Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

Second baseman Luis Castillo has been released by the New York Mets with one year and $6 million remaining on his contract.

“After a long evaluation during spring training, after consulting with [manager] Terry [Collins] and the coaching staff, I made a recommendation to ownership in the best interest of the organization and Louie that he be released,” general manager Sandy Alderson said. “Ownership approved.”

Alderson refused to handicap the remaining field of candidates, but Rule 5 pick Brad Emaus appears a leading candidate. He has a supporter in J.P. Ricciardi, who was the general manager who drafted Emaus with the Toronto Blue Jays, and has a track record of walking more than striking out while displaying power that is in line with the Mets front office’s philosophy.

Another candidate, Daniel Murphy, is expected to be on the team in some capacity because he would be an asset as a left-handed bat for the bench. Justin Turner may have had the best spring, but he has minor league options remaining, putting him at a disadvantage.

Team sources say the final remaining candidate, Luis Hernandez, is only on the “outside” of the race.

“In spite of the fact no one has obviously separated himself in the competition, I think we have a good-enough sense of where this is going that we want to accelerate the process,” Alderson said. “So it was important to scale the competition back a little bit.”

WRITTEN BY

Adam Rubin covers the Mets for ESPNNewYork.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Follow Adam Rubin on Twitter: @AdamRubinESPN

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