Today marks one week that the marriage between the Phillies and Nick Castellanos officially came to an end. Both sides have since appeared to move on, as the Phillies look to their new starting right fielder in Adolis Garcia and Castellanos has agreed to a deal with the San Diego Padres. The end of the Castellanos era certainly was messy, with the details of the Miami incident finally becoming known as well as many other reports about Castellanos’ behavior from Phillies sources in Matt Gelb’s now infamous article.
It’s not a stretch to say that Castellanos never quite lived up to expectations in Philadelphia. He was brought in on a five year, $100M contract with the hopes that he would provide the middle of the order right-handed bat the Phillies have been starved for. However, Castellanos was just never able to come close to his 2021 season with the Reds where he hit 34 home runs with a .939 OPS. His best season in Philadelphia was 2023 where he was named an All-Star after a strong first half but ultimately ended up hitting .272 with a .788 OPS. Over his four seasons with the Phillies, Castellanos slashed .260/.306/.426 and had a 100 OPS+, meaning he was exactly league average. That was coupled with being one of the worst defenders at any position in baseball for the overwhelming majority of the deal.
But it’s also fair to say Castellanos had his moments. Despite his disappointing offensive season in 2022 and defensive struggles, he made numerous game changing or saving catches during the run to the 2022 World Series. The Phillies also may not have won the 2023 NLDS over the Braves without Castellanos, as he slugged four home runs in four games, including two off of Spencer Strider in the clinching Game 4.
In any case, Nick Castellanos’ Phillies career is over. It was an eventful one, for better or worse. How will you remember his time in Philadelphia?