{"id":569605,"date":"2026-02-13T05:59:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/569605\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T05:59:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T05:59:31","slug":"blue-jays-shockingly-linked-by-insider-to-available-former-all-star-outfielder-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/569605\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Shockingly Linked by Insider to Available Former All-Star Outfielder"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays went into the offseason looking to make a major splash, and though have made several in the pitching market<\/a>, the offense ultimately did not get the star it needed.<\/p>\n

Of course, the highest profile example of this was the heartbreaking second place finish<\/a> in the Kyle Tucker sweepstakes<\/a>, and this showed the Blue Jays were very much involved in the outfield market<\/a>. Given the latest injury news to Anthony Santander<\/a>, that need could be even more significant.<\/p>\n

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While most of the available potential helping pieces there have been scooped up by this point<\/a>, another became available on Thursday with the Philadelphia Phillies releasing two-time All-Star Nick Castellanos and eating the remaining $20 million on his contract.<\/p>\n

Upon the breaking of the news that Castellanos was available, prominent baseball insider Jon Heyman of the New York Post<\/a> named Toronto as one of a few teams who could be a fit for the veteran slugger.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays Named Potential Nick Castellanos Fit by Heyman\"Nick<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

In his initial tweet, Heyman named Toronto alongside the Athletics, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers and Cincinnati Reds, but said that the interest from teams is unclear. In a later post, Heyman revealed that there is “a lot of interest” across the league as teams were waiting for the inevitable release.<\/p>\n

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Given the fact that there was trouble between him and the Phillies and his contract being not movable, a release always felt like the most likely outcome, and that is ultimately the direction that Philadelphia chose to go.<\/p>\n

Where he ends up now is anyone’s guess, but given the fact that the Blue Jays already had interest in the outfield even before Santander was announced<\/a> to be out for an extended period<\/a>, it’s safe to say Toronto will be involved in the process here.<\/p>\n

Castellanos Would Help Blue Jays Outfield Depth\"Nick<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

It should be noted that Castellanos performed rather disastrously in the 2025 season, slashing .250\/.294\/.400 for a bWAR of -0.8 in 147 games played. He did have a decent year in the power department with 17 home runs and 72 RBI.<\/p>\n

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With 69 home runs and 264 RBI over the last three seasons combined, the 33-year-old is still capable of adding some pop into a lineup<\/a>, but he clearly is not the player he was even a few years ago. Essentially, it would be a lottery ticket for Toronto that Castellanos is able to get back to previous form, but it certainly would not be a costly move.<\/p>\n

Should Castellanos decide the Blue Jays are the team where he has the best chance to compete for a role in the outfield, fans in Toronto certainly would not be upset to see the arrival of someone who has been a solid player for a very long time.<\/p>\n

While it maybe would not be a massive splash move<\/a> for the Blue Jays, the status of Castellanos is certainly something worth monitoring over the course of the next week or so.<\/p>\n

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This article was originally published on www.si.com\/mlb\/bluejays\/onsi as Blue Jays Shockingly Linked by Insider to Available Former All-Star Outfielder<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays went into the offseason looking to make a major splash, and though have made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[383,5,377,2554,50,8611,29,4,8639,25,18,69,1949,282,70,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-569605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-anthony-santander","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-blue-jays","11":"tag-bluejays","12":"tag-cincinnati-reds","13":"tag-jon-heyman","14":"tag-kyle-tucker","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-nick-castellanos","17":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","18":"tag-san-diego-padres","19":"tag-texas-rangers","20":"tag-the-athletics","21":"tag-toronto","22":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","23":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116061796415564321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569605","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=569605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}