Eleven-Year MLB Veteran, Ex-Rays Starting Catcher Retires From MLB

A well-deserved salute to this retiring backstop

Aug 16, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; A Tampa Bay Rays helmet sits in the dugout before the game against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

The Tampa Bay Rays have produced a lot of catchers over the last handful of years, and Curt Casali was one of those catchers who went on to have a long big-league career.

Casali broke in with the Rays in 2014 and played the first four seasons of his career in Tampa Bay, even earning the nod as the team's primary starter (84 games) in 2016. He was then outrighted to the minors at the end of the 2017 season, which could have been a death sentence for his big-league career, but instead wound up playing seven more major league seasons for three other teams.

However, after being released during spring training earlier this year by the Atlanta Braves, Casali ultimately elected to hang it up.

Curt Casali retired earlier this year

Sep 12, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants catcher Curt Casali (2) after the top of the sixth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

Last week, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Casali had retired earlier this year and already took a job in the Cincinnati Reds front office. Casali played two stints with the Reds, one from 2018 to 2020 and the other in 2023.

In 538 career games, Casali wound up with a .218/.312/.369 slash line, 48 home runs, 162 RBIs, and 157 runs scored. He matched his career-high in games played with 84 for the Reds in 2019, and in his first three-year stint in Cincinnati, he had a fairly impressive .785 OPS in 167 games.

Casali was non-tendered by the Reds after the 2021 season, signed with the San Francisco Giants, then got traded to the Seattle Mariners in 2022. His last two seasons were reunion stints, first with Cincy and next with San Francisco.

Though he put up a fielding run value of negative-16 in his career, per Baseball Savant, Casali drew positive reviews for his pitch calling and ability to handle a big-league pitching staff. Eleven years is a long time for any player, especially a catcher, to stick in the big leagues, and Casali reached eight years of service time, granting him a lifetime pass to attend MLB games for free.

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