The Seattle Mariners suffered a potentially critical loss on Sunday, as veteran starting pitcher Luis Castillo departed his start against the St. Louis Cardinals with what the team later termed a left hamstring strain.
Castillo exited after three innings of work in which he allowed two earned runs and struck out three against one walk (SEA-STL GameTracker). This season, the 31-year-old Castillo has pitched to a 3.64 ERA over 30 starts. While no timeline has been disclosed by the team yet, it’s possible given the late date on the Major League Baseball calendar that Castillo could miss the remainder of the 2024 season if he needs an IL stint. That would be a notable loss, even in light of Seattle’s enviable rotation depth. Castillo said after the game that he’ll get tests in Seattle on Monday.
On another level, though, the loss of Castillo for any length of time probably doesn’t alter the Mariners’ arc this season. Coming into Sunday’s contest, the M’s had a record of 72-71, and they trailed the first-place Houston Astros in the American League West by 5 1/2 games. On the wild-card front, the Mariners were 4 1/2 games out of the third and final spot and behind both the Kansas City Royals and the Boston Red Sox in that race. Framed another way, the Mariners came into Sunday tied with the Detroit Tigers in the playoff chase. Not surprisingly, SportsLine gives the M’s just a 13.1% chance of making the playoffs.
Those are disappointing straits for a team that as recently as June 18 was 13 games over .500 and had a 10-game lead in the division. More ordinary play by Seattle in tandem with a reassertion of Houston’s authority undid all that work, and now the M’s are likely to miss the postseason for a second straight year. That trajectory already cost Scott Servais his job as manager, but president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto may be safe even if the Mariners miss the playoffs. Given the club’s current spot in the standings and the loss of one of their rotation stalwarts in Castillo, Dipoto may need every ounce of whatever job security he has.
