It's hard to figure which spoil factored more prominently into the timing of his arrival, which forced Manuel to scratch him from yesterday's lineup. New Mets general manager Sandy Alderson and manager Terry Collins cited his unpopularity with Mets fans as factoring in the decision to eat the final $6 million owed on his contract. As Castillo confessed upon arriving in Clearwater, he sought and received his release after sharing playing time this spring with three players you have never heard of.
And while Collins lauded him on the day he was released for "being a professional . . . the way he went about this camp," there were several published reports this spring that he was doing the complete opposite.
He brooded. He went into the manager's office and complained that this was no way to treat a $6 million man.
I'd be OK with that if it was a ploy to go elsewhere. As Castillo said when he finally got here, "When you play with a team, you want to win." But the 2 days it took to get from Miami to Clearwater doesn't support it. Neither did the word of the day, "miscommunication," used several hours apart by Castillo and Phillies GM Ruben Amaro to explain the delay.
Castillo's agent gave him the wrong date, said Amaro. "He thought he was expected today, we thought it was yesterday.
"We'll just have to evaluate him 1 less day."
Someone asked Amaro whether the details surrounding Castillo's release from the Mets concerned him. "I don't know what happened with he and the Mets," Amaro said. "And that's not my issue. What I'm concerned about, what I'm worried about, is how he handles himself here."
Amaro also said: "You guys are making a little too much out of this."
Castillo was assigned the empty locker between Placido Polanco and Raul Ibanez, who like Castillo are represented by the ACES agency.
They also are two of the Phillies' more upstanding clubhouse guys.
