The Mariners announced that they’ve traded righty Luis F. Castillo to Baltimore for cash. Seattle had designated him for assignment yesterday as the corresponding move for the Leody Taveras waiver claim. Baltimore optioned Castillo to Triple-A Norfolk and designated lefty Walter Pennington for assignment to create a 40-man roster spot.
Castillo, the now-former teammate of the Seattle All-Star starter of the same name, has five major league appearances under his belt. He signed a minor league deal over the offseason and was selected onto the big league roster in early April. Castillo took a pair of turns through the rotation. He surrendered seven runs (six earned) on 12 hits and seven walks across seven innings. He struck out five.
Those were Castillo’s first two major league starts. His previous big league experience consisted of a trio of relief outings for the Tigers in 2022. Castillo spent the next two seasons in Japan. He didn’t miss many bats but managed a 2.96 ERA over 94 1/3 innings for the Orix Buffaloes a year ago. The 30-year-old has made four starts for Seattle’s top farm team in Tacoma. He has managed a 12:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio while surrendering eight runs through 14 1/3 frames.
Castillo sits in the 91-92 MPH range with both his four-seam fastball and sinker. There’s not much swing-and-miss upside but he has a full slate of minor league options. He’ll join Brandon Young and Chayce McDermott as depth starters who are on optional assignment to Norfolk.
Pennington, 27, heads back into DFA limbo for the second time in as many weeks. He was designated for assignment and released by the Rangers at the end of April. Baltimore grabbed him off release waivers. He made one appearance apiece at High-A Aberdeen and with Norfolk. Pennington hasn’t been able to find the strike zone, walking six of 10 batters faced while allowing seven runs (five earned) in one combined inning.
Initially drafted by the Royals, Pennington was traded to Texas last summer in the Michael Lorenzen deadline deal. He’s only a season removed from posting a 2.13 ERA with a 32.2% strikeout rate over 63 1/3 Triple-A innings. Pennington had been pitching at the Rangers’ complex before they moved on, and his pair of appearances with Baltimore affiliates were clearly alarming. He’ll likely wind up back on waivers in the next few days. If he goes unclaimed, he would not have the requisite service time to decline an outright assignment.
Why?
Because it didn’t require giving up any prospects.
… which is both a problem and a solution.
It was causing too much confusion, not just among the media, but also the players, coaches, even their own families.
Ok I can think of two things
1. Elias is certain he just acquired the OTHER Luis Castillo assuming this will fool the fans.
2. A lot of fans actually don’t know much and are about to understand what that F means in the name
These are the kinds of moves made by a team in Dead F. Last
Orioles fans don’t care who Elias acquires. If he made the move it’s a mistake.
THEY DID WHAT?!?!?! My bad.. it’s the OTHER Castillo who’s also a pitcher playing for the Mariners!
Depth
So they can say “Hey. We got Luis Castillo. You happy?”
It makes me smile. There’s a part of me imagining Elias skipping through the warehouse going “I ripped the Mariners off!”
Oh nevermind its Luis F lol
I think they skimmed over the F. in the middle of this Luis Castillo’s name. They really thought they got a steal until he stepped off the plane!
“We want Luis F’ing Castillo”.
finally after all these months the O’s have traded for a Luis Castillo.
Yeah, the wrong one. They probably easily could have landed the right one in the offseason.
I read reports that they offered Mountcastle & the Mariners declined. Seattle was looking for infield help.
Apparently they couldn’t have. If Seattle had any intention to trade the All-Star Luis Castillo during the offseason, they certainly could have gotten an acceptable offer from several teams. DiPoto made it clear from the start that he had no desire to trade any of his top 5 SPs.
They actually changed their mind and for the right package they would have traded him. Besides the Os they were supposedly talk with Red Sox for Casas not sure if it was true or they did not like the return.
The way he started would have been nice to get him. No way would he have gotten hurt here. We have a spectacular injury rate. Hardly anyone has been hurt and the few that have are easily replaced. I truly wish that were true but we have been playing really well for the injuries we have. Brash is back Kirby is on his way Gilbert too. Others have been called up and filled in nicely. Ben Williamson has been great. The glove has been as good or better than advertised. The bat has been really good. We are coming close to the time there will be enough tape on him they can take advantage of any weakness. Will see how he can adjust.
