ORLANDO, Fla. — During a broader answer talking about where things stand regarding the outfield, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski mentioned Nick Castellanos Monday.
"We've talked about trying to find a change of scenery for Nick."
Dombrowski did acknowledge this to the reporters present in Las Vegas for last month's GM meetings, and was non-committal about the future of the two-time All-Star during his year-end press conference in October.
When asked by @TimKellySports about Nick Castellanos’ future with the Phillies, Dave Dombrowski was noncommittal.
(via @GraceDelPizzo) pic.twitter.com/0PMieK6NMq
As for when a resolution could be reached that allows the Phillies and Castellanos to go their separate ways, that's unclear.
"I have no idea," Dombrowski acknowledged.
Obviously, Castellanos being owed $20 million in 2026 after a season where FanGraphs says he posted the lowest WAR (minus-0.6) among qualified position players complicates things. The Phillies are going to pay the overwhelming majority of Castellanos' salary next year. It's just a matter of whether that means they pay, say, $17 million and trade him to a club in need of a right-handed hitter that takes on a few million, or all $20 million by virtue of a release.
For his part, Castellanos — who previously served as his own agent — hired Mato Sports Management to serve as his representation shortly after the 2023 season concluded.
Nick Castellanos on the idea of playing first base:
"It was brought up to me and honestly, it's something that I really welcome... if somebody needs me to do that." pic.twitter.com/sikqEtQbTj
During an appearance on MLB Network last week, Yonder Alonso asked Castellanos about playing first base, clearly a question that he had been told to ask before the segment. Castellanos expressed a willingness to also play first base if that's what a team wanted from him.
"It was brought up to me, and honestly, it's something that I really welcome," Castellanos said.
Who was it brought up to Castellanos by? It wasn't something that the Phillies advised him to do in order to be more attractive as a trade candidate.
"No, I mean I can't even tell you how it started. All I know is that I saw him taking ground balls later in the year at first base for his own purpose," Dombrowski said. "And I think he did that on his own. And [infield coach] Bobby [Dickerson] will work with anybody at any position."
"Yeah, last month and a half, two months, he was taking ground balls, really just for conditioning purposes, just to get his legs moving a little bit," Rob Thomson added. "But it looked fine, according to Bobby, looked good."
What almost certainly happened is Castellanos was advised by his new representation to publicly show an openness to playing first base. Considering he posted minus-11 defensive runs saved and minus-12 outs above average in right field last season, teams probably will view him more as a DH at this point, but first base allows him to have additional flexibility. And given how few impact right-handed hitters the sport has right now, someone will probably take a chance on him rebounding offensively after he posted a .694 OPS this past season. There's a real possibility that chance won't be taken, though, until some of the more appealing options in free agency and on the trade market come off the board.
