CINCINNATI — When Luis Castillo looked across the way at the Cincinnati Reds dugout exactly a year ago at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, the Mariners right-hander barely recognized any of the players on the bench.
There were even fewer familiar faces Tuesday night when Castillo, who pitched for the Reds from 2017 to 2022, made his first career start against his former squad. The only one of the nine players in the Reds’ starting lineup who had played behind Castillo in a Cincinnati uniform was leadoff man TJ Friedl.
Gone are the likes of Joey Votto and Jonathan India. Even Castillo’s manager for many of those years, David Bell, is gone, as are both of the Spanish language interpreters, Julio Morillo and Jorge Merlos.
“(It was) an honor coming out here again,” Castillo said Tuesday after taking the loss in the Reds’ 8-4 victory at Great American Ball Park, according to Mariners interpreter Freddy Llanos. “I spent five years here, and being able to pitch here on that mound again was special.”
It also had a familiar feeling, mainly the cold. A native of the Dominican Republic, Castillo struggled at times with the cold weather early in the season in Cincinnati. As a Red, he made nine starts in March or April at Great American Ball Park and was 3-4 with a 4.20 ERA. In 2018, he was 1-3 with a 7.85 ERA in all his starts over the first month of the season, and in 2021, he was 1-2 with a 6.29 ERA.
Although the game-time temperature of 53 degrees Tuesday wasn’t as cold as it has been at times early this season, a steady wind blowing out to left field made it feel at least 10 degrees colder.
Castillo, who started 70 home games as a Red, began Tuesday’s game looking like the ace he was for Cincinnati, retiring the top of the Reds’ order on just seven pitches. The Reds managed two runs off of him in the third, and then Reds outfielder Austin Hays, who was making his first regular-season appearance as a Red, hit a three-run home run in the fifth. Castillo struck out the next batter, Jeimer Candelario, before being taken out of the game.
Reds Country, allow us to introduce you to @TheAustinHaysss. pic.twitter.com/309rPay6Kd
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) April 16, 2025
The home run was measured at 404 feet, just enough to land on the berm below the batter’s eye to the right of the 404 sign in dead center.
“If we’re playing at our home, that ball probably doesn’t go out,” Castillo said, according to Llanos. “But that’s the way the game goes. This is their ballpark, and today the ball went out.”
The Reds’ trade for Castillo ahead of the 2017 season was the first act by Dick Williams after taking over full control of the front office from Walt Jocketty. Williams built a team that reached the playoffs in 2020, but after a disappointing 2021 and Williams’ departure, it was dismantled, having played just two playoff games and not managing to score in either of them.
By the time the Reds traded Castillo at the 2022 trade deadline, a year and a half before he was scheduled to reach free agency, the team was in a rebuild. And after holding on to the likes of Aroldis Chapman, Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips and Todd Frazier, among others, for too long and not receiving top prospects in return, Castillo was to be a linchpin of the rebuild.
The trade of Castillo was the second major trade the Reds made with the Mariners that season. Their first was just days after the 2022 lockout ended. The day players reported to spring training, the Reds traded starter Sonny Gray to the Minnesota Twins, but it was the deal the next day that signaled a full-on Reds rebuild, with Jesse Winker, fresh off his first All-Star selection, and Eugenio Suárez sent to Seattle for four players — outfielder Jake Fraley, lefty Brandon Williamson, right-hander Justin Dunn and a player to be named, ultimately right-hander Connor Phillips.
By the trade deadline, Castillo was the top pitcher on the trade block. Nick Krall, who at the time held the title of general manager and is now the president of baseball operations, was lauded for the return he got in exchange for Castillo — shortstops Noelvi Marte and Edwin Arroyo, along with right-handers Levi Stoudt and Andrew Moore.
For his part, Castillo not only did exactly what the Mariners had hoped he’d do — give them a Game 1 starter as they broke a 21-year playoff drought — he also signed a five-year, $108 million extension with a vesting option for a sixth year (and another $25 million).
Castillo has been part of a heralded Mariners rotation, but the team hasn’t made it back to the playoffs since 2022.
At the time of the trade, the Reds were viewed as still a couple of years from contention. But in 2023, after the arrivals of Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz, the Reds contended for a playoff spot and were lacking exactly what they had sent to Seattle the year before, a front-line starter to get them over the hump.
The Reds missed the final playoff spot by two games — two games that Castillo, who went 14-9 for the Mariners in 2023, could’ve certainly helped win. The team that took that final wild-card spot in 2023, the Arizona Diamondbacks, made it to the World Series.
With the Mariners, Castillo has found a new home. He’d been good to start this season, coming into Tuesday 1-1 with a 2.12 ERA in his first three starts. He made the 2023 All-Star team and finished fifth in Cy Young voting, his highest finish ever. Now 2 1/2 years removed from the trade for Castillo, the Mariners can’t be upset with their part of the deal.
As for the Reds? It’s a little more difficult to parse.
Looking just at big-league production from the players the Reds acquired, there’s not a lot there. The last time Castillo was at Great American Ball Park was in September 2023, a couple of weeks after Marte had been called up.
At that time, Marte had shown the talent that had him rated as one of the top prospects in the game. But the 2024 season was tough for the headliners of the Castillo trade. Marte was suspended 80 games after violating the league’s joint drug prevention and treatment program. When he returned to the field, he struggled mightily.
Marte didn’t make the Reds out of spring training in 2024 and was recently called up after McLain was put on the injured list. However, he was optioned before Tuesday’s game when McLain and Hays were activated.
Arroyo missed the 2024 season after suffering a shoulder injury in spring training that required season-ending surgery. The 21-year-old was still ranked as the Reds’ No. 3 prospect by The Athletic’s Keith Law, who also had him as the No. 77 prospect in baseball this year.
Stoudt was placed on waivers after spring training in 2024, claimed by the Mariners and selected off of waivers by the Baltimore Orioles in June.
Moore, 25, appeared in just 14 games in 2023 but reached Double A last season and is back at Double-A Chattanooga this season. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in either of his two appearances and struck out four of the nine batters he’s faced.
Almost three years after the Reds traded Castillo, it’s hard to say exactly how they should view the deal. By trading away Castillo, the team had the payroll flexibility to sign Hunter Greene to a long-term contract early in the 2023 season, a deal that looks better as Greene made the All-Star team last year and started this season as one of the most dominating pitchers in the game.
So far this year, pitching hasn’t been an issue for the Reds, with the team’s starters putting up a 2.92 ERA, the second-best mark in baseball. Marte is just 23, and Arroyo is hitting .417 in Double A. Few trades can be properly evaluated at the time they’re made, and many, like this one, could take years and years before any kind of judgment. For Tuesday, at least, the Reds were happy to see Castillo and even happier to beat him. Castillo wore the same smile after the game that he’s shown since he debuted in 2017 with Devin Mesoraco behind the plate for the Reds.
“They have a lot of great talent over there,” Castillo said of the Reds, according to Llanos. “So I just hope they continue building and having successful careers.”
(Photo: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
