Could Castillo or Hancock have made their last start with Seattle?

LOS ANGELES -- With Monday’s Trade Deadline looming, there’s a legitimate possibility that either Emerson Hancock or Luis Castillo made his final start with the Mariners this week at Dodger Stadium.

Seattle has been actively listening on each as it looks for both a right-handed bat and bullpen help, according to sources across the industry, which MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand also reported on Wednesday.

None of these developments are new, other than that the clock is ticking toward the 3 p.m. PT cutoff on Monday.

They also are not inclined to move both, but rather, one or the other.

That, and the Mariners took a 4-2 loss to the Dodgers on Wednesday night that U-turned the dramatics of Tuesday night’s tense win and evened this three-game series.

Hancock was on the mound for this one, surrendering three earned runs over five innings.

The damage came via a solo homer to Andy Pages in the first inning, after Hancock struck out Shohei Ohtani to lead off the game, then a pair of infield singles -- from Freddie Freeman in the third and Pages in the fourth -- that each nicked the glove of third baseman Weston Wilson.

Overall, he kept the Mariners in the game. But Seattle’s struggles against left-handed pitching resurfaced in an all-too-familiar way, this time against journeyman Eric Lauer. The Mariners only had one hit and zero runs going into the eighth inning.

“Yesterday, we found a lot of barrels; today, a lot of contact, just not a lot of barrels,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said, “and a couple of walks to get us some traffic here and there. But outside of that, just not much going.”

Hancock followed Castillo the day prior, who gave up five earned runs on 11 hits but was buoyed by an offensive breakout.

With Bryan Woo bumped up to Thursday and Bryce Miller pushed to Friday back home against the Twins, it’s expected that Logan Gilbert then George Kirby would follow on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, though that hasn’t yet been announced.

That leads into Deadline Day, during which the Mariners are idle.

For Castillo, this is not unfamiliar territory, having been traded five times over his career -- the most recent of which, obviously, was the 2022 Deadline blockbuster in which the Mariners acquired him from the Reds. That remains one of Seattle’s defining transactions of this era.

“You go through it, and obviously rumors -- you hear the rumors, you kind of listen to them -- but they're just rumors at that point,” Castillo said through an interpreter. “Until there's nothing really crazy, you really can't do much of anything.”

For Hancock, however, being at the center of prominent trade commentary is novel. His stock has soared in this breakout season, as he carries a team-best 3.26 ERA over a career-high 110 1/3 innings.

“I'm not on social media a lot, but obviously, my wife tells me about some of this stuff,” Hancock said. “Again, it's all out of my control. It really is. We'll just kind of cross that bridge when we get there. I love it here. I love our guys, and we'll just cross that bridge when we get there.”

Castillo is the arm the Mariners would ideally like to trade. However, they will probably need to either take on some of his contract (he’s owed roughly $30 million through the end of 2027 and has a $25 million vesting option for ’28 if he throws 180 innings in ’27), or attach a prospect in order to move him. He also turns 34 in December.

“At this point, you just kind of focus, do your work here, and when the Deadline comes, if it's your turn to go somewhere, you've just got to focus on your new spot,” Castillo said. “But in terms of right now, you just do what you can control and just do your work here.”

Hancock would presumably be the more coveted of the two. He’s 27, earning league minimum (just under $800,000) and under club control through 2030.

“The past week, I've been able to kind of block that out,” Hancock said. “I think, in a way, it maybe makes you just enjoy it a little bit more, with your teammates and your guys. Because you really don't know. The next week, we could have a completely different conversation. So it's just about, let's be present here. Let's see what the next couple days hold.”