Welington Castillo is not a name that comes immediately to mind in a discussion of major league players. He is, however, unique among the 750 players who are on major league rosters today.

Castillo doesn’t hold that status because his first name contains only one ‘l,’ unlike the late Wellington Mara, who owned the New York football Giants for nearly half a century, or the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.

Castillo is unique because he is the only player who has played for three major league teams this season. Nineteen others have played for two teams, according to Elias Sports Bureau research, but no one has moved as frequently as Castillo in less than half the season that has been played.

The involuntary movement of these players says a lot about their lives. Most men would most likely accept being moved around if they could be major leaguers, but their lives are fluid and fragile.

Castillo, in fact, moved twice in a 16-day span, going from Chicago to Seattle to Phoenix. The Cubs traded the Dominican catcher to Seattle May 19 for pitcher Yoervis Medina after Castillo had played for them for two and a half seasons

Castillo spent only a week in Seattle, the city itself, before the Mariners sent him to Arizona June 3 in a six-player trade that delivered a hitter they needed, Mark Trumbo.

The trade made Trumbo and two young pitchers two-team players. Vidal Nuno went to Seattle with Trumbo, and Dominic Leone went to Arizona with Castillo. Both pitched for their former teams, and both have pitched for their new teams.

In his initial appearances with the Mariners, Trumbo did not perform like the hitter they need. He had a .162 mark across the board – batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage.

Castillo has become the Diamondbacks’ backup catcher, backing up Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who is a two-team player. Saltalamacchia started the season with the Miami Marlins but didn’t last with them through the first month. His departure was not the most compassionate move a team has ever made.

Saltalamacchia went on paternity leave, a relatively new concept in Major League Baseball, April 24 for the birth of the fourth child and first son of Ashley and Jarrod.

Three days later the Marlins, in effect, fired the catcher, designating him for assignment with his .069 batting average (2 for 29), .182 on-base percentage and .207 slugging percentage in 9 games).

When a team designates a player for assignment, it has 10 days in which to trade, sell or release him. The Marlins released Saltalamacchia eight days after they designated him.

On May 15 the Diamondbacks signed the 30-year-old Saltalamacchia to a minor league contract and two weeks later added him to their roster. In his first 9 games, he batted .207 (6 for 29) with a .273 on-base percentage and .379 slugging percentage.

The New York Yankees designated relief pitcher David Carpenter for assignment June 3. On June 12 they traded him to Washington for second baseman Tony Renda. Carpenter, whom the Yankees had obtained from Atlanta last Jan. 1, was placed on the Nationals’ roster last Friday.

Phil Coke, like Carpenter a reliever, was designated for assignment May 18. Signed by the Cubs to a minor league contract as a free agent last March 7, he was added to the major leaguer roster March 30. They released him May 26 after he relieved in 16 games and compiled a 6.30 earned run average.

The Toronto Blue Jays signed the left-hander – left-handed relievers can always get jobs no matter how many times they have failed – May 31 and brought him back to the majors last Thursday.

These are the other two-teamers:

• Drew Butera
• Alberto Callaspo
• Xavier Cedeno
• Alejandro De Aza
• Luis Jimenez
• Nick Masset
• Ryan Mattheus
• Edward Mujica
• Kirk Nieuwehuis
• Carlos Peguero
• Hernan Perez
• Ian Thomas
• Juan Uribe

One of these players could become a three-teamer with an asterisk. That would be Nieuwenhuis, the outfielder who has gone coast to coast and back and league to league and back.

Nieuwenhuis, who played 199 games for the Mets the previous three seasons, played in 27 games for them this season, batting an embarrassing .079 with three hits in 38 times at bat. The Mets understandably designated him for assignment May 19.

Eight days later they somehow sold him to the Angels. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed, but if the Mets got more than a bag of used baseballs, they did better than they had a right to.

Nieuwenhuis played in 10 games for the Angels, accumulating 3 hits – the same total he had with the Mets – in 22 times at bat for a much improved but still paltry .136 average. The Angels had seen enough and designated him for assignment June 10. They put him on waivers, and the Mets claimed him Saturday.

When – and if – he plays for the Mets, it will have to be decided if he joins Castillo as a three-teamer.

THERE ARE NO TIES IN BASEBALL

Chances are when you were growing up and playing baseball on the playground or the sandlot, you heard someone say that a tie between a fielder and a runner goes to the runner. I know I occasionally heard it said, and I frankly never believed it because I never knew who decided that unless it was a local playground rule.

However, it goes well beyond the playground. I have heard professional baseball people say it. Not that I want to single him out, but Ron Darling, the former major league pitcher and current Mets’ television analyst, is the most recent person I have heard invoke that mythical rule.

I was talking to Fay Vincent, the former baseball commissioner, later that day and repeated what Darling had said. Vincent proceeded to quote something Bruce Froemming, the former umpire, told him:

“In baseball a tie is what you wear around your neck.”