With one early-morning trade already in the books, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world this weekend:
1. Dodgers pitchers and catchers report:
29 out of 30 teams have already had their pitchers and catchers officially report for camp, and today the 30th and final team will have its first workout: the reigning World Series champion Dodgers. It’s a slightly different look in camp for L.A. than previous years. Future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw is not present following his retirement while star closer Edwin Diaz and outfielder Kyle Tucker will be suiting up in Dodger blue for the first time. As camp gets underway, a few notable moves have been made for the Dodgers on the positional side of things. The club brought Enrique Hernandez back on a one-year deal yesterday, and also worked out yet another short-term extension with veteran third baseman Max Muncy.
2. Where will Gallen land?
Earlier this week, the Orioles signed Chris Bassitt among a flurry of starting pitching signings that also saw veterans like Justin Verlander (Tigers) and Jose Quintana (Rockies) find their next club. That’s a notable move from Baltimore in part because the club was one of the teams that had been most clearly linked to Zac Gallen this offseason. With camps opening up around the league, Gallen remains unsigned and will need to find a team in a hurry if he doesn’t want to be behind when exhibition games begin later this month. He still makes sense for the Padres and Diamondbacks, though it’s unclear if either team can afford him at this point. The Braves, who recently lost Spencer Schwellenbach for an extended period due to bone spurs in his elbow, could also make sense but may not want to punt the draft pick and shell out the necessary dollars to bring him into the fold. It’s possible another spring injury could open a new door for Gallen, but there aren’t a lot of clean fits at the moment.
3. Will Castellanos find a new home?
The messy, months-long divorce between the Phillies and Nick Castellanos finally came to a close yesterday when Philadelphia officially released the veteran, making him a free agent eligible to sign with any interested club for the league minimum. Speculatively speaking, teams like the Padres, Guardians, and Royals could have a spot for him in their outfield/DH mixes, but Castellanos is coming off a down season at the plate and has long been a sub-par defender. Upon being released, he also opened up (to an extent) about his clash with manager Rob Thomson, admitting that after being lifted for a defensive replacement in Miami, he brought a beer into the dugout while the game was still going and began to air some grievances with his skipper before teammates intervened to calm him down. Will another club take a chance on Castellanos?
I would not have picked Gallen early on to be the last of the Mohicans.
I would have.
He was bad last year, both on the surface and under the hood, and he had the QO attached.
He definitely should have accepted. Then try for a better season and hit free agency with no pick attached
Gallen will be waaay overpriced for a mediocre piece.
Why not? Coming off career-low performance (89 ERA+) with less than stellar peripherals for a full season, Boras is his agent (with a blind eye to the first point), and QO attachment. Rumors are he’s not finding more than a 2-year offer seem to point that his ask is way too high and not willing to settle for a prove-it deal. Solid candidate for staying home in March.
“less than stellar peripherals”
The diplomatic type, eh?
“don’t @ me” is written between the lines.
That’s not very diplomatic 🙁
It’s quite obvious now, but I thought a team would see him as a bounce back candidate. Was wrong on Valdez too.
Pitcher market was weird this year.
His peripherals do not offer much reason to expect a massive rebound in 2026.
That, coupled with the QO and him seemingly expecting to get paid as if 2025 never happened, really put him in a tough spot.
Probably the same reason as Gallen: wants a multi-year deal and the market isn’t there. His market value is somewhere between Nick Martinez and Chris Bassett.
I agree, he is a solid vet and, despite being a fly ball pitcher, did decent in two hitter-friendly parks. He did give up a ton of home runs (I think he may have led the league or did at various points in the season), but it always seemed like solo home runs. I’m not sure if that is craftiness, luck, or a little bit of both.
Of the 26 HRs Littell gave up while a Ray, 8 were at Steinbrenner Field. CIncinnati was worse. He gave up 10 HR in 53 IP for the Reds, Eight of those ten were at Great American.
