There’s no denying it: Nick Castellanos has been bad lately. After an acceptable (on offense at least) first half, he’s been dreadful since the All-Star break, putting up a .472 OPS. (If you were curious whether or not he’s picked it up defensively to compensate, the answer is no.)
There have been cries to replace him, which are understandable because of the horribleness. Some people want to bench him, while others want him cut outright, and for the team to just eat the final year of his contract next year.
There are multiple problems with this:
You can argue about point one, but as far as I can tell, Castellanos is well-liked among his teammates. Should that matter? It probably shouldn’t be the main deciding point, but it is a factor.
As for point two, the Phillies are already running a platoon of Max Kepler and Weston Wilson in left field, and do we really want either or those guys to receive more playing time? I’m sure many people would advocate for calling up Justin Crawford, and hand him a regular job. But there have been enough people warning about his minor league numbers not translating, that I can’t guarantee there’s certain improvement.
Remember when Alex Bohm was struggling and people insisted that Otto Kemp couldn’t possibly be any worse? As it turns out, Kemp has in fact been the worse player since his call up.
As for point three, its not like this isn’t the first time Castellanos has gone into an extended slump. In July 2023, he was similarly awful, with a .497 OPS for the month. He went on to hit 15 home runs the last two months of the season and had a scorching hot playoff series against the Braves.
In 2024, he was slumping to open the season, and had a batting average under .200 in late May. But he was one of their best hitters in the second half of the season, and was perhaps their best hitter in the NLDS against the Mets.
Its possible that history doesn’t repeat itself in 2025, and he never pulls out of this. But he has a long enough track record to make me think that come October, we could be amazed by another binge of clutch hits.
The Phillies’ ultimate success this season will likely come down to how well guys like Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, and Trea Turner perform. But to win it all, you also need some wild cards to come through for you along the way. And as he’s shown us since joining the Phillies, there may be no bigger wild card in baseball than Nick Castellanos.