Get your memes ready, as there’s a drive into left by Castellanos and that’ll be a home run.
The Phillies looked like they were done with the team this offseason. They made some bullpen additions in the form of Jeurys Familia and Brad Hand, brought back Odubel Herrera to, theoretically, form a platoon in center field and, we thought, made their big move in signing Kyle Schwarber to play left field and sometimes DH for the team.
I guess we were wrong, as there’s a drive into left by Castellanos and so that’ll be a home run.
Source confirms: Castellanos in agreement with Phillies on five-year, $100M contract. First to report: @JonHeyman. Analysis on Phillies and Castellanos from Jayson and Matt earlier in the day…. https://t.co/knrlhTb3Jd
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) March 19, 2022
$20M per year for five years. Not bad, Dave.
Picking up Nick Castellanos to add to this team is a bit shocking. It puts them over the first luxury tax threshold, so you can imagine that John Middleton is already sweating about that, but boy does this lineup look really good now, as there’s a drive intro left by Castellanos and so that’ll be a home run.
Castellanos has been one of the better power hitters in the game these past few years, not including the pandemic season. In his last three full seasons, he’s posted wRC+ numbers of 140, 129 and 122. Even his “bad season” in 2020, his wRC+ was 100, so he was average that year. So he’s going to add some thump to the lineup that is starting to look like they’ll threaten the team’s season record of home runs. The issue with Castellanos is that when it comes to defense, he looks like he’s playing a perpetual game of pin the tail on the donkey. He’s not good with the glove, plain and simple. In most years in the National League, that would pose a problem, but this is 2022, baby. They have designated hitters now!
We’ll see how this all plays out, but take a sneak peak at this potential lineup:
Schwarber LF/DH
Segura 2B
Harper RF
Castellanos LF/DH
Hoskins 1B
Realmuto C
Gregorius/Stott SS
Bohm 3B
Herrera/Vierling CF
That’s the lineup of a playoff team. Offensively, of course. Defensively…..the better score some runs.
We’ll have more on this as the spring continues, as there’s a drive into left by Castellanos and so that’ll be a home run. Also, Castellanos is the one free agent I (Phrozen) wanted the Phils to pick up this winter. Couple with the Senate defeating Daylight Saving Time, and this has been quite the successful week for me. 10/10, would do again.