Wilkin Castillo hit a two-run double for the Marlins on Saturday, driving home the go-ahead run in a 5-3 Miami win over the Phillies. But what made Castillo’s feat special was that it was his first major league game in a decade
Castillo signed a minor league deal in spring training with Miami, his seventh major league organization in the last 10 years. He was called up to the Marlins on Friday and started at catcher on Saturday, his first major league game in 10 years and two days.
Castillo’s last two MLB games:
June 20, 2009: pinch-hit RBI single for the Reds against the White Sox in the seventh inning
June 22, 2019: 1-for-3, two-run double for Miami in the seventh inning
He actually has a three-game hitting streak, dating back to June 1, 2009. It’s the longest-running active hit streak in the majors. The hitting streak timing is so rare that Castillo, according to the Marlins, has the first hitting streak to span more than 10 years since Roy Schalk, whose streak lasted four games and was spread out between Sept. 17, 1932 and April 19, 1944, a span of 11 years, 215 days.
In between those major league games, when he went from a 25-year-old prospect to a grizzled 35-year-old veteran, Castillo played 390 games in Triple-A, 55 more in Double-A, as well as 84 games for three Mexican League teams and 20 games in the independent Atlantic League. That’s 549 total minor league games in between time in the bigs, plus another 265 games in the Dominican Winter League, where he has played in each of the last 13 offseasons.
Not a bad way to stay sharp over the last decade. After all, that next major league stint could come at any time.
