Brady's Spin: Seattle Mariners Can't Trade Luis Castillo Now, For Multiple Reasons
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Most of the Seattle Mariners offseason has been focused around fans and media members lamenting the team's financial situation. Despite being extremely profitable as an organization, the M's have imposed strict spending limits this winter, which have limited them to one-big league signing (Donovan Solano).
Despite robust offensive needs, the Mariners haven't been able to engage in the top of the free agent market, ignoring options like Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, Anthony Santander and Alex Bregman. They've also ignored mid-tier options like Tyler O'Neill and Teoscar Hernandez who could have helped.
There's also been plenty of chatter around the Mariners possibly trading starting pitcher Luis Castillo in order to free up money, but the bottom line is this: The M's can't trade Castillo, not now.
The idea of trading Castillo has been centered on freeing up money to go make offensive upgrades, but there just aren't enough options left on the market to benefit from that free'd up money. Bregman and Alonso are still there, but the M's have shown no interest in either to this point, and beyond them, the options are mostly all guys that the M's could afford, even with their limited $12-15 million left to spend (Yoan Moncada, Justin Turner, etc).
Furthermore, after the Dodgers just signed Roki Sasaki, giving them incredible rotation depth, any pitching-needy team could just call them. Castillo is no longer a desired commodity at $24 million a year when affordable options like Bobby Miller, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May could all be had on the trade market. While the Dodgers value depth, they don't need more than 10 starters, which is what they have when you factor in guys who are rehabbing injuries.
Trading Luis Castillo may have made some sense earlier this offseason.
It makes zero now.
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