Right, because Seattle was so overwhelmed with offers from teams across the league that they just decided to hang on to him because they didn’t receive any acceptable offers from Baltimore. It’s all the Orioles fault, they could have easily pried him from Seattle.
I think the Seattle beat said that the M’s were listening on Castillo. This was after that first wave of free agent rejections of Seattle. It would have been a high price to be sure, but the O’s have the assets to get Castillo, and Baltimore chose not to do it.
BAL thought they got the real one. Jerry wanted them to think that.
Dipoto is a genius!
They’ll be calling him ‘La Piedra’ in no time.
Or Luis Fa-reekin’ Castillo.
It was a joke regarding the unoriginal use of ‘King Félix’.
Hmmmmm….I was hoping the M’s kept him for depth help. His two outings this season were against the very good hitting teams (Astros and Giants).
Good hitting teams, Giants and Astros. Hmmm.
Like I mean, can it be worse than Morton or Gibson has been for us? I guess we’ll find out lol.
The second crappy desperate move of the day
just came here to make sure you linked the right person
The Orioles and Pirates are in last place because they both overvalue their prospects.
ponytail01;
That and they play them out of position and don’t develop them well.
I think it comes from their not having a plan as to the sort of style they want the ML team to play. Kind of like drafting what the FO thinks is the best player available in the NFL. You wind up with too many guys that play the same position so the team isn’t balanced. The pieces don’t fit, players don’t work off one another, the coaching staff does the best they can (in these 2 cases: not very well), and the manager/head coach is limited each game in what he can do depending on the opposition….pretty much they are what they are and do what they do.
–
Compare those 2 teams approach to the Rays, Brewers, Guardians, Royals, Reds – all small market teams as well. Those teams use all 13 position players on their roster constantly depending on the opponent and the game situation. This means that every player coming to the park knows he may get into the game that day, and young players are put in situations they can succeed and grow off of. But when the roster and high minors are full of players that pretty much do what other players do…….
Your opinion on the NFL drafts is suspect.
First, it depends on where you are in your window of contention. A SB aspirant might do well to fill a position of need. Teams on the bottom absolutely have to draft the best player available.
Secondly, it depends on the disparity between the open position and the BPA. A lot of time, it pays to go with the talent, inside of hoping someone you reach for can outperform.
Samuel, not necessarily in the NFL.
In 1999 the Colts were picking 4th. By many accounts, QB’s Cade McNown and Daunte Culpepper were currently listed as the best players available. Obviously, not at all in consideration because they had Peyton Manning. They and probably 10-12 teams had no thought in mind about taking a QB.
It would take a generational talent, like a Lawrence Taylor type, or a unique player like Travis Hunter, to make a team who already has solid players at that position consider drafting one at the top of the draft or make that a trade target (unless you’re the Orioles and you trade one HOF for a prospect playing the same position as your other HOF who won’t even miss 1 game for 9 more years).
Baseball doesn’t work that way. You can have multiple outfielder and obviously never enough pitchers.
I’d also add that a lot of guys move off their drafted position to other positions. The idea that, for example, the Orioles wouldn’t draft a top-tier SS because they already have Gunnar, is never going to happen.
lol the reds as an example bc Samuel has Francona bias. The reds have 27 infielders on their roster that they play out of position.
Jbigz12-yeah, and the Reds have some tough stretches in June and July. They may not hang out around .500 by the ASB or so. We all know Francona made no mistakes in previous stops, right?
He says he muted me which makes me about as sad as I will feel when the Orioles release Mateo, I will leave him up for entertainment value.
Brady-drafting a top tier SS now is different because I have a feeling Gunnar has the date he is eligible to sign a big boy contract circled and certainly 99% chance the Orioles won’t give him the top offer. In fact, they’ll expect a significant home town discount and label him a greedy traitor if he doesn’t take it.
I got the Samuel mute long ago. He did occasionally make some decent observations but he’s really gone down the pompous clown road. Don’t dare disagree with him.
