Reds’ Elly De La Cruz Injury Gives Former Mariners Prospect His Opening

Finally, the time has come. For a while, Edwin Arroyo has been the other name in the Luis Castillo trade. The guy Mariners fans remembered only after checking in on Noelvi Marte first. It appears that’s beginning to change.

Elly De La Cruz is on the injured list with a right hamstring strain. Obviously that is bad news for them. But his injury has created an opening that now belongs to Arroyo.

The Reds promoted the former Mariners top prospect from Triple-A Louisville after De La Cruz went down, giving Arroyo his first major league opportunity. Reds manager Terry Francona said De La Cruz will probably miss two to four weeks, which means this should be more than a cameo appearance for him.

The Mariners acquired Luis Castillo from the Reds on July 29, 2022, sending Noelvi Marte, Edwin Arroyo, Levi Stoudt and Andrew Moore to Cincinnati in one of the biggest trades of Jerry Dipoto’s tenure.

We know the Mariners side of the story by now. Castillo stabilized the rotation, helped push Seattle into October, signed the extension, became a pillar, threw a million important innings and eventually landed in the current piggyback conversation that has already been discussed at near-criminal length.

So let’s hit the fast-forward button before this goes sideways...

Edwin Arroyo’s Debut Gives Mariners Fans Another Reason to Revisit the Luis Castillo Trade

We’re not going to regrade this trade on the spot just because Arroyo has made it to the majors. We can save that headache for another day. The Castillo deal will feel alive again soon enough.

For now, this is about Arroyo finally stepping out of the transaction column.

Arroyo arrived in Cincinnati after a loud start at Triple-A Louisville. He hit .323 with 11 home runs and 34 RBI in 53 games at the time of his promotion. So this is far from a charity call-up. Arroyo has been knocking at the door for some time now.

His major league debut against the Royals wasn’t the sexiest. He went 1-for-4 with three strikeouts, and the Reds got blasted 9-2. So his welcome was pretty rude.

Congrats on your first big league hit, Edwin!@ZaedEdwin pic.twitter.com/eYNeowBOBb
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) June 2, 2026

Still, he got his first hit. He played second base. And for Mariners fans, he stopped being just a name from the Castillo trade and started becoming an actual big-league player worth tracking.

For years, the Castillo trade has mostly been measured through Seattle’s side of the ledger. Castillo’s value has been pretty tremendous over the last four seasons.

Cincinnati’s side has been less tidy. Marte has had his own winding path. Stoudt never became what the Reds had hoped for. Not sure anyone has heard from Moore. The Reds have needed someone from that deal to become a real part of their future for the trade to feel balanced on their end.

Many Mariners fans who had kept a strong eye on the system knew that Arroyo could be that guy.

And if he was, it probably wasn’t going to be a disaster for Seattle. Now, if he turned into Ketel Marte, this could be a different topic. But that’s not the case today. Arroyo’s debut lands at an interesting time for the Mariners because Seattle is asking its own young position-player group to prove the organization can develop the next core instead of shopping for one.

Cole Young is part of the picture. And Colt Emerson has forced the conversation forward. So when Arroyo gets his shot because De La Cruz is hurt, it naturally pokes at a particular nerve.

Did the Mariners give up a future everyday infielder? Probably. Did they also get the exact kind of starter they badly needed in Castillo? They absolutely did. And at the end of the day, the Mariners are better because of it.

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