The problem with the Luis Castillo deal

I don’t have a problem with the Mariners trading Luis Castillo.

He was the team’s fifth, perhaps sixth-best starting pitcher, and that’s not counting this strapping lad named Kade Anderson who’s going to be in the big leagues sooner rather than later.

Seranthony Domínguez will help a Mariners bullpen that is certifiably beleaguered, and perhaps the $15 million that Seattle will be saving on its future payroll will eventually find its way into a bat that helps this lineup.

But I’m not going to spend talking about the necessity of this move nor its wisdom. I’ve seen the Mariners run this play too many times to believe this will make all that much of a difference in the end.

Someone more cynical than myself would compare this to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I, on the other hand, recognize that the Mariners are not an actual disaster.

They are, however, a budget-conscious team who need to rob Peter if they want to pay Paul or — in this case — dump Castillo if they want to sign a bat in the offseason. I’ll explain more, but first, my diary entry from Sunday’s game:

You can always trade a player.

This was one of the first lessons I learned as a pro beat writer. It was 2002, I was 27 years old and had just begun covering the Seattle SuperSonics. While speaking to another team’s GM, I said it would be impossible for Seattle to trade Vin Baker.

“You can always trade a player,” the GM said. “You just have to be willing to take back worse players or a worse contract.”

Of course, he was right. Baker did wind up getting traded to the Boston Celtics for Kenny Anderson, Joseph Forte and Vitaly Potapenko.¹

And ever since then, the first step I take in evaluating any trade is to delineate whether a deal is being made based on the quality of a player being acquired or the quantity of his contract being offloaded.

When it comes to the Mariners’ trade of Luis Castillo, it’s definitely the latter.

I’m not saying that Seranthony Domínguez won’t help. He’s the relief pitcher the Chicago White Sox are sending back. He’ll help Seattle, especially with Eduard Bazardo going off the rails.

But the key to this deal is the money that Chicago is assuming. The White Sox are taking on every bit of the $30 million that Castillo is still owed on this deal as well as any potential options beyond 2027. Factor in the money that Dominguez will make, and Seattle is saving somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 million in future payroll obligations.

This is where some people will choose to raise six kinds of hell about how cheap the Mariners are.

I am not one of those people, however.

There is a logic and a sound rationale being employed: The Mariners are acquiring a useful reliever and $15 million of spending room for a guy who is the team’s fifth, maybe sixth-best starting pitcher.

The trade of Castillo is the first step in reallocating resources from an area of strength (starting pitching) to an area that could use improvement (presumably the batting order).

The problem is that I’ve seen the Mariners do this plenty of times. Almost three years ago, between the 2003 and 2004 seasons, they traded Robbie Ray to the Giants for what was left of Mitch Haniger and a relief pitcher named Anthony DeSclafani. They pretty much gave Eugenio Suarez away to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

They did this so they could make room in the budget to acquire Jorge Polanco in a trade from the Twins and sign (wait for it) Mitch Garver as a free agent.

Woof. That’s a chain reaction reminiscent of the old lady who swallowed the spider to catch the fly, and who perhaps will die.

In each case, the Mariners accepted less valuable players to offload a more onerous contract.

The reason they did this was the same reason they traded Castillo: To acquire spending room.

Maybe it will turn out better this time. I’m not going to hold my breath, though.

So you can miss me with all the explanations of why this was the sort of thing the Mariners had to do. I’m also not at all interested in hearing anyone justify this deal by pointing to Castillo’s less-than-enthusiastic response to the piggyback arrangement or any other less subtle character assassinations.

Castillo was a hell of a pitcher for Seattle. His acquisition in 2022 was a turning point for this franchise as it went on to break the longest postseason drought in baseball.

The fact that he’s being traded now, however, is more about the ceiling the Mariners have imposed on themselves than it is about anything else.