (including 15 homers) and 13 stolen bases in 85 games.
Marte combines great raw power with a sense of contact and zone. He has never struck out in more than 22 percent of his plate appearances over a full season, but he has worked reliably in at least nine percent of his trips to the plate. If there is one area of concern with his offensive game, it has to do with his propensity to wear down left field. His 55 percent strikeout rate would rank third-highest in the majors, trailing only Daulton Varsho and Byron Buxton. The Reds can work with Marte to use the entire field to make him harder to defend, or they can conclude that there is no defense for him by clearing the wall; Either way, he has enough work going for him in tools and performance to think he’ll develop into an above-average hitter.
Marte’s biggest drawback is his defense. He made 30 errors in 99 games last season, and this year he already has 24 errors in 81 games. The Reds will likely have their trainers work with him…