By Paul L. Taylor Posted on

Mariners anticipating Luis Castillo to be as reliable as ever in 2026

Luis Castillo has been training harder than ever during the offseason, to help him in his quest to be as durable as usual for the Mariners.

Ahead of last season there was speculation that the Mariners were at least considering trading Luis Castillo, but it ultimately came to nothing. In reality a move was never going to happen due to his no-trade clause combined with the fact he loves playing in Seattle, but a warning of sorts was there that the end of the road might be coming, not helped by his age and steadily declining velocity.

In the end, even allowing for the reality that the Mariners ideally didn’t want to trade Castillo anyway, everyone concerned must have been grateful that nothing transpired. Despite being the elder statesman of the rotation by four years, he ironically ended up being the only one of the preferred starting five not to miss any time through injury.

As much as Castillo might no longer be performing at the same elite level as when he first arrived in Seattle, no one can doubt he’s remained reliable and durable. He’s made at least 30 starts in all three of his full seasons with the Mariners, including a team-leading 32 outings during the 2025 campaign.

This reliability and durability extends to the league as a whole, with Castillo’s 106 starts since the 2022 All-Star Break ranking fourth in the majors, while his 618.1 combined innings are fifth most. And as much as he isn’t quite as good as before he’s still done pretty damn fine overall in ranking fourth with 61 quality starts and eighth with a 3.46 ERA over the same time period.

Mariners looking for more of the same from Luis Castillo

The Mariners anticipate Castillo to do more of the same as they prepare for arguably the most important season in franchise history, with the team now primed to finally reach their first ever World Series. As part of his preparations he got his first start of spring training on Friday evening in Peoria, versus the Diamondbacks.

The outing couldn’t have started any better for Castillo as he threw a quick 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first, which included a strikeout of Jordan Lawlar. However, the second inning was almost the polar opposite as he allowed four hits, with the crucial one being a three-run homer by A.J. Vukovich that provided the only scoring the Diamondbacks would need on the night in a 3-1 win.

Castillo could only manage one out in the top of the second — courtesy of his second strikeout — before his outing was ended. Not that any of this is cause for alarm, given that starters are always working on limited pitch counts during spring training, combined with it being his first game action of the year and wanting to mix up his pitches as much as possible in his condensed outing.

In all Castillo threw 36 pitches, including 20 four-seamers, nine sliders, six sinkers and one changeup. What stood out most was that his four-seamer and sinker averaged 95.0 mph and 94.9 mph respectively on Friday evening,

This is interesting due to Castillo averaging the exact same velocity on his four-seamer during last season, while his sinker was just 0.1 mph slower. Even allowing for the fact the 84.1 mph he averaged on his slider during Friday’s start was off the pace from his 84.5 mph last season, this still alludes to him being warmed up earlier than usual for this time of year.

Three-time All-Star ahead of schedule with his velocity thanks to training regime

Speaking to the media postgame, Castillo explained that part of his training during the offseason included working on being able to throw hard right away in spring training. Speaking through interpreter Freddy Llanos, he said:

“Yeah, we trained super hard on that and I’m glad that we’re able to see some of that work out in this first outing. Hopefully we continue to work and stay healthy and keep on that, but continue adding on to what we just saw.”

Mariners manager Dan Wilson was also asked about what he saw from Castillo with his velocity on the night and the impact of putting in extra work during the offseason. Wilson said:

“I think he knows what it takes. And just being ready … I thought he looked good for his first time out. He’s got a long spring ahead of him yet, but I thought the velocity was good. It was coming out of his hand, (he) threw some good breaking balls too and we’re happy with what we saw.”

With Castillo so focused on his health, it made sense that he would be asked about the rotations’ issues in this area last year and the motivation to prove themselves and be more durable as a collective in 2026. He said:

“It’s been the same group that we’ve always had, the same group that comes out here to battle. Obviously we faced some obstacles with some of the injuries, but look how far we were able to go – one win away from the World Series. But I think, just try to avoid (injuries) and stay healthy and if we do that, I think we can accomplish a lot of good things.”

When they’re firing on all cylinders it’s tough to top the Mariners’ preferred rotation, but imagine if they can be as durable as they were in 2024 when only 13 starts were lost to injury. Last season they lost 34 starts to injury, but whichever scenario is more likely you can almost guarantee what you will get from Castillo, who is quite aptly nicknamed “The Rock”.

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rogers Photography

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