LAWRENCEBURG, Ga. — Bringing a close to a 14-year professional baseball career, Bradley County's Ryan Casteel retired over the weekend and has now joined the coaching staff for the Atlanta Braves' Triple-A Gwinnett (Ga.) Stripers.
Playing in his final series July 12-14, the 33-year-old catcher/first baseman he capped his near 900-game Minor League career with a ninth-inning, game-winning walk off home run for a 7-6 Striper victory over the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp in the series opener.
Casteel was not supposed to be the hero that Friday night at Coolray Field, in Lawrenceburg, Georgia, having just been activated from the development list earlier in the day.
He was not in the lineup when the Stripers took the field for the series opener, but came on as a defensive replacement at first base.
He drew a walk and made an out before belting his homer with one out in the bottom ninth inning.
The home run by Casteel was the 19th walk-off home run in Gwinnett history and the 27th blast of his Striper career, placing him in a tie for 10th with current Braves standout Austin Riley on the all-time Gwinnett home run list.
Casteel was in the starting lineup as the designated hitter the following day, going 1-for-4 with his final professional hit, before coming on to catch in his final game that Sunday and getting three more trips to the dish.
"I'm super grateful for the 14 years as a player, and super excited to get started as a coach in the Braves' organization," stated the former Bradley Central and Cleveland State standout.
The Atlanta organization invited him to stay with Gwinnett as a coach, something he had been hoping to do when his playing days were over.
"Obviously being with the Braves over the last six years has been a dream come true," he commented. "I’m excited to help the next wave of players coming thru achieve their dreams."
Having played a season at Cleveland State after a record-setting four year starting stint at Bradley, the 6-footer was taken by the Colorado Rockies in the 17th round of the 2010 MLB Draft. He later played a couple of seasons in the Seattle Mariners organization before signing with the Braves in 2019.
In his 896 Minor League games, he caught in 376, 364 of which he started, plus had 330 starts in 339 games at first base and was in the opening lineup in all but one of his 166 games as a designated hitter, to go along with numerous pinch hitting opportunities.
Posting a career .265 batting average, Casteel had a .327 on base percentage and a .766 OPS.
Playing in 13 Minor League seasons, in which he laced 849 hits, with 319 of them going for extra bases — 190 doubles, 17 triples and 112 homers, plus drove in 495 runs. Casteel scored 418 runs and stole 26 bases. He spent all or part of six seasons at the top Triple-A level, plus took part in, and played in numerous, Major League Spring Training games.
Having also played fall and winter league teams abroad, his hits and game totals swelled to well over the 1,000 mark.
With the Rockies, he helped lead a team to the prestigious Arizona Fall League championship (2014).
In between playing for the Seattle Mariners organization and joining the Braves, Casteel played Independent League ball for the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Barnstormers, where he made his fourth All-Star Team and helped the squad to the ALPB playoffs in 2018.
Pushing his professional game tally over the 1,000 game mark, Casteel also played winter ball abroad, including a season in Australia and Puerto Rico.
In his professional career, Casteel was a four-time all-star, as well as the Australian League MVP in 2013, after being named the Catcher of the Year for the California League that summer, while playing for the High-A Modesto (Calif.) Nuts.
A multiple All-State catcher for the Bears from 2006-09, he set seven program records — career home runs (32), runs batted in (151), batting average (.459), hits (155) and triples (9 - tied), plus single season marks for average (.538) and RBIs (57).