"I didn't really have a big reaction to it," he said. "I mean, I still had the no-trade clause left in the contract. But if the team wanted to come to me in some negotiation, who knows what happens? It's not the first time my name's been linked to something like this.

As the trade rumors surrounding him began intensifying at the Winter Meetings, Luis Castillo was so far off the grid that he didn’t hear about them immediately.