WHOOPSIE ACEY
Yanks might regret not going harder in Castillo chase
PEORIA, Ariz. — Luis Castillo joins a growing subset of ace types who slipped away from the Yankees in trades, often to devastating results for the Yankees.
In Brian Cashman’s 25 years as general manager, perhaps only the first time he shunned a No. 1 starter in the trade market did it still work out for the Yankees. Seattle’s Randy Johnson was available in July 1998. The Yankees were interested but pulled up short, as Cashman did not like the asking price and was concerned about Johnson’s personality in New York.
Johnson, instead, was dealt to Houston and was brilliant, but the Yankees completed one of the greatest seasons ever and launched a Johnson-less threepeat that was aided along the way by a trade for an ace — Roger Clemens.
In a few other high-profile moments, though, failing to close trades arguably cost the Yankees titles.
At the July 2010 deadline, the Yanks had an agreement in principle to obtain Cliff Lee from the Mariners for David Adams, Zach McAllister and Jesus Montero. Seattle said it had problems with Adams’ ankle in a physical review. The sides agreed to Adam Warren as a replacement. But then the Mariners wanted Eduardo Nunez. The Yanks balked, believing it all was a ruse to get Texas to blink and include Justin Smoak in a package. The Rangers did.
Lee pitched eight shutout innings and struck out 13 in Game 3 that year to give the Rangers the ALCS lead for good in eliminating the defending champ Yankees.
In 2017, the Yankees traded for Sonny Gray at the deadline. They were eyeing getting under the luxury tax in 2018 and didn’t want to absorb the $56 million owed Justin Verlander in 2018-19. Instead, the Astros traded three prospects who amounted to nothing and received $16 million from the Tigers. In the ALCS, Verlander won both starts vs. the Yanks, allowing one run in 16 innings. Verlander’s pitching had nothing to do with sign-stealing. Houston won in seven games.
After that season, the Yankees were involved with Pittsburgh trying to obtain Gerrit Cole. Again Houston barged in, trading Joe Musgrove and three inconsequential pieces. Do the Yankees win a World Series in 2018-19 before signing Cole long-term if they had completed a deal with Pittsburgh?
Last trade deadline, Castillo was the starter the Yankees wanted. They offered a package fronted by outfield prospect Jasson Dominguez. The Mariners initially balked at including both well-regarded shortstop prospects Edwin Arroyo and Noelvi Marte, but, “We got to the point where the ‘now’ of our team [Seattle had MLB’s longest playoff drought, since 2001] is telling you it’s time,” said Mariners GM Justin Hollander on doing the four-prospect deal.
The Yanks would not include Anthony Volpe. They never made an offer that had both Dominguez and Oswald Peraza in it. If they had, would they have gotten Castillo?
The Yanks instead turned to Sonny Gray II — another apparent boobyprize from Oakland in Frankie Montas.
Think about the cascade. If the Yankees obtain Castillo, is there a reason to think he would not have signed the five-year, $108 million extension with the Yankees, his preferred destination, that he did in Seattle (multiple executives said it was understood in the game that Castillo was very open to an extension a year-plus before free agency)? If Castillo is signed long term, do the Yanks avoid Carlos Rodon, who already is hurt. That would have left the payroll under the self-imposed, stay-under-the-toptax-threshold of $293 million to also retain Andrew Benintendi.
More will have to play out to determine the fate of this — maybe Rodon and/or Montas will get healthy to help bring a Yankees title. Maybe Castillo will break down. Perhaps Dominguez and/or Peraza will become stars and not further versions of Eduardo Nunez; one constant this spring is how much talent evaluators from other clubs like Peraza, Volpe and Oswaldo Cabrera plus see year over year improvement from Dominguez.
Still, the Yankees history is when they go for aces — Clemens, David Cone, Mike Mussina, CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka, Cole — they are generally rewarded. And when they go for less, there are a lot more Grays and Montases and Jeff Weavers and Javier Vazquezes, etc., than Hiroki Kurodas and Orlando Hernandezes. Is Rodon an ace or an injury-marred mirage?
What makes Castillo so enticing, particularly to a club in a pressurized market such as the Yankees, is, in the words of Hollander: “When Luis is at his best is when the moments are the biggest.” With the baseball world knowing he would be traded, Castillo consecutively held the playoff-bound Braves, Rays and Yankees (in The Bronx) to one run in seven innings last July.
At Yankee Stadium in his first Mariners start, Castillo allowed three runs in 6 ¹/₃ innings, then in his first home start in Seattle, the righty shut out the Yanks for eight innings while Cole was blanking the Mariners for seven. Castillo shut out the Blue Jays in Toronto over 7 ¹/₃ innings in the Mariners’ first playoff game in 21 years and held Houston to three runs in seven innings in the Division Series.
“He brings high-end talent with a big-game mentality,” Hollander said.
Castillo said. “It’s a different kind of adrenaline, and I like that.”
After the 2020 season, Seattle’s baseball operations made a list of the players they thought could be available over the next 24 months and who could most impact a jump from rebuild to contention. Castillo was on the list. Seattle tried to obtain him last spring training. When the Reds made clear he would be moved at last year’s deadline, Seattle accepted what Hollander called the “uncomfortable” aspect of giving up prospects they liked.
“When you have a chance to capitalize on a prime-years, true top-of-the-rotation starter, who we believe is a top10 starter in the league and who is trending even more positively than maybe his career track record indicated both in command and overall stuff, it was gonna be hard for us not to do that,” Hollander said.
They did it. The Yankees didn’t. Is Castillo about to join the Lee, Verlander, Cole list?