Luis Antonio Castillo (born September 12, 1975) is a Dominican former professional baseball second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball for the Florida Marlins, New York Mets, and Minnesota Twins from 1996 through 2010.
Castillo is a three-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner, and won the World Series with the Marlins in 1997 and 2003. He is also the only player who played for the Marlins in both of their World Series winning seasons who did not get traded in between the two seasons (Jeff Conine was on both teams but was traded after 1997 and returned during the 2003 season). The all-time leader in games played for the Marlins (1,128), he is one of only two players to play 1,000 games for the franchise (the other also being Conine).
Professional career
Early career
On August 19, 1992, Castillo was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Florida Marlins. In 1994, he played his first year of baseball in the Gulf Coast League, playing for the Gulf Coast Marlins. He also set a Marlins short-season record in stolen bases, with 31.
In 1995, he was called up to the Kane County Cougars in the Class-A Midwest League, and was selected to the All-Star team. He injured his shoulder in July, causing him to miss the rest of the season. That year, he led the entire Marlins organization in batting average with .326, as well as being second in stolen bases.
Castillo spent most of the 1996 season in the Eastern League, but was called up to the Marlins mid-season and made his major league debut on August 8. His first major league hit came in a game against the New York Mets, where he knocked in the game-winning run in the 10th inning. He was named to the Eastern League All-Star team and post-season All-Star team.
Florida Marlins
1997–99
Castillo started playing full-time for the Marlins at second base during the 1997 season. Both at age 21, he and Édgar Rentería were the youngest middle infield combination in the history of the National League. He bruised his left heel mid-season, and missed the entire month of May with the injury. He was optioned to the Triple-A Charlotte Knights on July 28 and did not come back to the major leagues until the next season. Due to this, he did not play for the Marlins during the 1997 World Series.
Castillo remained with the Charlotte Knights until being recalled to the Marlins on August 4, 1998. While in Charlotte, he had a streak of 32 consecutive games reaching base safely. With the Marlins, his highest hit streak was eight games, between August 14 and 19. By the end of the season, he was third among Marlins minor leaguers in stolen bases, and a .203 batting average, 3 stolen bases and 10 RBIs.
Castillo improved in 1999, with many short hitting streaks. These streaks included six games from May 10 to 17, and six games from August 1 to 7. He also had a 22-game hitting streak in a stretch between August 9 and September 3. He finished fourth in the league in stolen bases, and was fourth among leadoff hitters in on-base percentage at .385. He was named the Marlins Most Valuable Player by the South Florida Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
2000–02
Castillo started the 2000 season with a seven-game hitting streak from April 5 to 12, though he was placed on the disabled list with a strained back shortly afterwards. A week after coming back, he set a single-game team record with four stolen bases on May 17. He had three in the next game, falling short of the National League record of 8 in two games, set by Walt Wilmot in 1894. In 2000, he also became the Marlins all-time stolen base leader by stealing his 116th career base on June 20 while playing the Milwaukee Brewers. He finished the season with 62 stolen bases, leading the entire major leagues.
In 2001, Castillo had two hitting streaks, eight games from May 6 to 13 and 14 games from June 29 to July 22. He finished fifth in the league in stolen bases with 33. He also had a .263 batting average, 45 RBIs, and 10 triples, a career high.
In 2002, Castillo had a 35-game hitting streak, which is the longest ever by a second baseman (since matched by fellow second baseman Chase Utley of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2006). This was the sixth-longest streak in the history of the National League, and also the 10th longest in the history of Major League Baseball. Castillo played second base in the 2002 All-Star Game, the first All-Star selection of his career. In 2002, he hit .305 with 39 RBIs and 48 stolen bases, leading the league in stolen bases for the second time in his career. He was again named the Marlins Most Valuable Player by the South Florida Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.