This trade package could get Dodgers to land Luis Castillo from Reds

With uncertainty surrounding David Price, the Dodgers should target Luis Castillo.

The Los Angeles Dodgers don’t have to react to the San Diego Padres’ recent slew of blockbuster trades, but wouldn’t it be great if they managed to out-do their division rivals with an earth-shattering deal of their own?

LA’s rotation is still the best in baseball, with Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Julio Urias, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin ready to make up the unit even if David Price doesn’t play in 2021 (the team is cautiously optimistic he will pitch next season but at this point it hardly feels like a guarantee).

Then again, to succeed in today’s MLB, you need a stacked bullpen and at least six capable starters. So why don’t the Dodgers go for the jugular and give the Cincinnati Reds a call about ace Luis Castillo? He’s reportedly available in talks.

There are a lot of question marks surrounding the World Series champs this offseason, but adding Castillo would make them even more of a juggernaut. A trio of Buehler, Kershaw and Castillo? We’ll take it. More ace insurance in the event Kershaw deals with those nagging back issues? It’d be hard to see the Dodgers missing a beat.

The only “problem”? Castillo won’t be cheap in a trade. He’s under club control through 2023, and a pitcher of his caliber being cost effective for the next three years is going to force you to surrender assets. But there are two upsides here.

The Dodgers have a ton of prospect capital to trade from and would hardly take a hit with the surplus of talent they possess. Additionally, trading younger players who won’t see big league action for a while/are blocked by superior incumbent players is probably smarter than forking over Gerrit Cole-type money for Trevor Bauer.

Yeah … I mean the Dodgers print money but that’s where they might draw the line. Not going to happen.

So what’ll it take for LA to land Castillo from Cincinnati? These teams have done business before, most notably with the blockbuster Matt Kemp-Yasiel Puig trade a few years back — though the Dodgers very much got the better end of that deal. Even so, the Reds know they need an infusion of talent if they move Castillo, making the Dodgers among the best trade partners.

Perhaps the Dodgers can play the ultimate game of chess here and send Josiah Gray back to Cincinnati. LA’s top prospect was acquired in the aforementioned Kemp-Puig deal and could headline another trade package with No. 4 prospect Michael Busch, No. 9 prospect Mitch White, and slugger Edwin Rios. Perhaps a Gavin Lux/No. 2 prospect Keibert Ruiz/No. 22 prospect Edwin Uceta proposal could get a deal done too.

The Reds are looking to move on from bigger contracts as well. Eugenio Suarez, Nick Castellanos and Mike Moustakas have all reportedly come up in trade rumors. Maybe the Dodgers expand the deal to get their hands on one of those guys. If not, players like Busch, Rios and Lux can help the Reds immediately fill those voids. And they’d hardly be a loss for LA.

It’s certainly worth an internal discussion, that’s for sure.

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