The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve claimed left-handed reliever Jose Castillo off waivers from the Mariners. Righty Carson Ragsdale was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. Baltimore also placed righty Albert Suarez on the 15-day IL due to right elbow discomfort and recalled fellow righties Chayce McDermott and Yaramil Hiraldo from Triple-A Norfolk.
Castillo, 29, joins his fourth team of the 2025 season. He’s suited up for not only the Mariners but also the Mets and D-backs. The well-traveled southpaw has pitched 24 2/3 innings and turned in a 4.38 ERA with a 19.5% strikeout rate and 9.3% walk rate. He’s tallied three holds in five situations, but lefties (.390/.469/.561) and righties (.300/.377/.455) have both hit well against Castillo in limited appearances.
This marks Castillo’s first generally healthy season since his rookie year in 2018, when he pitched 38 1/3 innings of 3.29 ERA ball for the Padres. Injuries decimated the lefty’s career; he pitched only 1 2/3 big league innings combined from 2019-24 and didn’t top 37 2/3 innings at the minor league level in any season along the way. Castillo can still be controlled another two seasons beyond the current year, if he sticks on the Orioles’ 40-man roster.
Ragsdale, 27, is a longtime Giants farmhand who made his way to the O’s via waivers earlier this summer. He made his big league debut with Baltimore, tossing three innings but serving up eight runs on nine hits and a walk with two strikeouts. The 2020 fourth-rounder had solid numbers throughout much of his minor league tenure but has stumbled to a 4.87 earned run average with just a 19.7% strikeout rate and a 12% walk rate.
Ragsdale notched a 2.93 ERA in High-A and a 3.49 mark in Double-A, but he’s barely kept his ERA under 5.00 in parts of two Triple-A seasons. He’s sitting 92.6 mph on his four-seamer this year, complementing the pitch with a high-70s curveball and a splitter — the former of which has previously drawn plus grades in scouting reports. Ragsdale has two minor league option years remaining beyond the current season, which could heighten his appeal to clubs in need of pitching depth.
As for the 35-year-old Suarez, this elbow issue will end his season. He’s missed most of the 2025 campaign due to a separate shoulder injury. Suarez pitched well in 11 2/3 big league innings between injuries, logging a 2.31 ERA with a 10-to-2 K/BB ratio. The journeyman righty was a godsend for the O’s in 2024, going from a minor league signee to a key member of the staff who tossed 133 2/3 innings with a 3.70 ERA.
Suarez pitched in the majors with the Giants from 2016-17 and then spent the 2019-23 seasons starring in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (2019-21) and the Korea Baseball Organization (2022-23). The O’s can control him for three more seasons via arbitration, but it’s not clear how severe his current elbow ailment is or how much time it might cause him to miss.
Orioles need to bubble wrap their players this year. They seem to be cursed…
The saddest part is, you see guys like Bradish and Wells coming back strong. Had we done some better offseason preparation we may in fact have been pushing for the playoffs right now. Not that it would look too different from last year when we got crazy good pitching performances but no offense in the wild card games, but at least you’d likely be in the mix.
Bingo, the offense sucks
I think with all the injuries we were just cooked. More should’ve been done but I don’t think we were getting over all the time key pieces missed.
Encouragingly for next season we have 5 competent big league starters under contract. We need to add another at the top and you can never have too much depth but they’ve shown some promise.
To be fair, in 2024 post-ASB they couldn’t hit either, and the only missing piece at that time was Westy.
Tough business for Ragsdale.
Finally make your MLB debut, get torched for 8 runs, get cut.
Yeah, I felt bad for the guy during the game. It was almost a certainty that he’d get DFA’d afterward. This happens all the time but usually it’s a journeyman vet who understands the role and takes one for the team. It’s tougher for a journeyman minor-leaguer to have to come up and take one for the team when he just got there.
Tough business indeed.
“ Ol’ Barrel Scrapper” strikes again!
Scraper*
@reakin
oh, that’s right — Elias should have instead traded for Ohtani at this point in this season and all would be saved. why is it that people just say the same things hoping that their strong track record of front office work will sway the fan base that they know better.
Ominous news about Suarez, who has looked pretty great since recently coming back from his previous shoulder injury.
I guess this nightmare season is going to be a nightmare right to the very end.