NEWSLETTER
Every night around 9 to 10 pm, a trade. That is the rhythm, it seems.
Tonight’s is a biggy. The biggest of the year, without question:
Luis Castillo is the top starting pitcher on the market, and one of the most valuable pieces overall, given the extra year of control. The price tag will be steep. Actually, as I type, yes, it’s steep:
Marte, 20, is a shortstop currently raking at High-A, and is a top 20 prospect in all of baseball. Arroyo is just 18, but he’s already a borderline top 100 guy. Crap. This is sinking in right now. I really hate how huge this package is for the Reds, whose system is already pretty loaded.
Good thing the Cubs will also have a great system AND will spend way more money than the small market teams in the NL Central, amirite …
As for the market, you have to wonder if this takes the Mariners out on Juan Soto – in terms of no longer having the pieces to make it happen – and/or whether they knew they were out as of this evening, so they moved on to Castillo. Good lord the price tag on Soto must be even more enormous than we know.
You also wonder whether this deal will put any other starting pitchers on the market if the price tags will be very high. Castillo to the Mariners will leave several other very pitching-hungry contenders out there, and it seems like every year there are guys who come on the market late in a surprise. Carlos Rodon from the Giants? Pablo Lopez from the Marlins?
This is all developing, obviously.
UPDATE: More on the new Reds prospects here:
