How They Got Here: The San Francisco Giants is a
one-by-one look at how each member of the 2012 World Series Champion San
Francisco Giants found their way to the squad. We'll look at all of the
players on the roster, as well as notable players who did not make the
postseason roster for whatever reason and the coaching staff and general
manager. Part ten tells us the story of longtime Bay Area pitcher Santiago Casilla.
Santiago Casilla was born on July 25, 1980, in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic. He went unsigned until 2000, when it was presumed that he was seventeen-year old Jairo Garcia. The Oakland Athletics signed him under this name and age, and he began his North American career with the Arizona League Athletics in Phoenix, Arizona at the Rookie level. His first season was 2001, and he appeared strongly in a handful of games. In 2002, he split time with the AZL Athletics and also a little time with the Class A- Vancouver Canadians of Vancouver, British Columbia in the Northwest League. He pitched effectively again for the season as a whole, working at a pace of over a strikeout an inning with an earned run average just above 3.00. He spent all of 2003 with the Class A Kane County Cougars of Geneva, Illinois, in the Midwest League. The tranquility he found in 2003 was replaced by utter chaos in 2004, where, working entirely as a reliever, he appeared in four separate levels of baseball. He began in Kane County, pitching to a miniscule 0.30 earned run average and forty-nine strikeouts over thirty innings. He stepped up to the Class AA Midlan RockHounds of Midland, Texas in the Texas League, and posted a 1.50 earned run average and thirty-two strikeouts in eighteen innings. He continued up on the ladder, appearing with the Sacramento River Cats of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League, and he produced a 3.95 earned run average to go with twenty-one strikeouts over thirteen and two-thirds innings. His last stop of the year was with the big league Athletics in Oakland, and his four appearances here were mostly forgettable. In 2005, he again made appearances in three places, with a short stint in Midland being used as a confidence booster before playing the bulk of the year in Sacramento. For the season, he ended with a 3.60 earned run average and 103 strikeouts over sixty-five innings in the minor leagues, and in a short pair of stints in Oakland, he showed much more poise over the course of three games. He was at the Athletics spring training camp in 2006, where he informed the team that he had lied about his age by three years, as well as telling them that his real name is Santiago Casilla instead of the Jairo Garcia alias he had been using. He again spent most of the year at Sacramento, although in late May he played in two games with the Athletics in Oakland. He had better ratios than the year previous, putting up a 3.27 earned run average, but his strikeouts (thirty-two) were one behind his innings pitched (thirty-three) for the year, the only time he did that over the course of a full minor league season. In 2007, Casilla appeared in Sacramento again to begin the year, recording a 4.12 earned run average, twenty-nine strikeouts, and twenty-four innings, before being called up to Oakland to reinforce a depleted bullpen for the rest of the year. With the Athletics, he posted a 4.44 earned run average for fifty and two-thirds innings, while striking out fifty-two. Casilla appeared in only a handful of minor league games during the 2008 season, rehabilitating an injury at Class A Advanced Stockton with the California League Ports, before moving along to Sacramento. The appearance with Stockton allowed Casilla to have appeared in six unique minor league levels. In the majors, Casilla posted very similar numbers to his 2007 campaign, with just a handful less strikeouts over a near identical amount of innings. He did shave half of a run off of his earned run average. The 2009 season was not nearly as kind to Casilla, and he again appeared in a game each with Stockton and Sacramento. His 5.96 earned run average was the worst full-season number he had posted, and his strikeout numbers dipped significantly as well. The Athletics had decided they had seen enough, opening the door for Casilla to take a trip just slightly to the west to play for the San Francisco Giants. He was signed on January 21, 2010 He began the season in the Class AAA Pacific Coast League with the Fresno Grizzlies, and was called up to pitch for the Giants in his first game on May 21st against the Athletics. From there, Casilla would dominate out of the bullpen, with a 1.95 earned run average and fifty-six strikeouts over fifty-five and one-third innings. He also made his first appearance in the postseason, appearing in four games with a 1.93 earned run average while pitching in a set-up or situation role as the Giants moved past the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, and Texas Rangers for a World Series Championship. In 2011, he spent April and most of May rehabilitating an injury with the Class A Advanced San Jose Giants of the California League, as well as with the Grizzlies in Fresno for a short period of time. Casilla returned to the San Francisco bullpen in late May, and posted strong enough numbers that the Giants decided he would pitch in a closer's role after an injury to Brian Wilson in mid-August. He ended the year with a 1.74 earned run average and forty-five strikeouts over fifty-one and two-thirds innings. Casilla finally avoided time in the minor leagues during 2012, pitching throughout the season with the Giants. Due to another injury to Wilson, Casilla served as the closer for the Giants from mid-April to mid-July, when Sergio Romo took over the duties. He ended the regular season with a 2.84 earned run average and fifty-five strikeouts over sixty-three and one-third innings pitched, and was an obvious choice for the postseason roster. He made eleven postseason appearances, mostly in a situation role as part of a larger plan by manager Bruce Bochy, and over the seven innings he worked, he produced a 1.29 earned run average en route to another World Series Championship with the Giants.
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