Castillo for Pierre?
By Mike Silva ~ December 6th, 2009. Filed under: Offseason Speculation.
It’s been reported that Omar Minaya’s main goal this week is to trade Luis Castillo and the final two years of his deal. Tonight, Steve Henson of Yahoo Sports reports that “three or four teams are interested in Juan Pierre, and that a three-team trade is being explored to bring a bad contract starter to the Dodgers in return.” This sounds an awful lot like Castillo. Although this isn’t a rumor, just speculation on my part, it wouldn’t be the first time there is discussion about a Castillo for Pierre swap as others in the media how broached the idea.
This type of deal only works if the Mets upgrade at second base with Orlando Hudson and are willing to pay Pierre as an expensive fourth outfielder. For much of his career he has been a below league average offensive player whose one asset is speed. At the age of 31 he had a comeback year in 2009, but he isn’t the same burner we saw during the 2003 World Series. I don’t view him as an acceptable everyday player.
Ultimately any deal involving Castillo must lead to an upgrade at 2b and hopefully more money to spend on bringing in a power hitting outfielder (preferably Matt Holliday). Although Castillo is a “bad contract starter” I am not sure this exchange will help the Mets financially and, as a matter of fact, they may be acquiring a player who is equally untradeable. Again, the only benefit is they can potentially upgrade two positions in exchange for an expensive bench player. Remember, there is talk of interest in Angel Pagan and the presence of Pierre could make him more expendable.
If Pierre winds up being the left fielder than all I could say is at least he isn’t Jose Guillen or Pat Burrell.
December 6th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I was hoping for a pierre for castillo deal too, but assumed that “bad contract starter” referred to a SP, like Ollie… Maybe Mets will get Juan, a mystery team will get Castillo and LA will get the mystery team’s SP
December 7th, 2009 at 10:01 am
The Dodgers want to do that deal because they have a place to play castillo and don’t have a place to play Pierre. 9 million is a lot for a 4th OF (people complain about Cora and Blanco!). If you’re not starting Pierre in LF it’s not a good deal!