The Missing Piece

When Omar Minaya made the trade with the Minnesota Twins to land Luis Castillo, I for one was reluctant of it because of the great job at the plate that Ruben Gotay was going. When Castillo went through the first game with the Mets and took the collar I was in disbelief that they would keep to their guns and keep Luis on second. I thought that Castillo didn’t want to be in New York as much as I didn’t want him here. All that I thought and he was showing was out of the moment.

Now hitting behind Reyes in the two spot and getting comfortable with his new teammates (some old – Delgado, Lo Duca; Mota) he has finally settled down to be the missing piece of the Mets puzzle.

It’s a shame that Jose Valentin had to get injured and be out the rest of the season and I would have much rather have the Valentin of 2006 at second than anyone else because of what he represented. He stood for the guy that no one wanted and no one would give a chance to, but Omar and Willie gave him that chance and he came through in a big way to replace defunct Matsui. But not all things work out the way you want them to.

Now we have a second baseman that Minnesota thought to be on the downward slope of his career and traded him to the Mets for some medium ceiling prospects. Mets fans can once again sit back and watch a prototypical second in the lineup guy play small ball with Reyes and create havoc on the base paths for, hopefully another couple of years to come.

Castillo’s numbers with the Mets:

BA: .344
HR: 0
RBI: 2
SB: 2