{"id":563420,"date":"2026-02-10T02:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/563420\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T02:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T02:34:14","slug":"phillies-looking-to-move-nick-castellanos-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/563420\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Looking To Move Nick Castellanos This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phillies position players are scheduled for their first official workout next Monday. It\u2019d make for an awkward situation if Nick Castellanos<\/a> is still on the team. Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported at the end of last season that the Phils would trade or release the outfielder. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has all but confirmed as much on the record, pointing to the need for a change of scenery.<\/p>\n

Keeping Castellanos on the 40-man roster into Spring Training would be a needless distraction. It comes as little surprise that the Phils are motivated to get something done within the next week. \u201cWe\u2019re doing everything we can to make a move by (Monday),\u201d Dombrowski told reporters (link via Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>). \u201cI\u2019ll leave it at that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dombrowski noted that they\u2019re \u201c(continuing) to talk to clubs\u201d in trying to line up a trade. Whether that\u2019s gamesmanship should soon be apparent. Castellanos isn\u2019t going to net the Phillies any notable prospects. They\u2019re trying to offload a fraction of the $20MM salary he\u2019s owed in the final season of a five-year deal.<\/p>\n

A release would leave the Phils on the hook for all but the $780K league minimum, assuming he signs a major league deal with another team. The hope is to find a team willing to eat a couple million dollars of that salary rather than waiting until the Phillies release him. If Castellanos becomes a free agent, he\u2019d obviously have a choice of where to sign. He doesn\u2019t have that freedom if a team lines up a trade that saves the Phillies a little bit of money.<\/p>\n

The outfielder\u2019s relationship with Philly manager Rob Thomson seemingly became untenable. Castellanos was benched for a game midway through last season after he made what the manager called \u201can inappropriate comment\u201d after being removed from a game for defensive purposes. As his playing time decreased down the stretch, Castellanos took a shot at Thomson\u2019s communication skills<\/a>. Philadelphia signed the veteran skipper to an extension this offseason and added\u00a0Adolis Garc\u00eda<\/a> on a $10MM free agent deal to replace Castellanos as the everyday right fielder.<\/p>\n

Castellanos is entering his age-34 season. He\u2019s coming off a .250\/.294\/.400 showing with 17 home runs over 589 plate appearances. He has been durable and has twice topped 20 home runs during his time in Philadelphia, but his rate statistics (.260\/.306\/.426) are exactly league average. That\u2019s not what the Phillies had in mind considering Castellanos is arguably the game\u2019s worst defensive outfielder. He should be a full-time designated hitter but obviously doesn\u2019t have that luxury on a team with Kyle Schwarber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FanGraphs and Baseball Reference each had Castellanos below replacement level last year. That said, a team that can offer him DH at-bats should view him as a capable complementary bat from the right side. The acquisition cost will be minimal, and a 20-homer season with strong numbers against lefty pitching doesn\u2019t seem out of the question.<\/p>\n

The Padres are looking for another bat<\/a> in the DH\/bench mix and made an unsuccessful run at signing\u00a0Paul Goldschmidt<\/a> away from the Yankees. The Guardians could use a right-handed complement to lefty swingers\u00a0Kyle Manzardo<\/a>,\u00a0George Valera<\/a> and\u00a0C.J. Kayfus<\/a> between first base, right field and designated hitter. No team had fewer home runs or a lower slugging percentage from their right-handed bats than Cleveland. The Marlins ranked 25th in slugging among righties and don\u2019t have a clear answer at first base, and Castellanos is a Miami native. His\u00a0old team in Detroit doesn\u2019t have much in the way of right-handed power aside from Spencer Torkelson<\/a> and could use him in a short-side platoon role at DH alongside\u00a0Kerry Carpenter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phillies position players are scheduled for their first official workout next Monday. It\u2019d make for an awkward situation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4,8639],"class_list":{"0":"post-563420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-nick-castellanos"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116044003081010483","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563420","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=563420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}