As the Reds dropped another series Thursday to the vaunted Dodgers, it’s hard to think about anything other than the trade deadline at this point. The Reds are 23-46 and 15.5 games back of first place in the NL Central.

The Reds have some assets to move at the deadline. Tyler Mahle comes to mind. Tommy Pham could be a nice rental for a contender, and the Reds could maybe cash in on Brandon Drury’s career year. But the best trade chip on this roster is Luis Castillo.

In a perfect world, Luis Castillo would be a Red for life. I love Luis Castillo. It’s a shame he didn’t get a chance to pitch in as many significant games during his Reds career. Unfortunately, this is where we are.

The Reds chose to punt on the season in March when they didn’t re-sign Nick Castellanos and traded Jesse Winker, Eugenio Suarez, and Sonny Gray.

One could argue that Castillo should have been moved in the off-season, but Nick Krall affirmed that Castillo was staying put.

Knowing that this season is lost and that next season likely won’t be much better, it makes sense to cash in on an asset that the Reds are not going to sign to a long-term deal.

If there’s anything good to come out of the off-season trades, it’s that the Reds added to their stockpile of pitching prospects. The main issue in the system now is the lack of position player depth across the organization.

Shortstops Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz are certainly promising prospects, but they aren’t sure things and both of them are a few years away from being solid contributors on a major league roster.

They only have two proven MLB hitters under the age of 30 (Jonathan India and Tyler Stephenson). Everyone else is either on the wrong side of 30, unproven or won’t be here when the Reds are good again.

This organization needs more Major League-ready or close to Major League Ready offense. Luis Castillo gives them the best chance at acquiring that.

Maybe the Mets will part with top-100 third basemen, Brett Baty. Perhaps the Dodgers would give up Double-A slugger Andy Pages. The Reds just need bats that can contribute sooner rather than later.

It also gives Luis Castillo a chance to pitch in meaningful baseball games. Hopefully “La Piedra” will be able to follow in the footsteps of Johnny Cueto in 2015 and win a World Series.

It will hurt to see Louie in another uniform, but with the Reds being so far from contention it just makes sense to trade him by August 2nd.

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