Mets may look to ship out Luis Castillo
By Joe DeMayo ~ September 5th, 2008. Filed under: Joe Demayo, Rumor Mill.
General Manager’s make mistakes. Some admit it, see Phillies GM Pat Gillick who admitted it was a mistake to sign Adam Eaton 3 years ago. Mets GM Omar Minaya needs to admit this as well with the Luis Castillo 4 year contract extension. I was all for trading for Castillo last year, especially at the price(Dustin Martin and Drew Butera). But when the offseason came, I was hoping the Astros would have signed Castillo, but then Minaya for some weird reason found it logical to commit four years to a guy like Castillo.
Don’t get me wrong, I give credit to Castillo, he always seems to try his hardest, and he was a thorn in the Mets side for years on Florida, but at this point he is just simply broken down. So it’s time for Minaya to realize his mistake, and the only way to fix it is to ship him out of town. And according to a source, the Mets very well may look to do that, even if it means eating a portion of Castillo’s salary. The main problem with this theory is that they are talking about Daniel Murphy being his replacement. Murphy has played 15 games at second base in his career, this year in Double-A. The Mets intend to send Murphy to the Arizona Fall League to work on it, but if the Mets make the playoffs, Murphy will surely be on the roster, and if they make it deep in the playoffs, then there won’t be a ton of AFL time left.
The real question here is, how much money are the Mets willing to eat? And how much are they demanding in exchange? I can’t imagine any team giving anything more than a marginal prospect with the Mets eating atleast $9-$10 million of the remaining $18 million owed to Castillo over the next three years. If this is something the Mets are willing to do, then it’s a realistic possibility that Castillo could be moved, and if he is, I hope the Mets have a plan in case Murphy doesn’t work out at second, because it could be a mistake placing a kid with 15 career games at second base full time at the position at the major league level.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:21 am
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September 7th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
FIRE JEFFY! Or, at least hang him by the ankles, from a Shea Stadium Upper Level Ramp.