1 day Ago
PHILADELPHIA — He awoke feeling sore on the left side of his hip, but that’s part of it. “Doable,” Nick Castellanos said. So he played again in right field for the Philadelphia Phillies, and in the fifth inning of the 184th straight regular-season game in which Castellanos has started, he took a called strike.
This at-bat had no significance on an eventual 7-2 Phillies win over the Miami Marlins. Advertisement Castellanos took consecutive changeups from Marlins lefty Anthony Veneziano for balls. “Well, I feel like I’m relaxed a little bit more,” Castellanos said.
“Not trying to do too much. If I don’t know a guy, or just a righty in general, I’ll see a pitch or two. Just to see what he’s got.
I’m not going up there trying to hit the ball over the ivy.” He grinned. “Because that does work for me, you know.
” Castellanos fouled off a fastball. He went into two-strike mode. He took a slider down and in for ball three.
It was a competitive pitch. He fouled off the next five pitches, and all but one were in the strike zone. On the 11th pitch, he saw a center-cut 94 mph fastball and lashed it to left field.
He reached first base and pointed toward the dugout. Hitting coach Kevin Long tipped his cap. Manager Rob Thomson rewarded Castellanos by removing him for a pinch runner in a seven-run game.
Castellanos walked off with a .319/.372/.
528 slash line in 78 plate appearances to begin his 13th season in the majors. It’s 20 games — nothing more, nothing less. Maybe it’s something.
Earlier Friday night, Castellanos had struck out on eight pitches against Sandy Alcantara, the Miami ace who slogged through 61 pitches in two innings. Castellanos, in previous years, might not have seen the bigger value in that. It helped force Alcantara from the game quicker and prompted Miami to unload its bullpen.
“Making adjustments,” Castellanos said. “Just feel like I want to give a quality at-bat as often as I can. .
.. We’ve got them for another two games.
Just learning how to play the game and think about all that.” What is this? Castellanos thinking at the plate? Three years ago, he signed a $100 million contract and introduced himself to Philadelphia by declaring: “I don’t have a college degree. I hit baseballs.
” His philosophy on hitting is based on vibes. He doesn’t dissect video. He doesn’t talk about mechanical adjustments.
Advertisement It’s been a good 20 games. “I’m not going to just erase a free-swinger scouting report for 10 years overnight,” Castellanos said. “But I do know that before the season started, it was like: ‘Let this guy get himself out.
Don’t throw a strike unless you have to.’ You know? And even that, like, ‘Don’t get it too close to the strike zone because he could still probably barrel it.’ Now, I don’t really know what the scouting report is saying.
” It probably hasn’t changed. “Correct,” Castellanos said. “I think it’s just being OK to give them a strike one — and also being OK with a backside single.
” Castellanos has seen more pitches per plate appearance in 2025 than he has since 2020. His swinging strike rate is lower than it’s been since 2019. He’s carrying a higher contact rate than he has since 2019 and is making a conscious effort at a balanced approach.
“I think just realizing I needed to mature a little bit,” Castellanos said. “Because since 2017, my goal every year was to get 100 extra-base hits. You know? So I got in the 70s sometimes.
High 80s once. But that person was, like, pedal to the metal all the time, no matter what.” Castellanos was not happy with his at-bats during the final two weeks of spring training.
He asked Thomson if he could go on a 45-minute trip to Bradenton, Fla., just for extra at-bats. He was not sure how he felt entering the season, but he knew it was a better place than April 2024.
The Phillies pleaded with Castellanos to adopt a different approach at the plate last year. He had to be more patient. He hit .
173/.242/.218 in his first 30 games (120 plate appearances).
“So then I really started overthinking on how to have an at-bat,” Castellanos said, “and that’s difficult to do when I’m looking at numbers and trying to guess.” The transition was not straightforward . He recovered to hit .
268/.323/.470 from May 1 on, although he could not always resist lunging at bad pitches.
Advertisement “A hundred percent,” Castellanos said. “That s—‘s hard, man. When I was in coach pitch, my approach was I took the first pitch every single time.
And I swung at the second pitch every single time. I was the best hitter in the whole coach-pitch league.” At 33, finally, he’s far enough removed from that.
Castellanos has struck out 15 times in the first 20 games this season. Five of them came in one game — April 10 at the Atlanta Braves — and it was the only blip. He has looked more in control of his at-bats.
The down-and-away slider hasn’t enticed him as much. “He’s spitting on a lot of pitches,” Thomson said earlier this week. “He’s staying in the zone much more so than he has in the past.
He’s barreling up balls in his happy zone. He’s in a good spot right now. It’s been a while.
” Part of it is acceptance. Castellanos said his favorite stats are games played, hits, doubles, home runs and RBIs. “But that’s a little bit old-school,” Castellanos said.
“A lot of it now, it’s on-base percentage and OPS, things like that — numbers that are always in fluctuation. I’ve found more peace if I can just put my identity in numbers that can’t go down.” He wrapped his identity around collecting those numbers.
That worked for many years. He won’t undo a reputation in 20 games. So be it.
His hip was sore Friday night. He smiled about his revelation. “Now mixing a good at-bat or two, you know?” Castellanos said.
“You might be on to something.” (Top photo: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images).
