Nick Castellanos’ relationship with the Philadelphia Phillies ended when the club released the former All-Star outfielder as he entered the final year of a five-year, $100 million contract.
The breakup has been in the works for months, with Castellanos falling out of favor due to poor performance and a conflict with manager Rob Thomson that resulted in a one-game benching.
Club president Dave Dombrowski indicated early this winter that the club would try to trade him. Castellanos did not have a locker assigned to him in the Philadelphia Phillies’ spring training clubhouse, according to news media in Clearwater, Florida, as the club asked him to stay home and await either a trade destination or his release.
After his release on Thursday, Feb. 12, Castellanos posted a handwritten letter to his Instagram page, thanking Philadelphia and the club for its support through the years and offered his explanation on the conflict and admitted to bringing a beer into the dugout.
‘As a veteran of the game of baseball, there are rules, and I broke one in Miami,’ Castellanos wrote. ‘After being taken out of a close ball game in front of my friends and family, I brought a Presidente (beer) into the dugout. I then sat right next to Rob and let him know that too much slack in some areas and too tight of restrictions in others are not conducive to us winning.’
Castellanos said his teammates prevented him from taking a sip.
Nick Castellanos contract
Castellanos is owed $20 million in the final year of a five-year, $100 million deal he signed with the Phillies. Clearly, the Phillies found no taker to take on even a small fraction of that salary. So, they’ll eat the money and move on.
The Phillies signed former Texas Ranger Adolis Garcia to a one-year deal to supplant Castellanos in right field.
In Castellanos’s four years with the Phillies, they reached the playoffs every season, and he became a folk hero when he hit four homers in the 2023 NLDS against Atlanta. That was his finest season in Philly, as he batted .272 with 29 homers, 107 RBI and a .788 OPS.
Yet poor defense in right field limited him to just 1.5 WAR this season, and he declined in almost every metric the following two seasons. Castellanos may offer a modicum of value to clubs such as Cincinnati because of the dearth of right-handed hitting outfielders.
His Philadelphia chapter, though, is closed.