Nick Castellanos’ time with the Philadelphia Phillies came to an end on Thursday, Feb. 12 with his release as the team began to gather for spring training.
The former Phillies outfielder wasted no time in penning a four-page handwritten letter, which he shared on his Instagram account, following the news of the release.
In the letter, Castellanos addressed Philadelphia fans and made an admission about the events that led to his eventual release, which he called the ‘Miami incident.’
‘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.’
‘Shoutout to my teammates and Howie for taking the beer out of my hands before I could take a sip (I appreciate you guys).’
The incident Castellanos refers to happened on June 16, 2025, in a game against NL East rival Miami Marlins. During a 5-2 Phillies win over the Marlins, manager Rob Thomson removed Castellanos in the eighth inning for defensive replacement Johan Rojas.
With Castellanos being from Davie, Florida, being just over 20 miles from Marlins Park, he took exception to being removed from the game. The next day, Thomson and the Phillies announced Castellanos was being benched for making an ‘inappropriate comment.’
‘One of the many things about Nick that I love is that he’s very emotional,’ Thomson said. ‘He loves to play, and he loves to play every inning of every game. I just thought last night he made an inappropriate comment after he came out, and so today, he’s not going to play. And I’m going to leave it at that.’
Castellanos revealed on Feb. 12 that it was not only his comments, but also his actions that led to his benching.
Despite the troubles near the end of his Phillies career, he showed an appreciation to the city and the fans in part of the letter he shared on social media.
‘To the people of city, thank you for showing up for the past four years,’ Castellanos wrote. ‘Applauding or booing, you were there.’