{"id":108804,"date":"2025-10-24T23:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T03:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=108804"},"modified":"2025-10-24T23:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T03:32:12","slug":"castellanos-trade-uniform-pirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/10\/24\/castellanos-trade-uniform-pirates\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Castellanos is Available: Why the Pirates Should and Shouldn\u2019t Bite"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Philadelphia Phillies are expected to move on from outfielder Nick Castellanos, while the Pittsburgh Pirates are searching for offense. This, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/10\/17\/phillies-planning-move-on-from-nick-castellanos-this-offseason\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">report<\/a> from Matt Gelb of The Athletic. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/casteni01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Castellanos<\/a> is approaching the final year of a five-year contract that will pay him $20 million in 2026. If the Phillies release him, they\u2019ll be on the hook for the entire $20 million, less the league minimum salary if another team picks him up. A trade would be more palatable to the Phillies, although they\u2019re unlikely to find a trade partner who will take on the entire $20 million obligation. Another team, like the Pirates, may be able to land Castellanos in a trade for a low-level prospect while taking on, say, $5 million. That should be right up the Pirates\u2019 alley. But is it a good idea?<\/p>\n<h2>Nick Castellanos is Available: Why the Pirates Should and Shouldn\u2019t Bite<\/h2>\n<h3>Should the Pirates Make a Play for Castellanos?<\/h3>\n<p>Since <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/12\/nick-castellanos-is-back-with-a-vengence\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">signing<\/a> the big $100 million contract with Philadelphia, Castellanos has mostly been a disappointment. The right-handed hitter gave them one big year in 2023, when he hit .272\/.311\/.476, 29 HR, and 106 RBI. However, he\u2019s been in a state of decline since. In 2025, he hit .250\/.294\/.400, 17 HR, and 72 RBI, with an 88 OPS+, .300 wOBA, 90 wRC+, and -0.6 WAR according to FanGraphs. (Baseball Reference computes his WAR at -1.0). He\u2019s not a good defensive outfielder. This past season, he was \u201cworth\u201d -9 Fielding Runs Above Average and -11 Defensive Runs Saved, despite not being charged with any errors. In September, he was platooned with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/keplema01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Max Kepler<\/a>, another outfielder who fell short of expectations. Castellanos also had some issues with Phillies manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/thomsro99.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rob Thomson<\/a> that were made public.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Nick Castellanos is expected to be traded or released by the Phillies this offseason, per <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MattGelb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@MattGelb<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/J5bYePcUN2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/J5bYePcUN2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLBONFOX\/status\/1979057159779340501?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 17, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s no secret that Pirates general manager Ben Cherington will be looking for offense this offseason. In 2025, the Bucs hit .231\/.305\/.350. That amounted to the worst OPS in MLB, and only two teams had a worse batting average. No team hit fewer home runs than the Pirates\u2019 117. Their <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/09\/29\/pirates-2025-season-report-cards-postmortem\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">outfielders were the biggest culprits<\/a>. With one of the best young pitching staffs in baseball, the Pirates wasted a short window of opportunity to contend. They can\u2019t repeat that mistake in 2026.<\/p>\n<h3>Why the Pirates Should Pursue Castellanos<\/h3>\n<p>The Pirates aren\u2019t expected to be big spenders in the free agent market. Over the last two years, their \u201chigh-profile\u201d free agent signings, if you can call them that, were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/taylomi02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael A. Taylor<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tellero01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rowdy Tellez<\/a> in 2024 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/fraziad01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adam Frazier<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/phamth01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tommy Pham<\/a> in 2025. All were one-year deals. At $4.025 million, Pham\u2019s was t<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/07\/pirates-tommy-pham-pros-cons\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">he most lucrative<\/a>. If the Pirates won\u2019t go beyond a one-year deal for $4-5 million, a trade for Castellanos might be as good as it gets.<\/p>\n<p>Although his statistics didn\u2019t live up to the contract, Castellanos\u2019 home run and RBI totals would have placed second on the Pirates. He\u2019d be an instant upgrade over Pham, who enjoyed a midseason hot streak but, in the end, produced a mediocre stat line of .245\/.330\/.370, 10 HR, and 52 RBI. The 13-year veteran has plenty of postseason experience, too, from his time with the Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, and especially the Phillies. Managers of young teams like having a guy around who knows what it takes.<\/p>\n<p>It can\u2019t be ignored that the last time Castellanos was playing for his next contract, he had his best season. That was in 2021 for Cincy, when he hit .309\/.362\/.576, 34 HR, and 100 RBI.<\/p>\n<p>But will Castellanos be more trouble than he\u2019s worth? Nobody\u2019s ever questioned his effort. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/phillies\/nick-castellanos-rob-thomson-john-middleton-outfield-platoon-20250920.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">issues<\/a> he had with Thomson revolved around a perceived lack of communication rather than his reduced playing time. Although Castellanos probably should have left those things unsaid, that won\u2019t be an issue with Pirates manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kellydo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Don Kelly<\/a>, who drew high marks for his communication skills in his first season as a manager.<\/p>\n<h3>Why the Pirates Shouldn\u2019t Pursue Castellanos<\/h3>\n<p>The Pirates won\u2019t be successful with the attitude of, well, let\u2019s sign this guy because he\u2019s better than what he had. The Pirates need more than incremental improvement. Cherington needs to step outside that one-year-seven-figure-contract comfort zone in which he seems trapped. While the Pirates&#8217; pitching staff is young, healthy, and contractually tied up to the club for a while, Cherington needs to go big and not settle for the Tommy Phams of the world. He\u2019s been playing a baseball version of <em>The Price is Right<\/em> for six years now, and it\u2019s not working.<\/p>\n<p>Given his track record, Castellanos\u2019 recent decline ordinarily might not seem so alarming. However, he\u2019ll be 34 by the time spring training rolls around. That\u2019s not an age where hitters normally reverse negative trends.<\/p>\n<p>The Pirates don\u2019t have a position for Castellanos, either. As a well-below-average outfielder, he\u2019d be a disaster patrolling PNC Park\u2019s vast left field expanse. If he plays his more familiar right field, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reynobr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bryan Reynolds<\/a> would move to left field. Although Reynolds played there regularly for most of 2019-24, he doesn\u2019t get high defensive marks there, either. One solution would be to make one of them the permanent designated hitter. That would mean replacing franchise icon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mccutan01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-24_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew McCutchen<\/a> should he choose to come back. McCutchen\u2019s numbers are declining, too. But swapping out \u201cCutch\u201d and his .700 OPS for Castellanos\u2019 .694 doesn\u2019t represent an upgrade. And the Pirates would still need another outfielder.<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s a subject that\u2019s received considerable debate on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/10\/02\/top-10-nutty-social-media-theories-from-pirates-fans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Pirates social media<\/a> since the availability of Castellanos was first reported. The majority are against the idea of Castellanos in a Pirates uniform. For once, they\u2019re right. Cherington needs to make some serious moves to upgrade the Pirates\u2019 offense. This shouldn\u2019t be one of them.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Philadelphia Phillies are expected to move on from outfielder Nick Castellanos, while the Pittsburgh Pirates are searching for offense. This, according to a report from Matt Gelb of The Athletic. Castellanos is approaching the final year of a five-year contract that will pay him $20 million in 2026. If the Phillies release him, they\u2019ll [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":108849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071],"tags":[1094],"class_list":["post-108804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","tag-nick-castellanos"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108804"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108850,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108804\/revisions\/108850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}