Buster Olney was a recent guest on the 'Refuse to Lose' podcast and spoke about what we can expect from 'The Rock' moving forward.
The Seattle Mariners enter play on Sunday at 9-13 overall and losers of four of their last five.
It's been a disappointing start for the M's, who entered the season with World Series aspirations coming off a 90-win season and an American League West title.
One of many reasons for the M's early-season issues has been the performance on the mound of Luis Castillo. The 33-year-old veteran delivered a dominant first start of the season against the New York Yankees, but has failed to record a quality start in any of the last three. He's failed to make it out of the fourth inning in two of those.
Some Mariners fans want him cut, some want him demoted to the bullpen when Bryce Miller returns, and some just recognize that there's a different level of expectation now for Castillo.
We asked ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney about the outlook for 'The Rock' on the most recent edition of the 'Refuse to Lose' podcast.
Seattle Mariners pitcher Luis Castillo (58) reacts following the second inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium. Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images"The good thing is, and you know this, that when you look at some of the peripherals, the fastball velocity is about the same. What you would really be worried about, would be if his fastball velocity had dropped two or three ticks, because then you don't know if it's actually going to be better. It does feel like that he's in a position to compete. But you know, the dominant Luis Castillo, the All-Star that they acquired, that pitcher is probably gone. I mean, that's just the reality of it.
I certainly got a feel for that a couple of years ago when his name was bandied about in some of the trade conversations. And what I was hearing from other teams was, 'yes, Seattle might be willing to talk about him, but he's not someone you want to take on, you know, given his age and given the innings that he had accumulated.' The good thing is so far, besides the staple guys in the rotation like Bryan Woo, Emerson Hancock's been pretty good. He looks like he can be a guy. So if your de facto fifth starter is Luis Castillo, battling it out consistently into the middle innings, that's a pretty good situation. You can live with that."
The Mariners are back on the field on Sunday afternoon at 1:10 p.m. PT against the Texas Rangers. Castillo will pitch again next week against the Athletics.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION:
Remember to join our MARINERS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Mariners fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!