Opinion: Luis Castillo Will Be Traded

 
This morning, on his blog at ESPN.com, Buster Olney writes,

The Mets also have quietly continued to gauge the market for Luis Castillo, and if they find a taker for at least some of his salary, that would leave them in position to pursue Orlando Hudson, who also is being courted by the Washington Nationals.

This is about the fourth or fifth time I’ve read a rumor like this in the past month or so. It has been mentioned by Jon Heyman and Rob Neyer as well.

As I mentioned numerous times before, I don’t see any chance that Luis Castillo begins the season with the New York Mets. It may not happen until Spring Training, but he will be traded.

All that talk from the Mets about giving him a chance to redeem himself is nothing more than a bunch of hot air.

Orlando Hudson may not necessarily be better than Castillo, but he would appease many of the fans, and most importantly, it would jettison another bad Omar Minaya contract from the media spotlight.

Omar hates bad press, and much like he made sure to get rid of the ill fated Guillermo Mota contract, he will do the same with Luis Castillo.

As for Orlando Hudson, he may not ultimately wait it out and play the game with the Mets, but he has made comments in the past that he prefers the Mets.

On November 24th, we wrote that according to ESPN.com, a source has said that second baseman Orlando Hudson’s first choice is to be a Met. The Mets would likely have to trade Luis Castillo before signing Hudson.

It may very well be that the reason Hudson is still hanging around is because he is hoping the Mets move Castillo and create an opening for him at second base.