So there’s that.

Predictably, the news was met with a ton of backlash from Mets fans and media, because just about everything everywhere is met with backlash. Mike Nickeas could cure cancer tomorrow and fans would wonder why he wasn’t working on learning the pitching staff.

I mean, we’re talking about the same Luis Castillo here, right? The guy we’ve been hoping to see released for years? Boo-is Castillo?

This is a good thing. For one, it demonstrates with certainty the new front office’s willingness to cut bait on sunk costs and its ability to convince ownership to do so when necessary.

Many will and have said already that it was a move prompted by perception more than baseball. And as Sandy Alderson said, perception certainly played a role in the decision. But have we all forgotten that Castillo hasn’t been good for several seasons?

It’s true that we don’t know yet if Brad Emaus or Daniel Murphy or Justin Turner can handle the rigors of playing second base every day in the Major Leagues. But we already knew that Luis Castillo couldn’t, right? I mean, the worst thing that can happen is the Mets end up with a crappy second baseman who is not Castillo. The upside to keeping him around was the chance the Mets would end up with a crappy second baseman who was Castillo.

This is what we (and by we, of course, I mean me) wanted: A front office willing to move on from bad contracts and put faith in untested younger players when the veterans in the position have already proven incapable. Hell, this is what I’ve been bleating on about for years. Since no single month’s worth of Spring Training at-bats will prove an adequate sample to assess the younger second-base candidates in Mets’ camp, the team will give at least one of them the opportunity to prove his merit in real games against Major League pitching.

Good. Maybe he will turn out to be a worthwhile cost-controlled contributor to the next contending Mets team, whenever that might come. Castillo was not that guy.

All that said, I kind of liked Castillo. I half-joked before last season that he was my favorite Major Leaguer because of his one remaining outlying skill, the amazing plate discipline that gave him a unique ability to consistently get on base without any appreciable power.

And I don’t think he always got a fair shake from Mets fans. Yes, he wasn’t very good. Yes, he once dropped a pop-up. But like many players, he took a ton of flak for a contract that he would have been crazy not to sign. That’s Omar Minaya’s fault, not Castillo’s.

Since we’re on the topic, and because several readers emailed me about it this morning, I should mention Andy Martino’s column today suggesting that Mets fans dislike Castillo, among other reasons, because he’s Hispanic.

I don’t think that’s the case; I’m pretty sure Mets fans disliked Castillo because he was paid a lot and wasn’t very good at baseball. But it’s hard to argue that race has no bearing at all on the way baseball players are perceived among some segments of the fanbase and, for that matter, the media.

At Amazin’ Avenue, Matthew Callan wrote something pretty similar to what I planned to write before Castillo got cut. I have heard plenty of fans call Castillo lazy and repeatedly question his work ethic and attitude, and I’m not sure he’d necessarily get the same treatment if he were a white guy.

Playing through pain and with limited physical ability are the two of the hallmarks of players often deemed scrappy, gritty hustlers, and Castillo certainly did both of those things and never seemed to benefit from that distinction. Still, I wonder if it had as much to do with his countenance as his race; Castillo’s face, no matter his mood, seemed locked in a sort of perma-scowl, and from the comforts of our living rooms we are all phrenologists and body-language experts.

Anyway, we can blissfully ignore that hot-button issue for the moment. Castillo is no longer a Met, and in his place the team will turn to someone younger that still has a chance — slim, maybe — to be better.