Alexi Casilla

[William Malone]

Alexi Casilla Lora was born on July 20, 1984 in the Dominican Republic.

He was signed by the Anaheim Angels as an amateur free agent in 2003. The Minnesota Twins acquired him in a trade for J.C. Romero in December 2005, and his Major League debut came as a September call-up in 2006.

Casilla slashed .250/.305/.334 over seven seasons with the Twins, regularly playing both middle infield spots and providing a lot of speed on the base paths. He was successful on 71 of 80 stolen base attempts with Minnesota, including 21-for-22 in 2012 when he played a career high 106 games. His knack for late game heroics made him a fan favorite at both the Metrodome and Target Field. Casilla was a career .283 hitter in games where he came off the bench, compared to a .246 clip in games he started. He had five walk-off hits with the Twins, including a division clinching single in the 2009 AL Central Tiebreaker Game against the Detroit Tigers.

The Twins waived Casilla after the 2012 season, and he was claimed by the Baltimore Orioles. Casilla spent two seasons there, and then began to bounce around the minors. He spent 2015 and 2016 in four different minor league systems, before spending three seasons with the York Revolution of the Atlantic League. He was the hitting coach for the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League as recently as 2024, but Casilla was not included on their 2025 coaching roster.

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[David HK]

A good solid player for a good solid number of years.  I really liked Alexi- and yep, I remember that 1-game playoff hit like it was yesterday!