NY Mets roster reunion bumps Richard Lovelady down the depth chart, at least for now

David Stearns has spent the last month or so reuniting with some of the more underwhelming additions he brought to the team in 2025. Signing Richard Lovelady to a split contract was one of the more annoying moves.

Yeah, he’s probably going to flip between the majors and minors throughout the year. Maybe he has a big moment where he strikes out Aaron Judge in the Subway Series the same way Jake Diekman did in 2024.

On Friday, Stearns kept the theme going. He picked up Jose Castillo off of waivers from the Baltimore Orioles. A player Stearns traded cash for last season, he’ll be a competitor alongside Lovelady for a spot on the Opening Day roster as a “just in case” when it comes to the health of Brooks Raley and A.J. Minter.

Jose Castillo is back with the Mets after a very weird 2025 season

Castillo was terrible with the Arizona Diamondbacks, allowing 8 earned runs in 6.1 innings. He’d combine to surrender just 6 more during his time with the Mets, Seattle Mariners, and Orioles.

The numbers are deceiving at first glance. In 15.1 innings with the Mets, where he spent just under half of his time in 2025, he had a 2.35 ERA. His 11.2 K/9 rate and 3.5 BB/9 were suitable. His biggest problem was the 21 hits allowed.

Castillo had immense reverse splits, batters slashing .368/.448/.491 against him in 67 chances. Righties had plenty of luck against him, too. They batted .264/.341/.431 in 82 plate appearances.

Observing how Stearns has operated in recent offseasons, the decision to add Castillo is very likely temporary. Castillo has no minor league options remaining, however, he did pass through waivers and accepted a minor league assignment with the Mets in 2025. It’s always possible the waiver claim has enough legs to keep him around through spring training. Alternatively, the Mets are going to position themselves where they’re also one roster addition away from putting him back on waivers all over again.

As for the Opening Day roster, let’s hope it doesn’t come down to a battle between him and Lovelady for a vacancy.