The Twins traded second baseman Luis Castillo to the New York Mets on Monday for Class AA catcher Drew Butera, the son of former major league catcher Sal Butera, and Class A outfielder Dustin Martin.

The Twins announced the move at 5:45 p.m. Twins General Manager Terry Ryan was scheduled to meet with the media at 6 p.m.

Castillo, 31, is making $5.75 million this year and is eligible for free agency at season’s end. As the Twins leadoff hitter, he was batting .304 with a .356 on-base percentage.

Over at Sethspeaks.net, you’ll find a Father’s Day feature this weekend, with some thoughts from Kevin Slowey’s dad and Pat Neshek’s dad, among others. Under the category, “Pride in Son,” Pat Slowey writes:

Kev is the perfect under-dog story. He is a very hard worker and has developed his God-given ability. But more importantly, he is a humble guy who has not forgotten where he came from. I may be more proud of the man he’s become.

La Velle is covering the game stories tonight and tomorrow, allowing me a chance to visit my dad before heading on the next road trip with the Twins. Dave Christensen is one special guy. He’s a hard-working business executive in Mankato, who spent countless hours pitching me batting practice and catching my bullpen sessions when I was a kid. He took me on baseball trips that let me see Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium and old Tiger Stadium, helping whet my appetite for this job. He helped me set goals and supported me every step of the way.

So, here’s a special Father’s Day tribute to DC. Also to my Grandpa Fritz, who is a true American original. And to my father-in-law, Tom Reuvers, who is the word strength personified. To all the dads out there, enjoy your weekend, and I’ll catch up with you Monday from Shea Stadium.

Stuck at DFW this morning after a certain airline canceled my flight. I’m frustrated … and sad. One of our favorite web sites, http://www.bat-girl.com/, closed the curtain last night. Literally felt tears welling up this morning when I read her last post. Seeing those little Lego men waving goodbye, and then that picture of the brilliant author, Anne Ursu, and her son, Baby Dash … well, it was just too much.

“Less stats, more sass,” was Batgirl’s motto. As beat writers, we spend a lot of time absorbing stats, filtering them and spewing them back at you, our mass audience. No one could ever replace Batgirl, but here’s one blogger’s commitment to bring you better anecdotes … and more sass.

I could start by detailing my experience this morning with a certain airline. Ever heard of a flight canceled — not delayed, canceled — because of weather? They rebooked me on a flight five hours later. Said they checked with other airlines but those flights were booked heading into a holiday weekend.

This cost me a chance for a 30-minute rendezvous with my wife at the MSP airport, who is headed away from MSP on business this morning. Thirty minutes in the airport might not sound like much, but those who travel frequently can understand.

This certain airline didn’t notify me of the cancellation. I think they tried calling me last night but didn’t leave a message. So I showed up at DFW at 6:45 a.m., and I’ll be leaving here at 12:50 p.m. I had some animated conversations with this certain airline’s customer service reps, who basically told me, “tough luck.” Let’s put it this way, losing Batgirl and the chance to see my wife this morning has left me rather blue. There’s always tomorrow. But there won’t be another BOD.

Gotta make this quick. Early flight tomorrow and a ton of work to do before the afternoon deadline for our Sunday baseball page. Pretty quiet in the Twins clubhouse after the game. You can tell Wednesday’s loss is still gnawing at them. Winning that one would have made this easier to take. James Shields is a good pitcher, but boy he made Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and the others look bad tonight.

An e-mailer made a great point about how badly this lineup misses Michael Cuddyer. Tonight, Shields went through stretches where he faced six consecutive batters who have combined for zero home runs this year: Jason Kubel, Jeff Cirillo, Jason Tyner, Jason Bartlett, (and back to the top for) Luis Castillo and Nick Punto. The Twins played some serious little ball — six of their 12 hits were infield hits, and none went for extra bases.

Cleveland won again. The Twins now sit 3 1/2 games back. They’ve faced the easiest schedule in the American League this season — teams with a .476 winning percentage according to ESPN.com — and they now they play 15 games against five teams (Red Sox, White Sox, Tigers, Brewers and Indians) with a combined .612 winning percentage.

Goodness, I just wrote that in my game story, and now I’m repeating myself. The Trop has made me crazy. The final word comes from D-Rays manager Joe Maddon, who watched Carl Crawford trip between second and third base tonight on another wild and wacky play. “Cuddyer screwed the whole field up. If it wasn’t for Cuddyer doing what he did, Crawford would have been fine and Zobrist (who also bit the dust) would’ve been fine yesterday.”

Note: Friday will probably be a light blogging day for me. See you at the Dome for Twins/Red Sox.