The Phillies are likely to trade or release Nick Castellanos this offseason, reports Matt Gelb of The Athletic. The veteran outfielder is owed $20MM for the final season of a five-year, $100MM free agent deal.
It has been apparent for the past few months that Castellanos’ time with the organization would probably come to an end this winter. He hasn’t performed up to expectations for most of his time in Philly. He’s coming off a career-worst .250/.294/.400 batting line and lost playing time in the second half.
Castellanos has also had a couple public spats with manager Rob Thomson. The skipper benched Castellanos for a game in June after the player made what Thomson considered “an inappropriate comment” when being lifted for a defensive replacement (ESPN link). Late in the season, Castellanos publicly criticized Thomson for what he called “questionable” communication on players’ roles.
The Phillies have not announced any decisions. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was asked about the situation at this morning’s end-of-season press conference. “I don’t know. I’m not going to get into specific players that are on our roster under contract. The [incidents] that you talked about are accurate, but we’ll see what happens,” he replied (link via Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Obviously, the Phillies would prefer to find a trade partner than to simply release Castellanos. That won’t be easy. Other teams will be aware of the soured relationship. Even if things hadn’t gone south off the field, he’s coming off a season in which both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference felt he was below replacement level. Castellanos ranked among the bottom 20 hitters (minimum 500 plate appearances) in on-base percentage. He tied with Jo Adell and Juan Soto for an MLB-worst 12 outs below average among outfielders. He probably would have been a primary designated hitter if he weren’t teammates with Kyle Schwarber.
Castellanos did connect on 17 homers while driving in 72 runs. He’d topped 20 homers in each of the previous two seasons. He has not gone on the injured list in three seasons and has hit .282/.329/.463 against left-handed pitching over the past four years. He’d still be an offensive upgrade for some teams as a part-time outfielder/DH.
Teams aren’t going to assume a notable portion of a $20MM salary for that kind of role. The Phils will hope to find a club willing to take $3-5MM off their hands for a nominal return. Failing that, it seems they’d simply eat the contract and release him. Castellanos could then sign anywhere for the league minimum with the Phillies on the hook for the rest of the money. The Guardians, Royals, Rangers and Padres are among the teams that need more production out of the outfield and/or designated hitter.
Moving on from Castellanos will be one of multiple changes to the Phils’ outfield. Harrison Bader and Max Kepler are headed to free agency. (Bader will decline his end of a mutual option and sign a multi-year deal.) That leaves Brandon Marsh as the only returning regular. Kepler had a poor season after signing a $10MM free agent deal. Dombrowski acknowledged that he’s unlikely to be re-signed.
The Phils will presumably make an effort to bring Bader back, but they’re also facing the impending free agencies of Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and Ranger Suárez. While Dombrowski said the Phillies have interest in re-signing each of those players individually, he called it “probably impractical” to get all four of them done. Schwarber and Realmuto feel like the bigger priorities.
That points to a potential Opening Day roster spot for former first-round pick Justin Crawford. The Phillies were mulling a midseason call-up for the 21-year-old outfielder. Crawford probably would’ve debuted had they not managed to acquire Bader from Minnesota at the deadline. He instead spent the season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley, where he hit .334/.411/.452 and stole 46 bases in 112 games.
Crawford remains a somewhat divisive prospect. He has excellent bat-to-ball skills, but his power is limited by a swing designed to hit the ball on the ground. While he has the pure speed for center field, his arm and defensive routes lead many evaluators to project him as a left fielder. That could push Marsh back to center field, perhaps in another platoon with righty-swinging Johan Rojas.
