The Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball announced the signing of left-hander Jose Castillo. The Mets chose to non-tender Castillo earlier this month, passing on the southpaw’s projected $1.7MM arbitration salary.
The move overseas to Japan may seem like small potatoes given the transactional maelstrom that was Castillo’s 2025 season. He saw big league action for four different teams (the Diamondbacks, Mets, Mariners, and Orioles) while compiling a 3.94 ERA over 32 innings. Beginning the season on a minor league deal with Arizona, Castillo was designated for assignment in May and then traded to the Mets, and he subsequently bounced around on a series of waiver claims. Castillo actually had three separate stints with the Mets, with the latest coming in early November when he was claimed off Baltimore’s waiver wire.
Castillo is out of minor league options, making him a necessary DFA candidate whenever a team wants to move him off its active roster. He would probably be facing another round of designations, outright assignments, and waiver wire visits if he’d signed a minor league deal with a Major League team this winter, so it perhaps isn’t surprising that Castillo has opted for the relative security (and a guaranteed salary) of this deal with the Marines.
Though Castillo has pitched in parts of five MLB seasons, that resume consists of his 32 innings in 2025, 38 1/3 innings with the Padres in his 2018 rookie season, and just two innings spread over a single game with the Padres in each of the 2019, 2022, and 2023 campaigns. Multiple injuries (including a Tommy John surgery) shelved Castillo for almost the entirety of the 2019-21 seasons, and he pitched primarily in the minors with the Padres, Marlins, and Diamondbacks from 2022-24.
While a small sample size of big league work, Castillo’s career 4.11 ERA, 27.1% strikeout rate, and 9.6% walk rate are all respectable for a pitcher with such a journeyman resume. He also has a 4.21 ERA over 130 1/3 career innings at the Triple-A level. Control has been an issue for Castillo, but he has always been able to rack up strikeouts and generate grounders. Castillo doesn’t turn 30 until January, so there’s still plenty of time for the left-hander to explore a future move back to North American baseball depending on how things work out during his Marines tenure.
Guess he got tired of being tossed around the league like a hot potato and wanted some stability.
Woah, did not realize he got bounced around so much in 2025. Had to do a double take on the list of teams he played for last season….
One less soul on the David Stearns list of ‘Waiver Wire Bingo.’
Stearns is such a fraud, he’s been duping teams for years into thinking he’s competent. Those days are coming to a close.
maelstrom? Really?
After looking it up(cuz it’s been a loooong time since use it)
– I lost interest in the art
TC Zencka was the king of ridiculous words on this site for awhile
Fact is he is still young enough to reinvent himself in Japan and gets a far better payday to boot. Overseas experience can be both a positive emotionally, technically and as an experience generally.
Good luck to him and hope he is successful !
Far better payday? Do we know what his new salary is in Japan? I didn’t see that mentioned in the article.
Frankly I thought he looked pretty decent in his short stints in the majors but not sure if he’s worth the $1.7MM predicted in arbitration
I guess MLB said “no way, Jose.”
What the heck is the story behind his 3 balks in 6 innings with Arizona this year? Was he pitching on a windy day at Wrigley and got blown off the mound a couple times or what?
I have a feeling he will do quite well over there and be back in no time just not bouncing around as much.