New York Mets team president Sandy Alderson has already stated, quite plainly, that the organization would prefer to hold on to their prospects this offseason.
Speaking with Jim Duquette and Jim Bowden on MLB Network Radio in late November, Alderson made the club’s intentions clear heading into the tenure of new Mets owner, Steve Cohen, who purchased the team for $2.4 billion in November.
“We’re going to sort of recommit to our farm system and try to stay away from (moving) our really good prospects in significant trades,” Alderson said. “We expect to be somewhat active in the free-agent market, as opposed to the trade market. We don’t want to give up our young guys.”
After the stain former Mets’ general manager Brodie Van Wagenen left on the franchise with his jettisoning of former top pick Jarred Kelenic to Seattle in the deal that brought Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to Queens in December 2018, the team justifiably is hesitant to replicate those mistakes.
The team has drafted well in recent years, landing elite players like Matthew Allan, Brett Baty, Josh Wolf, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Isaiah Greene, J.T. Ginn, and others, and still has Ronny Mauricio and Francisco Alvarez among the top rungs of their system.
Despite the lack of high-level talent at the organization’s upper farm ranks, there are most certainly a handful of gems tucked away into general manager Jared Porter’s system.
Whether the Mets are willing to ship any of these guys off is the $64,000 question. But for the right player, it’s fair to assume this new regime is willing to discuss their options.
On Sunday, the right player may have appeared on the trade block.
Per Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the Cincinnati Reds are making right-handers Sonny Gray and Luis Castillo (I GOT IT!! — no, not that Luis Castillo) available in trade talks.
Gray’s a fine pitcher and would certainly fit the team’s needs, but the Mets — who are still down a starting pitcher (or two) with around 10 weeks until the scheduled start of Spring Training — should be all over Castillo.
Castillo, 28, has been a workhorse for the Reds in recent years, making 75 starts since the start of 2018 and putting up some gaudy numbers in the process. His 3.72 ERA over that span doesn’t quite do his tenure justice — solid, but not spectacular — but his 480 strikeouts and 1.19 WHIP in 431 innings pitched sure do.
Castillo’s changeup is his primary pitch, which comes off as odd — until you see it, of course. Then you get it. He’ll throw his four-seam almost as much as his changeup, and it’s clear they’re used to work off each other, but the change is what hitters are being set up for in most cases.
In 2019, Castillo’s changeup held hitters to a .128 batting average and .199 slugging percentage, racking up a 48% whiff rate. His slider — another high-level offering — held opposing hitters to similarly substandard at-bats (.190 BAA, 47.5% whiff rate).
It was more of the same for both of Castillo’s put-away pitches last season (.272 wOBA, 40.1% whiff against the changeup; .216 wOBA, 43.4% whiff versus the slider), and though his four-seam still gets touched up quite a bit (.377 wOBA in 2020), there are simply so many weapons at Castillo’s disposal, you’d have to imagine he’ll continue to get by — or get better.
Since 2019 (44 starts, 260.2 IP), Castillo has racked up 315 strikeouts, a 3.35 ERA (3.42 FIP), an MLB-leading 2.20 groundball-to-fly ball ratio, and 6.4 wins above replacement (11th-best in baseball; FanGraphs) in an absolute band-box of a ballpark.
Certainly doesn’t hurt Castillo won’t be a free agent until 2024, either.
That level of production should be precisely what New York should be looking to shore up their rotation with. If the cost proves too high, at least they tried. But if the return cost is palatable, any aversion to dealing away young talent can’t be holding up a deal like this.
The 28-year-old sure seems like a prime candidate to bring the Mets’ three-hole up to snuff until Noah Syndergaard returns to the rotation in early summer — if the price is right, of course — but that decision is going to lie with New York’s revamped front office.