I think they’re done after signing Matz and Martinez. I wish they had signed Littell instead of Matz, or would still sign Littell and keep Matz in the bullpen. Littell is definitely built for the Trop.
Not worth having the biggest diva in baseball on your squad clashing with everyone
My idol growing up, I’m in the opposite camp. I think a surprise team will bring him into camp. While Castellanos is getting paid for 26, he needs to decide on whether he wants to continue playing. If so, hopefully this experience humbled him a bit. I do think with a fresh shot, he’s worth a chance.
We are not in on Castellanos .
We wish him the best and hope likes Korean beer.
I’m thinking its probably too late for overseas, but Mexico takes a few vets every year.
Going abroad doesn’t do much for him. He will make $20 million this season whether he plays or hangs in his back yard. If he wants to extend his career beyond this season, he needs to play in MLB and show he still has something. Riding the buses in Mexico is not going to get him a decent MLB contract in 2027 when he’ll be 35. If he can’t get a deal this spring, he’s probably better off hanging around and staying in shape to see if an an opening develops. If a guy like Stanton, Springer, Riley Greene, gets hurt, or if the Giants, Rays or a couple other team find themselves in contention, he might be a bat one would want to add.
Besides that incident, what has he done? Obviously with this management he couldn’t continue, but I haven’t heard of anything else, so not sure if that’s a widely known thing if it even is.
And for the league minimum? Yeah I think it’s worth it to have a professional bat on your bench.
What else has he done? He hits homers while announcers are giving eulogies for war heroes, interrupted the Phils Willie Mays tribute, cost Thom Brennamen his career by ruining his apology. The man is a menace.
Thom Brennaman only needs to look in the mirror as to who to blame for his career being flushed. I am sure Marty told him as much.
…lol
So are you saying that Castellanos and Rendon are 2 peas in a pod or too quote Mortal Kombat a menace II society lol
BS
The game was going on.
Thought it was his job to hit home runs. Should he call time out every time radio and tv announcers are telling stories or making on air confessions?
When he was in Detroit, he incessantly complained about the ballpark and how deep the outfield fences were. He just whined a lot about playing time but didn’t improve his defense at all.
I was wondering about the “improve his defense” part of his career. Some players have improved their defense at certain times of their careers. It can be done with work and discipline. At age 33, if Nick hasn’t made any moves to improve his D by now, it probably isn’t going to happen.
I loved the part of his goodbye note about removing him from a game in front of friends and family. Like, the manager’s supposed to care about these things?
Maybe the handwritten note on his IG post was insight into his interest in improving/lresenting himself.
Maybe Castellanos’ id tells himself:
“Why would I type this out like an adult? If I was going to give that kind of effort, I would have improved my play on the grass years ago.”
*poresenting*
Irony
Castallanos did improve his outfield defense starting in 2023. Contrary to “popular opinion”, his defense in rf, is only slightly below average. Most fans and baseball writers, are very poor at analyzing defensive ability. In the 4 years that the Phillies were in the playoffs, Nick C, was only replaced for defense late in games, a handful of times. D D, would have instructed Thompsom to use a defensive substitution, if his defense was as weak as many fans seem to believe!!
Lots of players complained about the OF dimensions in Detroit.
He was a doubles machine in Detroit.
Which is one of the issues Casty had in Philly – he actually objected to the Phillies pulling him for defensive replacements!
That means he is a gamer.
Verlander objected when Leyland came with the hook also.
It sounds like you’re using the eye test? I am not discounting old school scouting, but ignoring analytical data is imprudent.
A quick reference to his advance stats in recent years (his defensive metrics were worse in Det) show his best rating was in ‘23 at -3 for UZR.
He has had double digits negative rating in other years with Philly as far as UZR and DRS goes.
The lack of defensive replacements for him in late innings likely has more to do with game situation and the Philly roster lacking quality depth OF options.
Since the start of COVID he has a 107 OPS+ and he’s coming off a putrid 88 last season. It’s not realistic to think he has any value. He is a mediocre at best bat, and he cannot play defense at any position.
