Why the Marlins should not trade for Nick Castellanos

[Kevin Barral]

It is widely known that the Philadelphia Phillies don’t want to continue their professional relationship with Nick Castellanos in 2026. They are actively trying to move him, as the club's president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, has confirmed publicly multiple times.

The Miami Marlins actually showed serious interest in Castellanos when he was a free agent four years ago, but the Phillies outbid them with a five-year, $100M deal. A National League All-Star and Silver Slugger at the time, he has declined since then. Last season, Castellanos slashed .250/.294/.400/.694 with 17 home runs, 72 RBIs, and a 90 wRC+. His playing time was reduced as the year went on and his strained relationship with manager Rob Thomson became a storyline. His postseason performance was also unimpressive—he went 2-for-15 at the plate with a .400 OPS in a four-game NLDS loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On the January 22 episode of Fair Territory, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic mentioned the Marlins as a potential Castellanos destination, given  the lack of veteran bats on their roster and his background as a Hialeah native and Archbishop McCarthy alum. Rosenthal adds that the Phillies would be taking responsibility for most of the $20M still owed to the right-handed hitter to facilitate any deal.

However, Castellanos doesn’t have a place in Miami where he’d receive regular playing time.

A full-time outfielder since 2018, Castellanos’ minus-82 defensive runs saved is the worst in MLB during that span, per Fielding Bible. The next-closest player, Jorge Soler, is 30 runs better at minus-52. With the inconsistency of his bat at this stage of his career—wRC+ below 100 in two of the last four seasons—there's no guarantee of him even performing above replacement level moving forward.

It's hard to imagine Castellanos taking playing time away from fellow outfielders Kyle Stowers, Jakob Marsee, Owen Caissie, Griffin Conine or Heriberto Hernández. Even Esteury Ruiz might be ahead of him on the depth chart considering his great Triple-A production in 2025 and elite speed.

Castellanos is showing a willingness to make the move to first base and videos have surfaced of him getting work there. He has solid height for the position at 6'3", but due to his inexperience, who knows what that will look like.

The Marlins already signed Christopher Morel to a one-year deal and identified him as a candidate to learn first base. Conine is also experimenting at first entering this spring and Liam Hicks recently told the Marlins Radio Network that he is still working at the position after making 23 starts last season. While the Marlins should be open-minded to finding another 1B option, Castellanos does not represent a clear upgrade.

The likelihood of Castellanos bouncing back to being an impactful run producer is too low for the Marlins to make room for him.

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[One Regend]

Castellanos would make for a nice feel-good story as a Hialeah kid, but that's all he brings to the table. He's a mess defensively, and while moving him to 1B would make sense for this stage of his career, I don't see how he's an upgrade over simply moving Agustin Ramirez there. Ramirez is 24 years old making the league minimum, and Castellanos is about to be 34 and is making $20 million for 2026 on the last year of his contract. I don't think I feel the need to clarify myself further.

[Jose Herrera]

If we had never signed Castellanos or Garcia prior to 2022, we would have been fine and saved some money. Probably would have won around the same number of games with Bleday, De La Cruz, Dickerson and Sanchez all in the outfield.

However, that was a different time and I'm happy with new front office. Jeter had great ideas, but they were not practical in Miami. Ligero and Loria were right to be upset with Jeter and his Yankee bro-science philosophy. 

Heck I'm even upset when I look back. Jeter traded Ozuna, Realmuto, Stanton, Yelich and removed the fish tanks behind home plate, the home run sculpture and the lime green walls. That was so much money and time wasted on removing fun and useful amenities and players only to replace them with subpar replacements.

Ideally, we should still have some of those amenities and players. In the end Sherman learned his lesson about hiring someone with no front office experience and we all paid the price.

At least those days are over with and things are looking up. Bring Castellanos if Philly pays for his contract and if we can trade him the following week, like we did with Piazza. Go Fish!

 

[Miami Italiano]

Bruce Sherman is so tight that he squeaks when he walks. He's not paying him $20 million.

[THOMAS JOSEPH]

I agree with the article premise and our other commenters here. There's no reason to being in this guy now. Let the young group coalesce as they are. With last season as a barometer, why mess with that chemistry?