The Mariners broke the internet with surprise trade of Luis Castillo to Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles finally did it. They finally traded for Luis Castillo, finalizing a deal to acquire the veteran right-hander from the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night.

But here comes the F bomb: We're talking about Luis F. Castillo, who is in fact a different person from Luis M. Castillo.

Mariners fans got used to the distinction during spring training and especially in early April. When Seattle promoted Luis F. Castillo from the minors on April 4, it resulted in two pitchers with the same name making back-to-back starts for the first time since 2000.

Up through Wednesday afternoon, that had been Luis F. Castillo's claim to major league fame. The 30-year-old is a true journeyman, as his career consists of 11 seasons in the minors plus two in Japan, with just five major league appearances mixed in.

Social media was not ready to get punked by the Mariners and Orioles

The other Luis Castillo (i.e., the "M." one, but only when spoken about in context of the "F." one) is a bit more of a known quantity, having made 218 major league starts with three All-Star selections. He has nonetheless often been mentioned as potential trade bait since the end of last season, and the Orioles were one team that was prominently linked to him during the winter.

As such, the X post that the Orioles sent out last night was never not going to cause a stir:

You only need to type "Luis Castillo" into X's search bar to get an illustrative sampling of the reaction to the news. It basically amounts to thousands of people doing a virtual spit take, including MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince:

There were some less safe for work posts from Orioles fans, which is understandable. Luis F. Castillo has done nothing wrong, but he is simply not the answer that the Orioles need. Their pitching staff has an AL-high 5.52 ERA, which is a big reason why the team is off to a 13-22 start.

We would like to say that Castillo may surprise Orioles fans. He can get his fastball up to 95.1 mph, and his slider drew a 46.2 whiff percentage while he was with Seattle earlier in the season.

And yet, the reality is that the Mariners are unlikely to miss Castillo. He posted a 7.71 ERA in the two starts he made for the big club, and he's leaving Triple-A Tacoma with a 5.02 ERA. A constant at both levels was a lot of traffic on the basepaths.

Life will otherwise go on for the Mariners, notably with Luis M. Castillo in the rotation. The 32-year-old is not the ace he used to be, but the 3.29 ERA he has through seven starts underscores that he still knows how to pitch.

At the outset of the season, it was possible to imagine the elder Castillo ending up on the trading block and indeed even landing with the Orioles. But that was only going to happen if the Mariners wanted to shed salary amid a pile-up of losses, and the opposite is playing out so far in 2025. They're racking up Ws and taking on salary.

With the Orioles headed in the other direction, them making a trade for the wrong Luis Castillo feels like an inevitable outcome for this particular timeline. And while it may have their fans feeling anguished, the whole situation should give Mariners fans a good laugh.

Anyway, now all we need is for a team to trade for the Mariners' other Julio Rodríguez.