Combined with the earlier addition of Cruz, Baltimore sure has done transactions.
Only time will tell if these two moves are enough!
Is that a joke? Elias is making crap moves because he’s desperate. He had all offseason to make significant pitching upgrades and deliberately chose not to because his computer algorithms told him not to.
gr81t2;
False narrative.
The O’s hit the wall in 2023 and 2024 because their hitting and fielding was awful in the playoffs.
Yes, they need pitching. But the way they coach it, sooner or later they’ll ruin a decent pitcher if he stays with them for any period of time. Pitching injuries are epidemic in MLB and have been for years. But the O’s take it to a higher level. FA’s that have other options are not going there; and their prospects are overvalued so they have to overpay to get a pitcher. Last year they had to trade 2 good position playing prospects (that played the same positions as 8 other prospects) to get an underperforming pitcher. Their crack pitching staff was going to rework him. He didn’t do well. This year they sent him to AAA and put him on a program. So far he’s started 2 games in AAA, pitched 4-2/3 innings, and given up 7 earned runs (ERA is 13.50). AAA. Word is that – Surprise! – he’s out injured.
Detect a pattern?
LOL
I didn’t understand the trade, but it was still only one trade. They also traded for Burnes, and that worked out pretty well.
I’m not seeing a systemic issue here. Just for fun, feel free to go through all the 1st round picks since 2019 and let me know what they could’ve done differently.
2019-Rutschman-Consensus #1/1 and good player.
2020-Kjerstad-Didn’t work out, but neither did the 8 guys picked after him.
2021-Cowser-Not great, but still probably better than the next 10-20 picks.
2022-Holliday-Consensus 1/1 and probably still a good pick.
There’s no pitching there, but there was unlikely to be any pitching to be found at those slots.
You’re missing the point. Elias is scrambling to sign crap pitchers because he didn’t make the right moves in offseason. Everyone knew that Grayson is a pinky scratch away from the IL, and that the rest of the rotation, aside from Eflin, are number 3 and 4s at best. He completely failed with the pitching, both starting and relief. Don’t be fooled by the good middle relief the first month of season. They suck, just wait for it.
The offense on the other hand is a total mystery. Don’t tell me injuries. They stunk before the injuries. Maybe they don’t have the right coaching to not only help make adjustments, but freakin motivate these guys. Plus they seem to be getting zero guidance during actual games. Popping first pitches in 8th inning when down by 3 runs, etc etc.
Two observations:
1-He added two SPs-Morton and Sugano.
2-There is a reasonable chance that Elias is working under payroll constraints.
I’d also point out that the O’s fans were screaming to re-sign Burnes, and that is looking pretty sketchy at the moment.
What?! Elias shelled out $30m? To 2 old farts, one without mlb experience. The new owner is on record saying “no payroll constraints”. He told Elias publicly to spend money. But Elias thinks he’s the smartest guy around. Unfortunately his computer printouts have failed
Samuel is displaying revisionist history here.
He and I went at it over Cole Irvin, who he insisted was a diamond in the rough and that Elias was smart; was exactly the type of underrated pitcher who would become a solid, above average starter.
Also Tyler Wells, who expires at 100 IP. Grayson, always hurt. Means, ditto. Bradish is the only one of these guys still with a chance to come back and maybe be a 2 or 3. Maybe.
Kremer was also going to figure out his kinks. This is his 5th season and he is what he is, inconsistent. I’d be fine with him as a 5th or swing.
To your point gr81tz – we’re at 110 games of a “slump”. The message is lost. Even if Hyde gets another job, he’s past his expiration date here. Fresh face and message needed. When all of the young guys are slumping, something is up with the coaching. Obviously, what they keep being shown to do is beyond stale and it hasn’t worked in months.
The inertia with holding onto guys is troubling. Mateo, Samuel’s HOF player, has been dead weight for years and has also somehow become a defensive liability too, even though Rivera and 2 guys in AAA could be backup UIF’s
(Urias and Westburg should be back within days). Perez hasn’t been good in 2 years. Still here. Morton leads the league in losses, runs allowed, hits allowed. Got a start yesterday. Sanchez- may as well have lit the money on fire. 4 roster spots wasted. Nothing gets done about that.
