{"id":532581,"date":"2026-01-22T13:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/532581\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:11:17","slug":"phillies-still-committed-to-move-on-from-nick-castellanos-in-2026-nbc-sports-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/532581\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies still committed to move on from Nick Castellanos in 2026 \u2013 NBC Sports Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cChange of scenery\u201d has been the phrase used <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com\/mlb\/philadelphia-phillies\/phillies-gm-meetings-harrison-bader-bryce-harper-kyle-schwarber\/695414\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">by Phillies officials<\/a> when discussing Nick Castellanos this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Dave Dombrowski reaffirmed that direction, confirming the organization remains committed to moving on from the veteran outfielder before the season begins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, we do. We still plan on doing that,\u201d Dombrowski said. \u201cAnd we did designate Weston Wilson for assignment today. But yes, that would be the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Castellanos, 33, is entering the final season of his five-year, $100 million contract and is owed $20 million in 2026. A trade remains the preferred outcome, but the remaining salary complicates the market.<\/p>\n<p>If Philadelphia is going to move him in a deal, it would require eating a great majority of what he is owed.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming the club is unable to find a trade partner, designating Castellanos for assignment would be the procedural step required to remove him from the 40-man roster and formally move on.<\/p>\n<p>Castellanos\u2019 performance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com\/mlb\/philadelphia-phillies\/nick-castellanos-mlb-offseason-harrison-bader-rob-thomson\/693769\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dipped again in 2025<\/a>. He finished the season with a .250\/.294\/.400 slash line and 17 home runs, producing a -0.6 WAR, one of the lowest marks in the Majors.<\/p>\n<p>A DFA would give the Phillies seven days to trade Castellanos or place him on waivers. Given the $20 million remaining on his deal, a waiver claim would be unlikely.<\/p>\n<p>If he cleared waivers and was released, Philadelphia would remain responsible for roughly $19.25 million of the contract, while any new club would owe only the prorated league minimum. The roster spot would open, but the salary would remain on the Phillies\u2019 books.<\/p>\n<p>Still, it would be surprising if a team that misses out on its preferred outfield or DH options doesn\u2019t at least explore Castellanos as a lower-cost add, especially if the Phillies are willing to cover a large portion of the deal.<\/p>\n<p>He has not yet been designated for assignment, but Dombrowski\u2019s comments left little ambiguity about the club\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cChange of scenery\u201d has been the phrase used by Phillies officials when discussing Nick Castellanos this offseason. On&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40,16702],"class_list":{"0":"post-532581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","13":"tag-phillies","14":"tag-phillies-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115938924188867504","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}