The talk around baseball ahead of this season’s MLB trade deadline much centered on now-former Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Luis Castillo. Multiple teams pushed to acquire the two-time All-Star, but in the end, the Reds decided to send him to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for four prospects.

The Yankees were among the teams that were quite interested in hauling in Castillo. They wound up being one of the finalists in the sweepstakes, as they then turned their attention to completing a trade for now-former Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Frankie Montas.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman recently took some time to speak on the New York Post’s “The Show” podcast, where he touched on several matters regarding his team. He also reflected on his pursuit of Castillo, as he made clear that the Reds’ asking price for such a move was one that did not intrigue him.

“The price tag coming our way was not something that we were willing to deal with, ultimately,” Cashman said. “Even in the end when the dust settled, with what Seattle did I’m not even sure if our price tag that they wanted from us beats the price tag that Cincinnati got from Seattle. So, obviously we targeted a lot of different players at the deadline, and certainly that was one of them. But ultimately that was it.

“What we were willing to do, I feel like we finished second in that conversation. Doesn’t mean I did or we did, there’s obviously no prize for that, but ultimately what it was going to cost for us to pull down that player, that wasn’t a comfort level of ours. I know we were in the game, and then I think Seattle kind of blew the market away when they finished it off.”

In Castillo trade talks, the Reds reportedly inquired about acquiring either of the Yankees’ two prized shortstop prospects in Anthony Volpe or Oswald Peraza. However, the Yankees never gave in to the Reds’ trade demands, and the two sides later halted such discussions.

In the unpredictable world of baseball, it sure would not be a surprise to see Castillo lead the Mariners in a crucial postseason clash against the Yankees later in the season.