Luis Castillo, Mariners teammates react to ‘shocking’ trade to White Sox
Bryce Miller was just about to start his commute home from T-Mobile Park when he decided to check his social media one last time for any possible trades around Major League Baseball, particularly any involving his teammates.
He didn’t need to scroll long before seeing a post from ESPN’s Jeff Passan reporting that Luis Castillo was being traded to the Chicago White Sox.
“I just checked Twitter real quick to see if anybody got traded yet,” Miller said. “It said two minutes ago he’d posted it. So I texted in the group, I was like, (expletive), we traded Luis.’”
With a crowded starting rotation of six pitchers and top prospect Kade Anderson dominating hitters in Double-A Arkansas, the members of the Mariners’ rotation figured somebody would get moved before Monday’s trade deadline.
But when the news went viral, it still caught them off guard.
“It was pretty shocking even though there was probably a little writing on the wall since we had six guys and they were probably trying to trade somebody,” Logan Gilbert said. “But it’s definitely sad. It’s part of the business, of course, but there’s always going to be a human side of it with anybody, but especially with a guy like Castillo.”
Castillo returned to T-Mobile Park a few hours before Sunday’s first pitch to gather his stuff and say some goodbyes.
“It was a surprise, I’d say about 90% surprise,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “You hear the rumors, but it wasn’t consistent.”
Castillo has been traded multiple times, including the 2022 deal with the Reds that brought him to Seattle just before the deadline.
“It’s the same reaction I’ve had in the past,” Castillo said. “It’s hard leaving a team after you’ve been here for so long. It’s tough. But it’s part of the business. You’re here one day, and then you aren’t. You never know where you’re gonna be tomorrow.”
Rumors about the Mariners being open to trading either Castillo and Emerson Hancock and recently George Kirby began to permeate social media in the past week.
It seemed like Castillo’s contract and the money owed was a massive obstacle for any deal. But Jerry Dipoto, the Mariners president of baseball operations, found a trade partner in the White Sox, who were willing to take on all of the contract for a veteran starting pitcher that consistently takes the ball every five days.
Seattle received veteran right-handed reliever Seranthony Dominguez, outfielder Nolan Jones, catcher Boston Smith and cash considerations in return.
“We got to start off by thanking ‘The Rock’ and all he meant to this organization while he was here,” manager Dan Wilson said, opening his pregame media session. “Obviously, for what he has meant as a role model for a lot of these young pitchers and just the player he was, the pitcher he was, the person he was. He’s meant a lot to this organization.”
Dominguez is expected to be added to the active roster before Tuesday’s series opener vs. the Tigers. Jones will likely join Triple-A Tacoma. Smith is headed to Double-A Arkansas.
The Mariners will return to a five-man starting rotation and the word “piggyback” will be removed from their daily vocabulary.
While the move makes sense for everyone involved, Castillo’s presence will be missed by his fellow starters.
“It’s so much more than people know,” Gilbert said. “What he did on the mound, it speaks for itself. But he’s a very wise person in a way. He’s always chill and calm, but the presence that he carries and the lessons he learned and passed down to me and other people. He knows how to relate to everybody. I think that’s a really rare thing to see, but especially on the pitching side of things. He did more for me and other people than fans will ever realize.”
As the most experienced member of the rotation, he was a quiet leader that operated like a smiling pitching shaman.
“My rookie year, I leaned on him a lot between starts and learned a lot watching him,” Miller said. “He’s one of those guys that’s just extremely consistent. Whenever things are going good or when things are going bad for him, he’s the exact same guy every day. That was something I tried to try to take from him. It’s not always easy. If you’re struggling, you want to find a way to change something or reinvent something, and you don’t always need to do that. That’s something that he’s always been really good at.”
Castillo saw Gilbert’s reactionary mindset to bad outings or bad bullpens and tried to break him from that burden.
“I threw a bullpen in Minnesota like two years ago and was having one of my famous freakout bullpens that it didn’t go well,” Gilbert said. “I’m panicking and trying to change everything and threw too many pitches. He was just sitting back in the corner and laughed. Then afterward, he took me aside, and he said, ‘Don’t change anything, don’t think too much and don’t try so hard.’ And I’m like, ‘How did he just make it that simple that quickly?’ It seems like such a simple thing to say, but I’ll remember that the rest of my career. That’s stuff that I actually try to live by out there on the mound and in my practice, he just says it at the right time. He just has the perfect awareness.”
Gilbert and Miller are still in awe of Castillo’s domination of the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 1 of 2022 American League wild-card series at the Rogers Centre. Castillo pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing six hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. He quieted the raucous Blue Jays crowd while setting the tone for the series.
“That was the single best pitching performance I’ve ever seen,” Gilbert said. “Like on that day, he was the best pitcher I’ve ever seen in my life. It was insane. We still go back and watch the tape on the iPad. It was crazy.”
Over five seasons in Seattle, Castillo posted a 43-40 record with a 3.69 ERA in 123 starts and three relief appearances.
“I always tried to be a good person to everyone on the team — a good person and a good teammate,” he said. “Just thank you to everybody in the organization for always treating me so well. I just want to give thanks to every person that played a role on the team for letting me be part of this organization for such a long time. Just thankful for everybody that was a part of this.”