Casilla gets his chance two months early

When the Twins traded Luis Castillo to the New York Mets on Monday, they ushered in the Alexi Casilla era.

By Joe Christensen, Star Tribune

Last update: July 31, 2007 - 12:20 AM

When the Twins traded Luis Castillo to the New York Mets on Monday, they ushered in the Alexi Casilla era.

Like Castillo, the 23-year-old Casilla is a fleet-footed, switch-hitting second baseman from the Dominican Republic.

The Twins viewed him as Castillo's eventual replacement, assuming the 31-year-old veteran would leave via free agency. In making this move, they sped up that timetable.

Casilla finished the 2006 season with the Twins and spent three weeks with the team this April. Obtained from the Angels for lefthander J.C. Romero in 2005, Casilla has stolen four bases in 23 big league games, while batting .234.

After trading Castillo, the Twins recalled Casilla from Class AAA Rochester, and he's expected to join the team tonight.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said he would use Casilla, Nick Punto and Luis Rodriguez at second base. The manager spoke of working Casilla in gradually, since the team is also using a rookie at third base in Brian Buscher.

Casilla has been batting leadoff for Rochester, and Gardenhire said he could see time there with the Twins, too.

But right fielder Jason Tyner went 3-for-4 with a double, triple and two runs scored as the leadoff man in Monday's 3-1 victory over Kansas City, and Gardenhire said: "Tyner's doing a very good job right now. ... Right now Tyner's going to be there [in the leadoff spot] for the next few ballgames, and we'll see what happens from there."

Casilla was batting .269 for the Red Wings -- .337 against lefthanded pitchers and .240 against righthanders.

In 43 games at second base and 42 games at shortstop, he made 10 errors. The one knock has been his tendency to get frazzled and make hurried mistakes. The Twins have been trying to teach him to slow down the game.

"He's getting better by the game and week," Twins General Manager Terry Ryan said. "I rushed him up last year. He was up way before his time, and we had to keep him this year because of [other injuries]. But he is a talented kid, and we hope he comes up here and takes some of that second base responsibility."

Cuddyer on schedule

Right fielder Michael Cuddyer, who is eligible to come off the disabled list Friday, continued to look like he will be ready for that night's game against Cleveland.

On Monday, he made it through his first on-field batting practice session since spraining his right thumb on July 21.

Cuddyer shattered his bat with one swing Monday, but continued on with a different bat. He also smashed some pitches into the outfield seats.

Mauer catches again

With Mike Redmond still dealing with a sore left middle finger, Joe Mauer has started nine of the Twins' past 10 games at catcher.

After catching for five consecutive days last week, Mauer got a two-day break and then caught each of the past four days.

"He's doing fine," Gardenhire said of Mauer. "He wants to catch. He wants to play. Red Dog -- I think is fine. He wants to catch, his hand still takes a beating. He caught a bullpen [session]. When he caught the other day [Thursday in Toronto], it was killing him."

Gardenhire said he thinks Redmond will be able to spell Mauer again in the coming days. The Twins' next day game is Thursday, and they are scheduled to face Royals lefthander Odalis Perez.

Joe Christensen • jchristensen@startribune.com

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