SAN DIEGO — Just days after a public split with the Philadelphia Phillies, OF\/DH Nick Castellanos and the San Diego Padres reached an agreement on a free-agent contract early Saturday morning. The veteran slugger is expected to maintain his roles as a corner outfielder and designated hitter, but will see time at first base for the first time in his career after training at the position this offseason.<\/p>\n
The addition of Castellanos comes at a very cost-effective price for the Friars. Initial reporting indicates the deal is for one-year at a league-minimum\u00a0$780,000, as opposed to the $20 million Philadelphia will owe the soon-to-be 34 year-old after releasing him on Thursday.<\/p>\n
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Although the two-time All-Star provides some much needed thump offensively for the Padres, his high-octane power numbers have taken a hit in recent years. After blasting 34 home runs with a .938 OPS at hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark as a member of the Cincinnati Reds in 2021, he posted a .400 SLG% with 17 round-trippers last season. He also struck out at a 22.6% clip.<\/p>\n
Regardless, for a club who appeared anemic in the slug department last year, San Diego will gladly slot a guy with 20 to 25 homer potential into their lineup for practically pennies on the dollar.<\/p>\n
Castellanos was benched following a dugout incident with Phillies manager Rob Thomson during a game on June 16, 2025 against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park. Castellanos’ frustration stemmed from being removed from what he described in a recent statement on Instagram as a “close ball game”. He admitted to bringing a beer into the Phillies dugout after he’d been removed, which caused dismay among Thomson and Philadelphia GM Dave Dombrowski. Castellanos also took accountability and ended his social media message by writing:<\/p>\n
“I love this game, I love being a teammate and I am addicted to winning. I will learn from this.”<\/p>\n
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The Sporting Tribune’s Marty Caswell caught up with a few Padres players in Peoria, just a few hours after the signing of Castellanos was announced. Among his new teammates, center fielder Jackson Merrill welcomed the veteran with open arms:<\/p>\n
It’s also worth noting that Padres franchise 3B Manny Machado and Castellanos are fellow Floridians and played together on Team USA’s 18U squad in 2009. If there’s anyone who could help Castellanos assimilate and buy in to San Diego’s culture, Machado could make that process very easy to accomplish.<\/p>\n
In addition to the signing of Castellanos, A.J. Preller addressed the state of the starting rotation by signing right-hander Griffin Canning to a free-agent contract as well. Canning showed flashes of great mound presence early on last season, pitching to a 7-3 record with 70 punch outs and a 3.77 ERA in 76.1 innings pitched before missing the rest of the year due to a ruptured left achilles tendon.<\/p>\n
Canning would potentially slot in as the club’s no. 4 or no. 5 starter heading into 2026 as currently constructed, but the Padres don’t expect him to be a full-go until at least sometime in May. His affordability and up-side is what makes him worth the gamble.<\/p>\n
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Per Canning’s timeframe to return, his signing won’t impact the race for San Diego’s last starting rotation spot. Southpaws JP Sears and Marco Gonzales along with righties Matt Waldron, Triston McKenzie, and freshly acquired former Rockies starter and All-Star Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez are among the candidates for the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO — Just days after a public split with the Philadelphia Phillies, OF\/DH Nick Castellanos and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,50,60434,140,726,98,871,769,1527,66595,37724,2282,58,4,8639,43,25,4874,168,137,18,4339,4338,460],"class_list":{"0":"post-574013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cincinnati-reds","10":"tag-free-agent-contract","11":"tag-german-marquez","12":"tag-great-american-ballpark","13":"tag-griffin-canning","14":"tag-jackson-merrill","15":"tag-jp-sears","16":"tag-manny-machado","17":"tag-marco-gonzales","18":"tag-marty-caswell","19":"tag-matt-waldron","20":"tag-miami-marlins","21":"tag-mlb","22":"tag-nick-castellanos","23":"tag-padres","24":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","25":"tag-rob-thomson","26":"tag-rockies","27":"tag-san-diego","28":"tag-san-diego-padres","29":"tag-sandiego","30":"tag-sandiegopadres","31":"tag-triston-mckenzie"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116075255743206895","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574013","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=574013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}