BREAKING NEWS: Polin Castillo traded for Bart Hamelin

MLB Trade Rumors is reporting this afternoon that the Snow Pirates have dealt highly touted Dominican relief prospect Polin Castillo to Fargo for breakout relief prospect Bart Hamelin and cash.

This deal is sort of strange for a couple of reasons. First, coincidentally, both relievers have exactly the same minor league ERA: 3.91. Even more bizarre is that they have exactly the same IP and ERA this season: 9.1 innings with a 4.82 ERA (though Hamelin is in AA while Castillo is in AAA). They both turned pro in season 6, and Castillo is beating Hamelin in nearly every other statistical category; however, Castillo is already 24 while Hamelin is 21.

The second reason why this deal strikes me as odd is that Castillo could be in our major league bullpen right now. While his AAA ERA right now is high, it's only a small sample size, and he has only allowed runs in two of his nine appearances, meaning he's just been hit hard a couple of times while remaining dominant the other seven times. He could have easily replaced Santiago Mercado, for example, and rescued us from a bullpen blackhole and walking PR nightmare at the same time. We still have a couple guys in AAA like Einar Gonzalez and Angel Cortez, but neither is as enticing an option as Castillo would have been this year in the event of an injury to a ML guy (or if, you know, we just wanted to improve our bullpen and actually make the playoffs).

That said, the return on value is also relatively questionable. Castillo was a highly sought-after international free agent who eventually fetched a $7.5 million signing bonus when we nabbed him in season 6. Hamelin, by comparison, was a 15th round draft pick (489th overall) out of high school who commanded a staggering... get ready for it... $28,000 when he signed with Fargo as minor league fodder (the kid lost the closing job on his own high school team his senior year, then went and injured himself in a pickup football game a month before the draft). After a disastrous season 6 campaign that saw him post a 6.55 ERA in only 11 innings of work, most would have left him for dead. But Fargo minor league pitching coach Frank Itou worked with Hamelin in the offseason, helping him vastly improve his command and transform his curveball into a go-to pitch. Since then, Hamelin has been very good, posting ERAs in the 3's consistently prior to this season and showing a competitive but levelheaded temperament that led to former Fargo AA coach Wilbur Halter calling him "mature beyond even my years."

Still, it's unclear which of them will become the better pitcher. It will really hurt losing Castillo's ability to effortlessly strike batters out, and replacing a consistent groundball pitcher with a flyball pitcher usually spells trouble. But scouts have always been concerned with Castillo's struggles against lefties, while those seem to be Hamelin's forte (he is also pretty mean against righties). Despite being treated with kid gloves in the minors, Hamelin also has the stamina to pitch around 2 innings per appearance, while Castillo will probably have a career of one-inning appearances. That is a big deal for our bullpen, which usually becomes rather exhausted during long strings of consecutive games. Hamelin also sports a very good fastball, while Castillo relies almost exclusively on his breaking pitches which may not be enough to fool major league batters.

Overall, this trade is a real "wait and see" for me. Both guys have huge potential, and obviously the organization must see more upside in Hamelin if they were willing to deal an ML-ready reliever for him. We won't be able to accurately judge this one for a long time.