According to the Matt Gelb article other players weren’t happy with his attitude and wasnt a true team player, the only example i read was that he would play music at his locker to celebrate if he had a good game even if the Phillies lost. Maybe theres more examples, because that seems minor.
He also said some crap on Mookie Betts podcast about losing his love of the game playing a big market for a big contract.
I liked his firey attitude, he will be picked up especially if someone goes down in ST.
Any offensive player getting paid is a “professional” bat. Can you be more specific?
He as a bat, a declining bat for sure. As to being a professional, those days are over with. Last years head falling and running his point to the manager, to ownership, and social media ended that professionalism.
If I have a need for a Castellanos type, I’m licking my chops at the discount available for his services. Get him in camp and let him compete for a job. He absolutely can contribute league average at a minimum.
He used to be a doubles machine in Detroit.
What team has a need for a Castellanos type?
San Diego and Detroit
That was years ago. You pay for what they can do for you going forward. Looking in the rearview mirror gets a team no where.
Castallanos never had a problem with anyone other than Thompson. Nick C, was well liked in the Phillies clubhouse. Thomoson is a poor manager, and has never been accused of being smart, by anyone other than his mother!!
Jazz is the biggest diva.
Castellanos is one of the examples of what crap teams will put up with when they’ve already signed you to a long term deal and you’re highly productive. Once that production falls off though the bs just isn’t worth it anymore. The Cardinals are looking to add an outfield bat and maybe if he has a bounce back season they could flip him at the deadline but doubt it would net much and probably not worth exposing that attitude to a young team
He already signed with the Padres two days ago.
Gosh why is Gallen unsigned?????
Oh yeah, his agent.
well, that and the fact that he had an 89 ERA+ last season. That kind of poor season usually says $15m for a one season prove it deal. Kind of surprising to me that he turned down the Qualifying Offer. Now his value is further suppressed with the loss of a draft pick.
That $21M QO is looking pretty good about now… whoops
Bad decision making driven by a greedy agent.
Boras generally does very well for his clients, doesn’t he?
Ask Montgomery.
Well it’s hard to bowl a 300 every game.
In the majority of cases, Boras does quite well for his clients. Every now and then, the market isn’t there and Boras/the client misreads the situation. In the Gallen case, the QO and the mediocre contract year hit the weird pitching market and flopped.
I’m very happy that the Orioles went with Bassitt over Gallen.
Gallen wasn’t good last season and he has the QO attached to him. Dude should have taken that offer…
Yeah, he probably should have.
Now it seems he has to hope for an injury that causes someone to get desperate.
At worst case, he’ll be a target after the QO compensation expires (All-Star Break, IIRC).
On paper, the Cubs have a lot of SP depth, but Cabrera is an injury risk, Imanaga fell off a decent amount last year, Horton’s only in his second season and will likely need more stretching out, Steele’s coming off of elbow surgery and his return is still slated for sometime in the first half of the season and I don’t know how much you want to rely on Boyd. They still have Taillon and Rea but again, more depth in Gallen wouldn’t be the worst thing ever and I’d have to think his price has fallen, even if only slightly.
Nice picture: who dat they win something or just playing paintball
One beer is what loosened Casty’s lips?
Liquid courage.
Lightweight.
Apparently the beer was taken out of his hands before he took a sip. I think Castellanos said Howie Kendrick took the beer.
Why wouldn’t a team like the Pirates offer Gallen a 2 or 3 year deal for $13M AAV with an opt out after each year? It’s obviously not what he wants but he could give him a kind of prove it deal.
He won’t take that. He’d have been better off taking the qualifying offer.
Oh he absolutely should have taken the qualifying offer. His agent or whoever is influencing his decision screwed him over. I just don’t think he’s in a position to command much more than that. But we’ll see.
“I get belligerent when I drink.”
Uh, you might want to keep that to yourself until you’ve signed on the dotted line with a new team, Nick.
