'Wish him the best': Phillies moving on from Castellanos

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Nick Castellanos’ severed relationship with the Phillies lingered Friday at BayCare Ballpark.

But the air was clearing.

“I saw it,” Kyle Schwarber said, referring to Castellanos’ hand-written letter posted on Instagram. “It is what it is, right? I think the biggest thing is that we all wish him the best. We’ve had a lot of really good memories here over the last four years, and he’s had some really big moments with us and we wish him the best moving forward. Like, it is what it is, but hopefully, wherever he goes next, he’s able to keep going out there, keep doing this thing and keep having those big moments.”

The Phillies released Castellanos on Thursday, despite owing him $20 million in the final year of a five-year, $100 million contract. Castellanos’ relationship with the organization had soured, and long before he got pulled for defense in the eighth inning of a June 16 game in Miami.

Multiple sources said that Castellanos shouted at manager Rob Thomson and other coaches in the dugout, questioning their right to remove him from the game because they lacked extensive big league playing time. Castellanos then acknowledged on Instagram that he brought a beer into the dugout during the game.

“Well, you know, I’m proud of him because he owned up to what he did,” Thomson said. “And, hey, we all make mistakes. Mine are well documented. But, you know, Nick helped us out in a lot of ways here. He’s had some big hits and big plays and helped us win a lot of ballgames. So, I do, I wish him all the best.”

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Castellanos’ release wasn’t based solely on the Miami incident. Sources said it went much deeper than that. Castellanos had been unhappy for some time, particularly with the way Thomson handled him.

The situation had become a drain in the clubhouse.

“I just think sometimes you’re in a situation where you’re around day in and day out, things just don’t work at a particular time,” Dombrowski said.

The Phillies said several times this offseason that they planned to give Castellanos a change of scenery, essentially telling everybody in baseball that he would be traded or released before Spring Training. The Phils tried trading Castellanos each of the previous two offseasons, so the news surprised nobody that they would try again.

But perhaps the Phillies’ candor hurt their chances to strike a deal this time?

“Maybe,” Dombrowski said Friday. “You know, I don’t know. I really don’t know. Probably early, when we signed [Adolis] García in December, maybe. But I don’t think later on much. I mean, maybe somebody said they were just going to wait. But we weren’t asking for very much. People would show a little interest and it never materialized.”

Castellanos’ -0.6 WAR last season ranked last out of 145 qualified players in baseball. His 0.8 WAR from 2022-25 ranked 278th out of 306 players.

Based off the previous lack of interest and his performance last season, it wasn’t surprising that teams weren’t seriously engaging the Phillies. Plus, other organizations had heard about what happened in Miami, according to sources.

“We weren’t asking people to take his whole contract or anything,” Dombrowski said. “So I don’t think the finances nor the return at the end made a difference. I just thought that somebody would take him knowing that you get him, rather than competing with other clubs that might try to sign him. But that didn’t make a difference.”

After Castellanos demeaned his manager and coaches, and brought a beer into the dugout during a close game, he got benched the next night. Eventually, he fell into a platoon role in right field with Max Kepler. Asked about his new role in September, Castellanos questioned Thomson’s communication skills.

Had Castellanos’ situation become a distraction?

“I mean, that’s [neither] here nor there,” Schwarber said. “We did what we did. I felt like that in the Dodgers series that, you know, we played good games. There were just things that we didn’t execute and we didn’t walk away with wins at the end of the day. So it’s hard to say here or there, right? We put ourselves in the position we wanted to be and we just got knocked out. So I can’t really say.”