Mariners fans hope the new Luis Castillo is just as a good as the other

The Seattle Mariners just started a right-hander named Luis Castillo on Wednesday. They are also starting a right-hander named Luis Castillo on Friday. It's all very confusing.

Here, maybe this will help: Luis F. Castillo.

This is the one who's starting on Friday afternoon against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. The distinction is important, though this is not to suggest there's anything wrong with having fun with the sheer oddity of two pitchers with the same name starting back-to-back games for the same team.

It's actually a historic occasion. As Alex Mayer, the Mariners' senior manager of baseball communications, noted on X:

This scans, as those two New York Mets games in July of 2000 were indeed started by a Bobby Jones. And you're probably not going to believe this, but the then-Florida Marlins leadoff hitter for both games was named...[drumroll]...Luis Castillo.

Ridiculous trivia items aside, this is a big day for Luis F. Castillo. Whereas the other Luis Castillo has 213 major league starts under his belt, Luis F. Castillo will be making his first on Friday. And he's doing it against a future Hall of Famer, no less.

Who is this new Luis Castillo?

Castillo began his professional career waaaaaaay back in 2012, when he signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks as an international amateur out of the Dominican Republic.

The righty pitched in Arizona's system through October of 2021, when he became a free agent and subsequently caught on with the Detroit Tigers. He posted a 1.61 ERA in the high levels of their minor league system in 2022, finally making his major league debut on August 6 of that year. He was 27 years old at the time.

After that, the 6-foot-3, 212-pounder went to Japan and pitched in Nippon Professional Baseball, first for the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2023 and then the Orix Buffaloes in 2024. And he pitched well, making 27 total appearances and logging a 3.01 ERA with a tiny rate of 1.3 walks per nine innings.

This is what preceded Castillo's opportunity with the Mariners, who signed him on a minor league deal with an invite to spring training in January. He gave up nine hits and three runs in five innings with the big club before he was reassigned to minor league camp on March 10, the same day he celebrated his 30th birthday.

We did learn a few things about Castillo in that time, however. For example, we know he can get his fastball as high as 95.1 mph. We also know he has a solid changeup, as captured by Rob "Pitching Ninja" Friedman:

So, there's the book on Castillo. How much more he puts into it is now up to him, though chances are this will be a relatively brief stay in the majors. The Mariners should only need to make it a couple more weeks before they can re-insert George Kirby into their rotation. He's currently recovering from shoulder inflammation.

Regardless, today is the first day that Castillo can start saying something very special for the rest of his life: That he pitched against Justin Verlander.

The 42-year-old is set to start Friday for the Giants, and it goes without saying that the stakes are much lower for him. He is already a three-time Cy Young Award winner and MVP, and among the stats he leads active pitchers in are wins (262), innings (3,420.2), strikeouts (3,421), and WAR (81.0).

It'll certainly make for a good memory if Castillo outshines Verlander on Friday. But as far as Mariners fans are concerned, he merely needs to do better than the first guy to try to fill in for Kirby. That was Emerson Hancock, who didn't survive the first inning against the Detroit Tigers on Monday.

In any case, we at SoDo Mojo would like to congratulate Castillo and wish him good luck on a day that's been a long time coming for him.