The New York Yankees’s starting pitching isn’t as hot a topic when the offense is blasting more than three home runs per game, but that won’t continue all season.
As the Yankees have belted their way to a 5-2 start, the starting pitching has mostly held up to this point. But New York can’t feel confident about handing the ball to Marcus Stroman, Will Warren, or Carlos Carrasco in 60 percent of their games.
Reinforcements will be on the way eventually, with Clarke Schmidt coming first and Luis Gil sometime later. But having a proven innings-eater to help the Yankees fully recover from the loss of ace Gerrit Cole still has to be appealing.
Perhaps the Seattle Mariners, who are always knee-deep in starting pitching depth, can provide a solution.
On Friday, Newsweek’s Zach Pressnell named Mariners three-time All-Star Luis Castillo as a potential Yankees trade target, with three years and $72 million remaining on the righty’s current contract.
“Castillo is a tough name to discuss on the trade block. He would need to clear a trade because of his no-trade clause, and the amount of money left on his deal is a lot for the receiving team to take on,” Pressnell wrote.
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“The Yankees could be the perfect landing spot, though, as long as Castillo would accept a deal there. New York could send either Spencer Jones or Everson Pereira over to Seattle to help the Mariners’ offense, as well as take on the rest of Castillo’s contract.”
Castillo, 32, has pitched well in his first two starts of the season, allowing four earned runs in 12 innings. He’s thrown at least 150 innings in every season since 2018, excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
Though it would be something of a surprise to see the Mariners trade Castillo, it would make sense if they felt one of the Yankees’ upper-level minor leaguers could help their constantly struggling offense.
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