Detroit Tigers: Designing a trade package for Luis Castillo

The Detroit Tigers are still building their roster for the 2022 season. The Tigers need to bolster down their rotation, which will take some maneuvering and adding another quality arm. While this is likely to be a cost-efficient arm on the market, they could make a splash and change things up.

When it comes to the Detroit Tigers, the time to start making moves like this is now, and acquiring a top-tier pitcher would certainly accomplish that. Luis Castillo from the Cincinnati Reds would be someone that the team should be looking to target.

The Reds have begun a fire sale, getting rid of their talent and off-loading players as the season creeps closer. One of the players they have not off-loaded yet is Castillo. In recent years he’s been one of the Reds’ better arms and would make a fine addition to the Tigers pitching staff.

The Tigers would be able to add in Castillo and drastically increase the value of their rotation. The cost may be high, but the Tigers should still explore a trade package. Adding to the rotation would only further the Tigers along in terms of their competitive window.

Detroit Tigers should explore trading for Luis Castillo.

Let’s take a look at what a possible trade package would look like for the Tigers to acquire Luis Castillo from the Reds organization.

The Reds have been bringing in a ton of prospects in their trades. They have not been adding a bunch of top-tier prospects with their recent trades. This led me to choose Ryan Kreidler as the main trade chip involved. He’s a trade chip and someone that could be shopped as a part of the trade market.

However, Castillo is coming off of an “off” year, though he still performed quite well. In 2021, Castillo had 33 starts where he totaled 187.2 innings pitched with 192 strikeouts. He pitched to a 3.98 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP.

His performance was not all great, though. He did usher 75 free passes to hitters, which is not great; he also gave up 181 hits on the season. It’s an area to improve upon and get back to the level of performance that he showed in 2019.

The Tigers should be looking to add to their rotation, and someone like Castillo would be perfect. So as the Reds continue their fire sale of talent, the Tigers have to be looking into a trade offer to bring Castillo to the Motor City.