The Mariners have won their arbitration case with reliever Diego Castillo, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter link). He’ll be paid at the team’s filing rate of $2.95MM rather than his camp’s requested $3.225MM figure.
Castillo has played a season and a half in the Pacific Northwest. Acquired from the Rays at the 2021 trade deadline, he’s provided the M’s with 76 1/3 innings of 3.42 ERA ball. That includes a 3.64 mark over 54 1/3 frames last season, with the big righty striking out a solid 23.9% of opponents against a slightly elevated 9.9% walk percentage. That’s not quite the level he’d managed during his best seasons in Tampa Bay but has still made him a solid high-leverage option for manager Scott Servais.
He’ll again take on some key innings as part of what should be another strong Seattle relief unit. Andrés Muñoz, Paul Sewald, Penn Murfee and Matt Brash are among the other righties who could log key work. The M’s don’t have an established left-hander in the group — offseason waiver claims Tayler Saucedo and Gabe Speier are the only two lefty relievers on the 40-man roster — but the unit was nevertheless among the league’s top ten in both ERA and strikeout percentage last season.
Castillo has between four and five years of MLB service time. He’ll be eligible for arbitration again next winter before qualifying for free agency over the 2024-25 offseason, at which point he’ll be entering his age-31 season. Seattle still has pending arbitration hearings with Teoscar Hernández and Dylan Moore.
love the guys that go arbitration. Insane the process involves the team making a case against a player on their team. Such a bad system. Good for him for fighting. PA should give these guys a bonus for just going that far.
I’m not sure why you posted as you did. The system has been in place for decades and clearly favors the players who are in a win or win more situation. Players are adults and usually control whether or not a hearing takes place. Most owners would rather compromise and not put the player through the experience. Moreover, like trial attorneys do, players are prepped and can even go through a mock hearing so they know what to expect.
I’m typically pretty pro-player, but why on Earth should they get a bonus for going through arbitration and losing?
If the owner’s offer was too low, the player could have an easy win. In a typical high/low arbitration, the arbitrator doesn’t know the submissions and the person gets the decision value understanding the minimum and maximum amounts pre-agreed to. Here the existing MLBPA agreement dictates as they already agreed to submit values and the arbitrator is forced to choose between the submitted numbers (with no ability to award any other figure).
No, we need to keep a lid on players’ salaries.
If we don’t the game will self-destruct when times get tough again.
And that will happen. It always does eventually.
Baseball has survived some rough times, true, but I say we are at the limit now. Real life ain’t no Field of Dreams, in spite of what we may wish.
We’ve thought this for years if not decades. It’s now a game for the wealthy to see in person (I used to get field box seats as a teenager, how many today can afford that?). The real test is the economy when the next round of TV deals are done. Amazon and Meta (YouTube’s parent) are laying off like never before and if advertising doesn’t return, I’m not sure if this expansion of rights fees will continue. They will always need content but at what cost!
Wealthy? I am not what you would call rich especially for the area I live in, but take my 3 kids to at least 3/4 games a year and honestly it is about the same price as going to the movies, minus the parking. I usually purchase $15 – 17 per tix but have seen them as low as $8.
Mariner. Thanks. I grew up in CT and would usually travel to Fenway and Yankee Stadium 4 to 5 times a year. Prime seats in NY and Boston has gotten out of hand.
Bob Uecker seats are usually able to fit a budget but he was talking field box seats. Those are not affordable for the kids to buy. My friends and I could take the bus, and still afford decent tickets back in the 70s. Not happening today.
Exactly. Thank God for HD big screens. I’d rather spend my money on a new set than pay box seats prices.
@Dewey Google (or Alphabet) owns YouTube. Amazon (retail/tech) and Meta (advertising/tech) are different sectors and don’t correlate to entertainment (baseball). Ballgame tickets are still affordable to me and I’m no Richie Rich.
You must sit in non-premium seats. I used to work for a small company that had four seats at the old Stadium. In 2009, they had to take inferior seats at the new one because the price for the equivalent jumped 250% from 2008.
“we need to keep a lid on players’ salaries”
Really? Why are the players the only ones who should be expected to make a sacrifice to save the game? What about the billionaire owners?
gbs42, ????
It is immaterial how the owners got rich enough to become owners.
I am talking about the whole process within the game itself.
That is what is leading the game to destruction.
Lean times are a-coming, you can count on it.
You specifically – and exclusively – mentioned players’ salaries. If your expectation is for others to tighten their belts, please elaborate.
Baseball.
That is what we talk about here.
Fred, is your “Baseball.” comment directed at me? I was asking who else within MLB should be tightening their belts.
No, gbs42. It was aimed at a whole bunch of other people.
I know that for the average employee an employer wouldn’t be likely to give the employee a 9% raise over a specified rate (which is already a raise over last year’s rate), but the adversarial relationship built through the arbitration process doesn’t seem worth it for an MLB team. That fight is over less than a quarter of a percent of the team’s major league roster payroll.
The eye test says give this man what he wants.
Yes! Great work
No “defeat” this time?