40 in 40: Luis Castillo, The Happy Project

A decade ago, I went out to an art show. Visiting my uncle in Vienna, Austria, I took a break from Metaxa-fueled family video marathons for a trip to “The Happy Show,” a traveling installation I caught at the city’s Museum of Applied Arts, headed by Austrian artist Stefan Sagmeister. Malleable mind that I was, the preponderance of infographics and interactive showcases stuck with me. The questions at the show’s heart were simple, but worth asking at every opportunity. What makes us happiest? Beyond a syrupy, 1950s advertisement or 1960s aspirational slogan, the showcase sought to be scientific. How much money do the happiest people make? What traits and life choices do the happiest people share? Is happiness how we should define success?

I won’t be calculating Luis Castillo’s f-joie (de vivre), but The Rock is who my mind drifts to in concert with these questions. Castillo will be entering his fifth season in Seattle in 2026, his penultimate guaranteed in the five year, $108 million extension he inked just months after being traded to Seattle from the Cincinnati Reds. Castillo’s been yeomanlike for the M’s, making 106 regular season starts in his three and a half seasons in Northwest Green. The sizzle has settled, and while Castillo’s dreads defiantly resist nature’s beckoning call to gray – he’s only 33 years old, after all – the Dominican no longer helms Seattle’s staff.

Ace Emeritus isn’t often a collar gracefully donned, as Seattle has witnessed the heart-wrenching decline of King Felix, the ignominious salary dump of Marco Gonzales, and the musical chairs game between Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, and Bryan Woo over the past couple campaigns, each staking their claim for a time but failing to crown themselves unimpeachably.

Every week, Castillo has taken the ball. Velocity dips have continued to cause concern, even as his reinvention has allowed the one-time sinker-changeup specialist to molt into a low-release four-seamer with a slider. His 618.1 innings pitched since joining the M’s ranks 5th in MLB since joining the M’s. Sure, at times Castillo’s slippage has looked terminal, such as his stench-ridden August into September 1st which saw him held to 4-4.1 frames in four of six starts. But his wane came as Seattle at last was seeing their rotation round into form. For months, Castillo was the backbone of a quavering collective of M’s arms, indeed he only failed to clear the fifth inning once outside the aforementioned stretch.

Among active pitchers, removing Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer due to their stated retirement plans, Castillo is 12th by bWAR, heading into his 10th season. Cooperstown will be a vacation, not an invitation, but his career has been, and should continue to be, a triumph of consistency, utility, and flexibility. His station as the upper-middle class of major league starters is a rare, precious gift, worthy of celebration and an ongoing gift to the Seattle Mariners. While his lone ALCS start was a disappointment, the chaos of the ALDS conclusion played a role, with Castillo coming in from the bullpen for the first time in his big league career to keep the Tigers in a vice and secure the Game 5 victory.

Put simply, Castillo is a success. The 33 year old’s threshold of past and present capability is worthy of ongoing happiness for all involved. His use on the M’s roster remains that of a bulwark against bad innings and irretrievable games. In one of his responses to questions on his “Happy” project, Sagmeister references the romantic poet Theophile Gautier, who noted “Something can only be truly beautiful when it has no function whatsoever. Everything that’s truly useful is ugly. The most useful room in the house is the toilet.”

I’ll just stick with The Rock.