My favorite non Mets starter is on the market. According to John Heyman, the Reds have discussed Luis Castillo in trade talks this off-season. I would love to have the right Castillo in a Mets uniform. Price would be very steep tho.

Luis Castillo has been a very good pitcher since his debut in 2017. Pitching in a hitters friendly home ballpark, he has pitched to a 3.62 ERA and a 3.77 FIP over 519.2 innings. With WHIP off 1.16 and a k per nine off 10, it shows he is a dominant front line starter.

Last season he pitched well to a 3.21 ERA and a 2.65 FIP with a 11.4 strikeout per nine rate. Over his last two seasons he has an 140 ERA plus and 10.9 strikeouts per nine.

As I mentioned before, Castillo is my favorite non Mets pitchers. Mainly because of his change-up, as that’s my favorite pitch. In 2020 his expected slash line against the change-up was .170/.227/.271 and was even better in 2019 (.139/.192/.199). Those are dominant numbers.

Castillo his baseball savant stats are also as sweet as can be. Low hard hit rate and low expected slash lines. He is one of the most dominant arms out there!

Obviously the price will be very steep and rightfully so. Castillo is under contract until after the 2024 season and is a first year arbitration eligible player. The level of Castillo and money/control, so let’s take a look what it could take?

Via Baseballtradevalues I took a look at the package it could take to get Castillo. This is mostly to give a look at the value it could cost.

As you can see, it’s a extremely steep price to get Castillo. In the above case, you add two contracts and trade away great valued players for Castillo. It gives the Reds some financial flexibility and the Mets an OF and second baseman. It would be one of the few ways to go because of the steep price of Castillo. Rightfully so that he is so costly.

This won’t be the smartest move, but damn Castillo in a Mets uniform would be terrific. Honestly, it’s not going to happen.

Photo by: Jamie Sabau/Getty images