When Dombrowski spoke, <\/a>it wasn\u2019t hard to glean that the team is going to move on from him as soon as they can, preferably before position players have to report to camp.<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s our focus prior to the start of spring training,\u201d Dombrowski said Monday. \u201cSo, that\u2019s something that we\u2019ll continue to work on this week.\u201d Asked whether Castellanos will be in camp if he isn\u2019t traded or released by the time position players are scheduled to report, Dombrowski said: \u201cWell, at this point, we\u2019re doing everything we can to make a move by that time period. So, I\u2019ll leave it at that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
So yes, the team is going to move him one way or another. That they would have to eat essentially all of the money owed him is likely something they have accepted and are willing to do if it means getting something back in return. However, it is not easy to find a team that would want to have Castellanos on their roster. His inability to play right field in even an average capacity renders him a DH-only option who can masquerade as a right fielder a few times during the year. Teams increasingly prefer to have that spot open to rotate members in and out of the lineup for rest reasons, so locking in one player that is barely an average one at the bat isn\u2019t a luxury many wish to afford. It\u2019s probably why the Phillies have had trouble finding a trade partner to dance with (to say nothing of the idea that any even slightly interested teams are probably just waiting for the team to release him).<\/p>\n
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A few teams, though, may consider moving him if the price is absolutely right. There is still a chance that without the burden of having to carry a glove, Castellanos might revive his bat and have a decent season. He\u2019s not far removed from posting back to back >100 wRC+ seasons, so it\u2019s at least conceivable that he can do that again. For the acquiring team, it would be cheap to have that, so there might be someone who says, \u201cWhy not?\u201d Let\u2019s guess at who those teams might be.<\/p>\n
Minnesota Twins<\/p>\n
Last season, the Twins had one of the worst wRC+ numbers (92) coming from their DH spot in the game. One would have thought that with all of the trades they made at the deadline, the team was going for some sort of painful rebuild with their organization, yet they have actually added a few pieces this winter. Maybe respectability is something they have their sights set on? After all, they do reside in the AL Central, where anything can happen. If so, getting something better for that DH spot would behoove them. Right now, their depth chart has Trevor Larnach as the main option there, cycling in with Josh Bell and Ryan Jeffers to presumably keep people fresh. Castellanos might be a fit at that position while also backing up Bell at first base, if we\u2019re to accept the reports that he was working out there this offseason.<\/p>\n
The Twins also have Victor Caratini in camp to take some plate appearances at DH as well, meaning the fit for Castellanos becomes a bit narrower. He would have to show that he can handle playing right field and\/or first base at least once a week, something that would hide his defensive deficiencies a bit more.<\/p>\n
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Miami Marlins<\/p>\n
Always a rumored destination for Castellanos thanks to his personal ties there, Miami was actually worse by DH wRC+ in 2025 (91) than the Twins. Adding Castellanos would give them another right handed bat to help there, but the situation is complicated a bit by Agustin Ramirez and Owen Cassie.<\/p>\n
Ramirez is known in some circles to be a catcher, but by at least one measure, he was one of the worst defensive catchers in the game. There is plenty of thunder in his bat, so it would make sense for the Marlins to continue trying to develop him behind the plate, but keeping that DH spot open for him as much as possible is a sensible piece of roster construction. That would push Castellanos, in theory, back to right field, but that is where Cassie resides. Cassie was the main piece that came back to the Marlins in return for Edward Cabrera and his reputation as a prospect is such that the Marlins would probably give him a decent amount of time to see what they have in him. The Marlins also have Griffin Conine and Heriberto Hernandez slated to get some at bats at DH, but both possess strikeout rates over 30%. While Castellanos doesn\u2019t exactly have the most patient approaches at the plate, he\u2019s also striking out far less often than either of these two.<\/p>\n
A Ramirez-Cassie-Castellanos-Conine rotation would work in some form, so maybe Miami could make it work if they were interested. It\u2019s just starting to feel more \u201csquare peg\/round hole\u201d-ish the more one tries to make it work.<\/p>\n
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Colorado Rockies<\/p>\n
This might be something worth pursuing. The Rockies are in the middle of an organizational transformation. The hiring of Paul DePodesta signals that they understand they have to do things differently. Playing catchup with the Dodgers is fool\u2019s errand, so they are going to have to do things a different way. Acquiring Castellanos is something that definitely qualifies as different, but hear me out. Right now, according to Fangraphs, the Rockies are going to give the bulk of the DH plate appearances to Mickey Moniak.<\/p>\n
Fine, defensible even.<\/p>\n
Moniak also projects to split playing time with Jake McCarthy in right field for the Rockies, so in theory, the DH spot can be filled with Castellanos on days that Moniak is putting a glove on while also serving as part of a platoon if necessary. Castellanos has always been more of a gap power hitter anyway, miscast a bit as someone on whom the lineup should depend for home run power. Coors Field would fit that type of hitter to perfection, perhaps allowing Castellanos\u2019 numbers to play up a bit more than his sea level numbers would.<\/p>\n
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The more one looks at the depth charts of teams around the game, the more apparent it is why they haven\u2019t found a trade partner yet. The likelihood that they actually do diminishes with each minute that ticks closer to the opening of spring training. Maybe someone emerges, maybe someone doesn\u2019t. At least we know that a resolution is coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Dombrowski spoke on Monday to reporters about a variety of topics. Discussing the state of the pitching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2395],"tags":[3418,456,46,5,52,554,6977,39,4914,547,17906,3917,3541,81,1816,778,58,4171,3568,60,4,8639,25,1252,3477,3614],"class_list":["post-564331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-marlins","tag-adolis-garcia","tag-agustin-ramirez","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-baseball","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-dave-dombrowski","tag-dh","tag-dodgers","tag-edward-cabrera","tag-griffin-conine","tag-heriberto-hernandez","tag-jake-mccarthy","tag-josh-bell","tag-kyle-schwarber","tag-marlins","tag-miami","tag-miami-marlins","tag-miamimarlins","tag-mickey-moniak","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-nick-castellanos","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-ryan-jeffers","tag-trevor-larnach","tag-victor-caratini"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116047137123982945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564331","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=564331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}