The Reds have unsurprisingly extended a qualifying offer to free agent outfield Nick Castellanos. Given that Castellanos just recently chose to opt out of the final two years and $34MM remaining on his contract, it should be a foregone conclusion that Castellanos will reject the one-year, $18.4MM qualifying offer and enter free agency.
The sum total of the last couple days of decisions should lead to an interesting offseason saga for Castellanos. The last time he was a free agent, it required patience for the slugger to ultimately land a uniquely structured long-term deal with the Reds. The 29-year-old ultimately only spent two years with the Reds, the latter of which produced an All-Star campaign. Still, this time around, Castellanos will be entering his age-30 season, he has a qualifying offer attached, and the CBA is set to expire in December. The stars say it will be quite some time until Castellanos knows what uniform he will don in 2022.
At the base of it all, however, is a consistent right-handed power hitter coming off a .309/.362/.576 season with 34 home runs and 100 runs driven in. The gaudy offensive numbers amounted to a 3.3 rWAR season, the most robust of Castellanos’ career. He put up 4.2 WAR by Fangraphs’ measure, which was also a career high. In short, the bat plays.
Counterpoint: Castellanos continues to put up suspect defensive numbers. His glovework in right field merited -7 defensive runs saved and -1.5 UZR, numbers that are supported by the eye test and a longstanding reputation as a subpar defender. Now, the expectation is that there will be a universal designated hitter next season, and if that comes to pass, there should be a robust market for Castellanos. Until that’s put in ink, however, his defensive deficiencies may curtail the bidding for his services.
No brainer.
Good thing, because Reds front office don’t have brains.
Mets please stay away…
They really should stay away from Nic
Have to agree with you, another guy who is suspect with the glove is about the last thing they should be going for.
A) DH. B) his bat more than makes up for his glove
Only 1 guy can DH, and the Mets already have a couple who should maybe be DH’ing too… but your points are valid.
Nicholas Castellanos prefers not to DH and refuses to play 1B.
Not worth losing the 14 pick over castellanos… sorry. He isn’t worth that.
His bat makes up for his glove in certain situations. Mets D is already too suspect and they already have at least 2 good hitting DHs. Hard pass on Castellanos.
But they’re in need of a stick like Castellano’s big time. Huge improvement over Conforto at the plate. Big downgrade in the field
Huge improvement over Conforto at the plate.
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Their OPS+ over the past three years is almost identical. Comforto has the higher bWAR over the past three seasons as well.
Wrong. You’re wrong. Conforto’s OPS is weighted from last years season. Get
Conforto is 123+ over the last three seasons, and NC is 124+.
Comforto has the better career offensive numbers by a fair amount.
Why would he even want to play for the Mets?
Give me a break. If they offer him the most money, he’ll want to play for then. But then, you know that already.
That’s a very narrow view. Just because you’re a Yankee fan, doesn’t discount that the Mets aren’t far off, and maybe if their rotation didn’t get injured, they’d be in the hunt.
Wrigley Field reunion makes sense to me.
Cubs are rebuilding… no need and I’m sure NC doesn’t want to go play with a loser team.
That rules out the White Sux then.
ps17 coming in hot, scorching multiple fanbases in one comments section.
ChiSox seem like a perfect fit.
I agree with ChiSox. Not only are they rebuilding, but now it’d cost them a draft pick. Which I don’t think a rebuilding team should want to lose. Even if it’s a second round. Though, honestly I wouldn’t want to lose a draft pick for him anyways. He had a solid year, no doubt. But I can see him as one of them hitters who takes a massive tumble after getting their big pay day, much like Chris Davis and that type.
Candidate for White Sox RF.
Not sure I want him either.
I’m sure NC doesn’t want to go play in front of loser fans.
NC already proved he’s cool with playing in front of loser fans on the North side of town.
This is who I think Mariners end up with ! Can’t see them winning the Bryant bidding with the Mets involved! So they will outbid the Marlins Rockies reds etc for castlellanos and add pitching to him
Reds aren’t going to make a serious offer. Cheap POS Castellini is tearing down after a glorious 2 year run of +.500 baseball FML
Marlins and Rockies? Seriously? I don’t see them in the bidding.
