CHICAGO -- With their top three pitchers from 2024, at least in terms of FanGraphs’ WAR, all currently in various stages of recovery from injury, the Mariners need their healthy starters to help keep things going in the right direction.
To open up their series against the White Sox at Rate Field on Monday, Luis Castillo -- the team’s No. 4 pitcher in ‘24 WAR -- answered the call.
The 32-year-old right-hander tied a season high with seven shutout innings in Seattle’s 5-1 victory over Chicago. Across his start, he struck out five while giving up just three hits, with no more than one coming in a single frame.
Castillo didn’t walk a single batter for the first time since Aug. 23, 2024, and he retired each of the last 14 batters he faced (18 of the last 19 overall). Following his stellar showing, Julio Rodríguez’s grand slam in the eighth gave the Mariners breathing room, and Collin Snider, Troy Taylor and Andrés Muñoz finished the game.
“When you look at the outing that Castillo turned in, giving us seven full innings there, really, really, just attacked the zone,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson said. “When you look at an outing like this, he had everything going and attacked the zone, got ahead early, controlled the count on most of the hitters. That's exactly what we needed from him.”
Going into the game, Castillo said he and Cal Raleigh planned to attack the strike zone. Of Castillo’s 94 pitches, 64 went for strikes, and of the 24 batters he faced, 15 saw a first pitch strike.
Castillo also peppered Chicago with his fastballs, throwing the four-seamer or sinker on 71 of his 94 offerings. At one point, between his last pitch of the third inning and his first pitch of the sixth, he threw 24 consecutive fastballs.
That streak didn’t quite reach the ridiculous level of the 47 straight fastballs he threw on Aug. 21, 2023 (also against the White Sox). But it still helped him cruise through the middle innings efficiently enough to finish off seven strong innings.
“I thought the game plan he and Cal had was very good,” Wilson said. “The stuff that he had tonight was very good, and when you're ahead in the count, I thought his pitch count, he was able to keep that in check. He got some early swings in some of the at-bats to keep the pitch count down, and that allowed him to get deeper in the game. Just a great, veteran effort all around and a great game plan from the beginning.”
Castillo hasn’t always looked this season like the pitcher he’s been at his peak. His average fastball velocity (94.7 mph entering Monday, 95 mph across the game) is lower than in any other year. If the season ended after Monday, it would be the only time in nine seasons that his strikeout rate (18.5 percent) would fall below 23 percent.
Still, Castillo has pitched well overall in ‘25. He has five quality starts in 10 outings, and he exited Monday 4-3 with a 3.20 ERA. That’s ultimately the job of a veteran starter. They figure out how to keep pitching at a high level, setting the right example for the younger arms coming up behind them.
Castillo is the elder statesman on the rotation depth chart. He’s the only one between himself, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo, Emerson Hancock and Logan Evans to pitch in the big leagues before 2021 (he debuted in 2017).
Wilson said Castillo has been “the veteran guy that I think all of us have looked to” as a resource, since most of their starters are still relatively new to the Majors. Castillo, though, downplayed his leadership role in the group.
“I don't feel like a leader,” Castillo said via interpreter Freddy Llanos. “I just feel like I'm another person in that rotation. We're so close, whether it's somebody else [who] needs an opinion, or whether it's me [who does]. We're just so close, so, yeah, I don't see myself as a leader but just part of this group, this rotation that we have.”
Regardless of if it’s the veteran or one of the younger arms, Seattle needs its healthy starters to continue to step up in Kirby (right shoulder inflammation), Gilbert (right elbow flexor strain) and Miller’s (right elbow inflammation) absences.
Castillo showed Monday night he has more than enough left to get the job done.