Guardians must avoid the Nick Castellanos bait Phillies just tempted them with

One of baseball’s worst-kept secrets finally came out on Thursday, as the Philadelphia Phillies released outfielder Nick Castellanos, meaning that he’s free to sign with any team for the league minimum. 

But just because he’s available for the cheap doesn’t mean that he’s a good fit for the Guardians. While there may have been a time where his bat would have made sense on the Guardians’ roster, adding him to the fold at this point in spring training would be a case of the juice not being worth the squeeze. 

Guardians should avoid signing Nick Castellanos in free agency 

As mentioned above, Castellanos being cut loose by the Phillies has been a long time coming given how the offseason has gone. The saga started in October when The Athletic’s Matt Gelb reported that the Phillies had already decided they were going to move on from Castellanos at some point in the offseason. 

And while there was plenty of scuttlebutt about the Phillies gauging the league’s interest in Castellanos, they never ended up moving him, which is why they had to cut him loose at the start of spring training (which they told him not to report to). 

Even though he’s a two-time All-Star, he’s coming off a season where he hit .250 with 17 home runs in 147 games while being one of the worst outfield defenders in all of baseball.

The Phillies also benched him in June for an "inappropriate comment”, but he put out an Instagram post on Thursday saying that the benching was for him bringing a beer into the team’s dugout. 

He was an All-Star in 2023 in a season where he hit 29 home runs and drove in 106 runs, but it's clear those times have passed him by. 

But even with that, there will likely be some temptation to sign him due to the fact that the Guardians (or whatever team signs him) will only need to pay him the league minimum.

While he's technically owed $20 million in the final season of the five-year, $100 million contract he signed before the 2022 season, the Phillies will be on the hook for that since they released him. 

Yes, the Guardians need help in their outfield. But them adding Castellanos after not addressing the position all offseason would mean the Guardians were hustling backward.

The Guardians’ outfield should be better next season thanks to Chase DeLauter and George Valera getting more playing time, and adding Castellanos would just complicate that equation (even if he does hit from the right side). 

Sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make, and Castellanos falls into that category for the Guardians.