He should have waited for Festivus
“And now we move on to the feats of strength!”
I think Castellanos would’ve belabored the “airing of grievances” a bit much.
I’d love to see the Jays add Gallen on a 2 or 3 year deal. They already have some question marks in the 2026 rotation and he would raise the floor for 2027 when at least 2 starters become free agents. Bieber is already hurt, Ponce is an unknown, Yesevage is still a rookie who hasn’t pitched much more than 100 innings in a season yet and Berrios.
You forgot about Gausman becoming a free agent at the end of the 2026 season supposedly Toronto has 80 million coming off the books next year ( Varsho , Springer , Gausman and some others players as well IMO they should get rid of Santander’s contract as well so far that’s been a big signing mistake by Toronto I kind of think about Giancarlo Stanton when he signed with the Yankees he was often injured too ( traded by the Marlin’s to the Yankees)
I did not, I said at least 2 starters become free agents. I was referencing Gausman and Bieber. Berrios has an opt out which he most likely will not use.
2027 as of now is Cease, Yesevage, Berrios and Ponce
No one is taking that Santander contract unless we pay the entire thing
Have fun just maintaining the status quo with that $80MM. Its not like those leaving were bad signings. It will likely cost more than that to resign them and hope they don’t regress too much.
Happy (College) Opening Day! Here is Pipeline’s top prospect list: mlb.com/milb/prospects/draft/
It’s nice to see that (as I fully expected) Orioles OF Nate George made the list. He’s looking like a potential HEIST as an overslot 16th rounder.
I thought SPs Esteban Mejia and Trey Gibson might also make the list, but I guess they may have to wait until a bunch of guys graduate early in the season.
Except the college season needs to end before the draft
Is Castellanos even worth the league minimum though?
Sure, because teams are only on the hook for the time he spends on their roster. They can cut him any time and owe him nothing for the rest of the season. Main question is whether he’s worth a roster spot.
I am wondering if he is worth a roster spot at this point. Maybe an injury opens up a spot for him on a club.
It is really difficult to imagine a full time opportunity surfacing. I think he will ultimately need to embrace a bench role with the opportunity to earn more regular playing time based on performance.
Castellanos is strictly a DH now. He could possibly be an emergency RFer with zero range but he makes the plays he gets to.
As a hitter, he’s been about average for a few years now. Slightly less last year. But he’s healthy… he has some power… he has a little bit of speed.
If he played a full season… you could expect 20 homers and 80 RBI. Not terrible. Lifetime, he kills left handed pitching, not last year though.
Someone with a DH spot open should take a chance with him. Change of scenery, hitters park, no bright lights, maybe he puts up some good numbers and builds some equity in himself. He could be working for a pay check in 2027. He’s almost 34, so time is running out. Marcel Ozuna is a year older and got $10.5 M for a season. If Castellanos can have a solid season, he could cash that in for 2027.
Colorado? Arizona? Minnesota? Heck, St. Louis could use a guy they could flip at the deadline.
speed??????? have you ever seen him play? JTR almost passed him on the bases
Oh.
Baseball Savant has his sprint speed at a tick above average for 2025, believe it or not.
He can still play rf.
Maybe he’ll just take a vacation until June and sign then so there’s no draft pick compensation. Didn’t someone else do that a couple years back?
The Dodgers apparently … DEFERRED the start of their spring training. 😀
What about Lucas Giolito, is he injured?
If not now, then soon.
Honestly haven’t seen any reports on how the season-ending injury played out. He’ll end up somewhere. I think I picked KC in the contest… which means he’s not going to KC.
The Castellanos article in The Atlantic is kind of a sad read. Not quite a star, not a coachable player, not a complete player, it’s kind of an object lesson of what not to do…but it’s still kind of sad. Fame, crazy amounts of money, chances of playing the game on the biggest stage, and he could never quite get comfortable or happy.
Hit piece?!
Rockies DH.
He bought Ben Simmons old house. The bad mojo was included
You still in that trailer in Burlington?
