Sep 17, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos (8) returns to the dugout after an out against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
Nick Castellanos is an interesting cat.
I've always felt like he was a guy who was misunderstood at times, underappreciated at times, and an enigma at times.
But there was never a doubt that the work ethic was there. For all the talk of him not living up to his contract — and to be fair to the critics, for a guy being paid $100 million over five years, he's not quite lived up to the contract production-wise — he's also not been a sunk cost. Not even close.
Castellanos was the most consistent offensive player on the Phillies after May 1 last year. He was an All-Star for the Phillies in 2023, before falling off on the second half of the season, but then exploding in the NLDS and being the Phillies' best hitter against the Braves.
This season, though, has lacked both the consistency and explosiveness of the past. Even when Castellanos was racking up the hits — and believe it or not, he has the third-most hits for the Phillies this season, behind Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber — it never looked comfortable.
So many of his hits have looked like he was off balance and just getting his bat on the ball and dumping a single into the outfield. That means that when he's not getting a hit, he's not running into hard outs. Most of his outs have been one of three varieties — strikeouts, weak grounders and lazy pop flies.
Combine this change in his offense with the fact that he's not a good defensive outfielder, and its easy to see why the Phillies had many conversations internally about cutting into his consistent playing time.
It wasn't a condemnation of Castellanos' work ethic — that was never questioned when he was an everyday player. You would arrive at the ballpark and you would see Castellanos taking early batting practice — many times alone — every day.
But it was just one of those things where a guy has an underwhelming year. It's part of baseball. Sometimes players exceed expectations, sometimes players don't meet them. This is certainly a season where Castellanos isn't meeting them.
And that's why his role has changed. That's why the Phillies slowly transitioned him into a platoon role. He starts against lefties and comes off the bench in games started by righties.
It's not something he is comfortable with. It's not something he's adjusting to well.
But that shouldn't come as a surprise. He's a guy being paid like an everyday player, who has always been an everyday player, who has had the rug pulled out from under him in the heat of a pennant chase.
Put yourself in his position — it wouldn't be easy to just swallow your pride and be a rah-rah team guy.
So, it's understandable that Castellanos would be ticked. It's human nature to be emotional as you try to process the change. Combine this with the fact that Castellanos represents himself and doesn't have an agent to turn to for advice or guidance on how best to deal with a messy situation like this.
That said, Castellanos also hasn't handled this as well as he could.
Rob Thomson, on how Nick Castellanos is taking to his changing role:
“To take on this role is difficult, and I think he’s trying to adjust. And after tonight … I think he’s starting to get a feel for it.”
(via @GraceDelPizzo) pic.twitter.com/B6UhUPy0YN
He's brooding publicly — a lot. He admitted Friday, following a game in which he hit his 250th career home run and drove in three key runs in what was eventually an 8-2 Phillies win over the Diamondbacks, that he abandoned the daily early work that has been a staple of his routine for much of the past two years. He's been seen lounging on a couch in the visitors clubhouses before games. I first noticed it at Citi Field last month. The Athletic's Matt Gelb noted Friday that before he ultimately took batting practice, "Castellanos lay on a couch in the visitors’ clubhouse at Chase Field and put a towel over his head."
There was a recent home game where he wasn't in the lineup that day, that he chose to do some cleaning of his locker in the clubhouse — packing up excess bats and gear and clothes.
He hasn't liked speaking to the media about his situation, because he feels like sometimes the questions being asked are "creating a narrative."
He said that directly to a reporter in Arizona when asked if he was unhappy in his role.
But those who cover the team wouldn't be doing their jobs if they didn't ask that question, and others like it, when Castellanos is so visibly different than what we grew accustomed to seeing out of him every day for the past three seasons.
In other words, the narrative is being driven by Castellanos and his actions and how he chooses to answer questions, not the questions being asked of him themselves.
Then, it doesn't help matters when he says things that can be construed a certain way. Like when he told the media that it wasn't Rob Thomson who communicated to him that he was being pulled from a game for a defensive replacement recently, but that it was first base coach Paco Figueroa.
While true, there was a reason — Castellanos was on base when the inning ended. Normally, he would wait for a teammate to run him out his glove and hat so he didn't have to go back to the dugout. But because he was coming out of the game, Figueroa shared the information with him because he happened to be standing right there.