I said they needed 8-4 starting with game 1 against MN to claw back into salvaging the season. The first 2 games not off to a good start. Its absolutely lifeless, its being allowed to happen from Elias and Hyde on down. Obviously if there’s 35 or so games left until deadline day, they’ve started a few steps down the sell path already. An ultra shocking 180 to what this team has demonstrated has to come immediately to not be sellers.
Now with Mullins turning cold, Mountcastle ice cold, and O’Neill hurt for the 3,210th time since his debut what even would you expect at the deadline if you’re selling?
Thornton Mellon;
Had to mute you. You add nothing. Just a ankle-biter. This has been going on for years now. Enough.
I’ve been watching MLB for well over 60 years. Played the sport and loved it, or I wouldn’t be following it this long. It’s a tough sport. But strong organizations are always what wins over time. And inevitably most had/have strong, smart defense up the middle. The O’s sure did under Earl, with Louis Aparicio and Mark Belanger at SS, Bobby Grich and Davy Johnson at 2B; Paul Blair and Al Bumbry in CF, and Andy Etchebarren, Elrod Hendricks, and Johnny Oates catching. All were smart players and supported the O’s pitching staff. With Brooks at 3B during his time, the LH pitchers threw ground balls to RH stacked line-ups. Opposing hitters pulled the pitches so it was extremely difficult to get a ball though the infield for a hit….or they trued to get it in teh air and Paul Blair played the shallowest CF ever (he was great going back on balls when necessary) and got them out. That may have been the ‘Oriole Way’ but it was basic fundamental baseball which the St. Louis Browns played under Branch Rickey (ultimately he left for the Cardinals) and continued on (no matter how bad their personnel were) when they moved to Baltimore. Paul Richards picked it up in building the O’s in the 50’s and Earl add the 3-Run Homer part.
Mr. Rickey also was responsible for the ‘Cardinals Way’ and ‘Dodgers Way’ when he ran their organizations. Unfortunately, over the years all 3 organizations have lost their way – although the Dodgers have found a similar recipe taking Rays baseball (which Friedman started in Tampa Bay and is much like Rickey’s only on small budgets) during a free agency period in which the large market teams can outspend injuries and bad personnel decisions, while the medium markets are hampered and the small markets are screwed.
Best of luck to you.
And one other thing……
If a person has a disagreement with a poster here…state it. I’ve long been sick of your underhanded way of starting a comment by stating “Samuel…..” as you try to rally others to your cause.
You’re incapable of standing up as an adult person and speaking your mind. Like many weaklings in our society you have to constantly be trying to gather up people to discredit people you don’t agree with…..because people may figure out that that person has a point and you don’t.
Congratulations, Samuel, that’s another user you muted. You showed him! Go you! I’m proud of you!
Samuel wants to pontificate to himself
There is brown smoke coming from the chimney now…
Good Lord.
So… The M’s send their 8th starter to the O’s for cash so that he can be their 8th starter. How much cash? $3.79 plus tax?
@Zippy, he might be the Mariner’s #8 but with all the injuries to the Orioles, he might need to be their #3 or #4 now. Baltimore has some of their position players who fill in on the mound in blowouts on the IL. I think their bat girls might need Tommy John too.
I’m pretty sure there’s a cap on cash considerations and it isn’t much.100k?
And that would be the maximum. It could be less.
Cool cool
Good news is that the Orioles are going to start getting lottery picks again and their fans can get excited by a new group of prospects.
It doesn’t look like much, and likely isn’t. But Castillo still looks like he has more upside than Pennington. For a cash deal, If you got 1-2 spot starts out of him, you’re ahead of the game.
Hey guys, we just acquired Luis f’in Castillo! Luis F’in Castillo!…Luis F Castillo? F.
Reminds me of when the Mets signed Bob Bailor.
Not even the guy. I was about to say
In other news apparently Mr. Kruger of Kruger Industrial Smoothing is part owner of the M’s. Dude wasn’t gonna put up with two Kokos, so how long was he really gonna let this slide lol.
Luis Fake Castillo