I guess never say never
Brewers
Here;s my chance to be first..
Not so fast on the DH.
The responsible parties from a few–2 or 3–NL teams will make offers to Nic, and if he and his management think they’re high enough he’ll take one to get it locked down before the CBA apocalypse.
But this Assumptive Close “everybody wants it” attitude being pushed almost universally by reporters at, mostly, the behest of agents doesn’t address any of the factors working against the change. The primary short-term problem is that rule changes in general, including the Placed Runner which has a better chance, are sure to complicate the negotiations.
Have a good time, guys(or gals, if any)
In an alternate universe I would love to see Nick accept QO just to see the resulting moves Cincy would make to drop payroll.
“Mr. Red, we’re sorry but we have to let you go.”
Speaking as a Reds fan the dudes a great clubhouse guy a good teammate and quickly became a fan favorite here. I would t Ming him coming back but he really wasn’t the same guy after the All-Star break and his IL stint.
Castellanos accepts QO, Reds immediately put him on waivers, gets claimed by Brewers, mashes whatever remains of Reds pitching staff all season.
I’d sacrifice Cain and JBJ’s stellar defense with someone who can actually hit! i.e. Castellanos. The Brewers lost to the Braves in four because they only scored 6 runs. Shutout twice. 4 in the final game and they lost!!!
Costellanos will get a lucrative offer as long as he DH’s. Aside from that his fielding is lackluster at best. He’s not a multi faceted player I’d want on my team.
Castellanos’s home and away splits were pretty dramatic. Put him in a pitcher-friendly park like perhaps SD’s, which is rumored to want him, and that plus his defensive deficiencies might make the team regret the contract after a year or two. The Reds seem to me to either be fearing the consequences of the new CBA or the consequences of a protracted lockout, or both. They might also be trying to downsize in advance of selling the team. Most of their problems can be traced to ownership, not the FO, which has to do ownership’s bidding. But even so, they are a small-market team with medium-level attendance and medium-level spending.
Castellanos wasn’t exactly severely underpaid on his last deal and I don’t see him as being worth significantly more than the deal he opted out of, particularly the option year price, which I wonder about. I wonder if he opted out in order to essentially get the same deal with that third year plus the buyout values guaranteed.
I think 2 years/$34M to 3 years/$52M opted out from becomes 3 years/$53M guaranteed on any new contract he gets. Maybe another 4 year/$64M, possibly 4 years/$68M to account for some inflation.
I believe he is a Boras client. He sign with two weeks of Spring Training left, after all the others are signed. He better hope Scott keeps more than one team AND one mystery team involved at that point, for it really means that one team will bid against itself and Nick’s deal will get shorter and less lucrative.
The Washington Nationals to bat behind Soto would make sense. Mike Rizzo is a smart exec, and I don’t believe the Nats are conducting a complete teardown. It will take a couple of years, but I think they’ll see the post-season before the Phillies or Mets.
I also think it would be interesting if he accepted the QO however unlikely. That would only be I think about 2m more than making now. I think the Reds might be happy with that. If they keep him it improves fan base happiness which is in the pits now. Otherwise trade him for a solid relief pitcher or the like. Unless something strange happens with the labor issues I think there is about a 1% chance he accepts it. Fun to think about it though. I wonder if Yankees make a run at him?
He makes sense for the Reds at $18.4 MM, but the loss of the Compensation pick is not good news for Krall.. Krall believes that drafting & development of prospects is where the Reds need to concentrate their efforts. Right or wrong, that’s the direction the team is headed.
Watched NC a lot this year. He is a great hitter but I am always weary of the career years going into free agency. Happens way too much.
Hope he comes back but he was more attractive 2 years ago and Cincinnati won the Castellanos sweepstakes. Didn’t do that well in the short Pandemic season and also the end of this season. Some team is going to overpay for Nick and his offensive numbers will plummet unless he’s in a hitters park.