That makes sense, so why make it even a point of conversation?
Or the time he said he was sitting because Thomson told him Harrison Bader was getting frustrated and Thomson wanted to get him more consistent at bats, only to have Bader tell reporters he wasn't frustrated at all.
Then, there's the most recent criticism of his strained relationship with Thomson.
Nick Castellanos was asked if he understands why he hasn’t played as often.
“I don’t really talk to Rob all that often … Communication over the years has been questionable, at least in my experience.”
(via @GraceDelPizzo) pic.twitter.com/ucqEiWadSL
"I don't really talk to Rob all that often," Castellanos told reporters in Arizona. "I play whenever he tells me to play and then I sit whenever he tells me to sit."
Then he said something that was a surprise to many.
"Communication, over the years, has been questionable — at least in my experience," Castellanos said about talking to Thomson. "But I also grew up communicating with someone like my father, which is very blunt, direct and consistent."
Considering Thomson is known as a great communicator with his players, this came out of left right field.
Nick Castellanos, on Rob Thomson’s communication:
“There’s just been times where things have been said, and then over the course of years I’ll have expectations … and actions would be different.”
(via @GraceDelPizzo) pic.twitter.com/4x4KXUALTc
"It's just been times where things have been said, and then over the course of the years I'll have expectations because I'll latch on to what's being said. And then actions would be different and then I'm just kind of left, you know, thinking and whatnot," Castellanos continued. "But again, it is what it is. Adapt. Do what I can. At the end of the day, we're here to win a World Series."
Castellanos deserves some empathy for how this all played out this year. Thomson didn't exactly just make an abrupt move to turn Castellanos into a platoon player. He tried to land the plane safely and without any bumps.
First, it was taking him out because his knee was bothering him after an awkward play in right field in Yankee Stadium at the end of July. Then it was ensuring all outfielders got a rest while playing on the hard turf in Texas. Then it was Bader's frustration. Then it wasn't a platoon, but rather a rotation, where everyone was playing two-out-of-three games, and sometimes, the hand of the pitcher didn't matter.
And with each step it grew closer and closer to what it is now — a flat out platoon, where Castellanos is on the side of it that plays with less frequency.
Maybe Thomson could have handled that differently. Maybe instead of slow-playing the change, he should have just been more direct with Castellanos and told him they were making the move in August, and not drag it out over several weeks. Maybe Castellanos feels like he was being gaslit here, creating this uncomfortable situation.
If that's the case, Castellanos has a point, and it would both explain and justify his feelings from the quote above.
But the point, no matter how accurate and fair, only can go so far.
He wasn't producing up to team expectations, so they decided to make a change, which is their right, especially in pursuit of a championship.
If the ultimate goal, as Castellanos said, is to win a World Series, then why create this drama? Sure, it's tough to be in his spot. And yes, it's not fun to answer our questions. I sympathize with the guy in that regard. But playing out an internal soap opera between himself and the manager publicly as the pursuit of that championship is happening in September is not productive either.
Were this not a veteran team who was deft at avoiding distractions like this, airing of grievances in this way could sink the ship. That said, it doesn't justify it just because you feel your teammates can handle it.
And although there's a lot of truth in Castellanos' feelings, he's not going to get much in the way of sympathy from the public by doing it this way either. He's going to earn labels rooted in selfishness and not being team-first — even though he's said some team-first stuff, too. That's not what's making headlines or generating conversation. What's doing that is the perceived conflict between player and manager. People only see in black and white most of the time. No one has time to separate the two colors in the gray area anymore.
He has to know that. He's been around far too long. He has to know that there is a time and place, and this is neither.
At a time when all the excitement should be about the dawning of another Red October, instead we find ourselves talking about different shades of red — the kind that are prevalent in people's faces during times of anger, frustration and yes, even embarrassment.
If this was the story he wanted out there when he got pulled and benched in Florida back in June, fine. It would have been in and out of the news cycle in a few days. But now, when the team is gearing up for what it hopes is a deep playoff run, it runs the risk of being an unnecessary distraction to a team on a mission.
And that's not a narrative coming from those of us behind the keyboard.
