The Reds finally moved their ace, Luis Castillo, on Friday night, sending the 29-year-old right-hander to the Seattle Mariners for a package that included Seattle’s top prospect, Noelvi Marte. Everyone expected Castillo to be traded before the Aug. 2 deadline, and the deal did not disappoint, confirming that the Reds are in the middle of a rebuild and the Mariners are eager.
The Mariners sent Marte, 21, to Cincinnati, along with shortstop Edwin Arroyo and right-handers Andrew Moore and Levi Stoudt. Arroyo, in particular, is considered a quality prospect, and all but Moore were included on Keith Law’s list of the Mariners’ top 20 prospects before the season. In return, Seattle got the consensus best pitcher on the market, a top-line starter to pair with 2021 AL Cy Young winner Robbie Ray.
Meanwhile, the Reds, who already traded Tyler Naquin to the Mets on Thursday, continue to topple a big league team that is 38-61, and that record is truly impressive considering they opened the season 3-22.
The Athletic’s panel of MLB experts weigh in on what the trade means for the Reds, Mariners and Castillo.
Andy McCullough, National MLB Writer
Where were you in the summer of 2001? I was about to start high school. Seattle president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto had just retired from pitching to take a job in the Rockies’ front office. Scott Servais was trying to stick around as a catcher for the Astros. And the Seattle Mariners were running away with the American League West. Much has changed in the intervening decades: my hair is fading grayer by the day. Dipoto and Servais run the show in Seattle. And the Mariners, for the first time since that 116-win season in 2001, are in position to reach the playoffs and end the longest postseason drought in American sports.
Luis Castillo’s career K rate – 9.8/9 IPLuis Castillo’s career ERA+ – 126
All #Mariners starters in history with such a good K rate and ERA+:
Randy Johnson
(final list)
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) July 30, 2022
The club only strengthened its comfortable place in the American League with a change of Castillo. To acquire Castillo, the Mariners emptied a portion of their farm system to improve the starting rotation for both 2022 and 2023. The team also created more clarity on the draw for Juan Soto.
The pieces are moving off the board now, the dominoes falling as Tuesday’s trade deadline approaches. The Yankees picked up Andrew Benintendi on Wednesday. Castillo, the best pitcher on the market, is gone. Seattle is unlikely to have enough potential capital to acquire Soto. But the Padres, Cardinals and Dodgers are still well positioned to pry Soto from the Nationals, if those clubs are willing to meet Washington general manager Mike Rizzo’s asking price.
The Yankees also have a pretty strong farm system. The team had identified their rotation as a potential area to upgrade. With Castillo gone, will the Bombers focus on Oakland starter Frankie Montas? Or will they reflect on the price of Soto? In the coming days we will know the answers. For now, folks in Seattle and the greater Pacific Northwest can prepare for a drought to end and a playoff chase to unfold.
C. Trent Rosecrans, Reds writer
As happy as Dipoto is to acquire Castillo, there are two people in the Mariners clubhouse who are perhaps even more excited: Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suárez. Because? Because they know exactly what the sailors are getting at Castillo. They’re getting an ace and an ace who thrives in big moments and has dominated in one of baseball’s most challenging environments at Great American Ball Park.
Put Castillo in Seattle? wow
Winker and Suarez, like Castillo, were beloved in Cincinnati. However, the team signaled their direction earlier in the season when it sent the pair to Seattle at the start of spring training. The Reds’ goal in 2022 was not to win, but to shed the payroll and look to the future of 2024 when Joey Votto and Mike Moustakas were on the payroll and on the roster.
The Reds had some trade chips and bolstered their system with their trade to the Mariners earlier this season, but this should shoot the Reds up in the farm system standings. Castillo still has another year of control, so the return had to be massive, and it is.
The deal is headed by a pair of shortstops, Marte and Arroyo. Shortstop was already the Reds’ strongest position on the farm with Elly De La Cruz, Jose Barrero and Matt McLain, but now it’s even deeper. The thing is, you can never have too many short stops. You know who else started at shortstop? Almost every other right-handed big leaguer. Again, you can never, ever, ever have too many short stops.
The right-handed Stoudt is a good starting pitcher, and a scout texted me that Moore is the sleeper of the deal, a big arm who has hit 102 mph with a plus slider.
Will all these players train? It’s hard to say. But for a team that wouldn’t be willing to sign Castillo long-term, that’s a stretch and exactly what the Reds needed to do to maximize a chip like Castillo.
Corey Brock, Mariners writer
The Mariners entered Friday’s game at Houston with the best ERA in baseball over their last 55 games (2.96). So why add the 29-year-old Castillo?
First, this team feels it has a real chance to end its 21-year postseason drought. He had to make a big splash. This isn’t Soto, but it’s the best arm available. And that’s telling: The Mariners, who recently rode a 14-game winning streak, aren’t playing around. They take themselves seriously in the postseason dance. Second, the club knows it has to watch the workload of two of its best young starters, Logan Gilbert and George Kirby.
Noelvi Marte is considered Seattle’s best prospect. (Larry Goren/Four Seams Images via AP)
Castillo is an ace in every sense of the word, and he should thrive from the Reds’ ballpark to the sprawling T-Mobile Park. He is under team control through 2023. Castillo’s four-seam fastball (.125 batting average against) and changeup (.196) have been nearly unbeatable this season. The comeback is strong, as these things can be, and indicates that the sailors are doing it. Marte was the club’s top prospect and Arroyo probably would have been their No. 2 prospect. The 18-year-old is cutting the Cal League.
Eno Sarris, national MLB writer
In Castillo, the sailors get an ace. Since entering the league in 2017, only one qualified starter has had as high a ground ball rate as he has shown and struck out more batters, so he’s able to minimize damage and keep hitters out of the way. from the base He has power and command and has been able to keep the ball in the park in a terrible park for pitchers — he’ll be glad to get out of Cincinnati.
It’s a full arsenal. This year, he’s flattened his four-seam machine and is showing the best fastball of his career, to go with a plus slider and an elite changeup. Being able to play the two fastballs back to back gives him a true four-pitch mix with command. He’s one of 15 pitchers in the big leagues this year with above-average stuff and three or more field locations.
There is always debate about what a real ace is. Maybe Castillo is on the wrong side of that for some, and so they’ll talk about how big the pitch was for the Reds and consider the idea that maybe the Mariners overpaid. But a guy with that kind of speed and that kind of advanced command of a big arsenal? He looks like a leader in personnel and will change the top of Seattle’s rotation either way. Probably worth the prospects.
Stephen Nesbitt, MLB National Writer
After weeks of speculation about where Castillo would land, the answer was not New York, or Los Angeles, but Seattle. The Mariners announced themselves as big players this trade deadline by acquiring the best starting pitcher available. Castillo immediately elevates the Mariners’ rotation: he and Robbie Ray will be a two-punch in the playoffs. Castillo has a career 3.22 ERA at home, though Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park is tied with Coors Field for the worst pitcher’s park in the majors, according to Statcast park factors. Now their ballpark is T-Mobile Park, which is considered the best for pitchers. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the difference.
The wave of young pitchers the Mariners have at or near the major league level, from Gilbert to Kirby to Matt Brash to Emerson Hancock and more, represents a bright future, but Dipoto acknowledged that the best play for now was strengthen the rotation. with a veteran arm. The price was steep, as the Mariners parted with three of their top five prospects, but there’s reason to believe Castillo will provide enough value over the next 15 months to make the cost worth it, even if elsewhere in free agency.
(Photo: Rick Scooteri / USA Today)