The Seattle Mariners are scuffling. But they're still clinging to the American League's third and final wild card spot, 1.5 games up on the first team out, the Texas Rangers.
And with that in mind, the Mariners are trying to improve on the margins to hold onto their playoff positioning.
There aren't a ton of ways to make those improvements at this point in the season, but the New York Mets put an option onto waivers that Seattle couldn't pass up. They announced Wednesday that they had claimed Jose Castillo off waivers and designated Joe Jacques for assignment in a corresponding move.
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Castillo is a 6-foot-6 left-hander who is listed at 252 pounds.
He's 29 years old and was DFA'd by the Mets to remove him from their 40-man roster.
Castillo had been very solid for the Mets, though. In 16 appearances for New York, he had a 2.35 ERA.
The Mets were his second team this season. Castillo had put up an 11.37 ERA in five outings with the Diamondbacks earlier in the year.
Castillo was also striking out batters at a solid rate with the Mets: 19 punchouts in 15.1 innings pitched.
Before this season, Castillo had only pitched in MLB for the San Diego Padres. He made it up in both 2018 and 2019, then not again until 2022 and 2023.
He had thrown in 37 MLB games in 2018, but just one apiece in '19, '22 and '23.
This is Castillo's most MLB action in a season since his rookie 2018 campaign.
The Mariners are hoping he has more of his solid Mets production still to go to try and make it into the postseason and make noise once there.
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