Seems like Zac is a candidate for a 1-year prove it contract, but no one wants to give up the draft pick for one year of him coming off a sub par season. The Dbacks need SP and can sign him to a 1-year deal without giving up the pick, but appear to be operating on a limited budget in ’26. Further, the Dbacks may have witnessed first hand some real deterioration last year. I dont think Zac would accept an offer he considers insulting and I dont think the Dbacks have a spare $15M’ish to offer him. All this is a long winded way to say, it appears Zac is in a bit of a pickle.
Nick to the Yankees.
But…why?
Then fans can argue about who is the defensive replacement, Castellanos, or Dominguez!
It’s Stanton obviously XD
Castellanos may be a “change of scenery” candidate primed for a
“big breakout/rebound season.
Padres? Tigers? Marlins? Rockies?
White Sox? Angels? Cardinals? Twins?
Some team should take a flyer on him.
He came up as a 3rd baseman for the Tigers. He skipped college and turned pro right out of HS, which could explain “maturity issues””
My opinion, The Phillies set him up for defensive failure by putting him in RF. Castellanos should have been playing LF/DH/1B.
Castellanos had some big hits for the Phillies in multiple pennant races and multiple playoff series etc…
And, often I would see Castellanos making “highlight reel” game saving plays in RF and clutch hits that othrr big name Phillies were not making in big games(with the exception of Schwarber).
Go look at the highlight reels for this player.
For the most part. Castellanos busted his butt for the Phillies.
Those who only study the stats and don’t look at his offensive and defensive highlight reels may get the wrong impression of Castellanos.
But,Castellanos became an easy scapegoat in the Philly press for the failure of more big name Phillies players who did not step up offensively (choking in key playoffs and World Series moments).
Phillies Media could not call out some of the big name expensive Philies for choking in the playoffs and WS, so Castellanos became the Phillies Media and fans “punching bag”. This isca town that booed Santa Claus.
The team did not adequately back Castellanos, give him extra help on defense, played him in RF that did not suit his skills and put better defensive players in the less challenging position of LF etc?!
Finally, Castellanos got fed up,had a blowout with his Manager and now he is gone?!
Castellanos was a salvageable situation in Phillie. But Management and coaching did not communicate with the player, respect him, defend him in the press, played him out of position in RF instead of less demanding LF/DH, work with him more on Defense etc…
Did the Phillies give Castellanos a chance to play LF, DH or 1B on a rotational basis?! NO.
It all “boiled over” when the team did not adequately communicate with the player over an extended period.
I agree 100% with everything you said other than Nick not being able to play rf. When he first signed with the Phillies in 2022, his outfield defense, wasn’t good. It took him until midway through the 2023 season, when a pretty fair improvement was made ( most fans aren’t astute enough to recognize). Range, is Castallanos biggest weakness. When he gets to a ball, he almost always catches it. He looks awkward when catching the ball sometimes, but usually “gets the job done”!!
Smart POBOs/GMs everywhere are now assessing player talent by watching highlight reels. It’s the latest craze. Who cares about those irrelevant stats?
See the Clint Eastwood movie “Trouble with the curve”.
Some stats obssessed “keyboard” scouts drafted a “phenom” “can’t miss” player without scouting him adequately.
The “old school ” scout actually watched the prospects play live and advised against the conventional wisdom.
(Clint Eastwood)
Turns out he was right and the keyboard stats fanatic cost his team millions in wasted bonus money and a roster spot.
AND HE WAS FIRED BY THE TEAM.
Casty was actually signed to be a LF in 2022 (Schwarber as DH). Things went downhill quickly when Harper went down with the UCL tear, and Casty was the best RF option.
I would disagree about suggesting that Casty was unfairly criticized by fans. He hasn’t performed to an expected level. He’s very streaky, and his poor streaks outnumber his hot streaks. He had a .732 OPS in a hitter’s ballpark. That’s not what the Phillies needed from him.
SportsFan
Thank you for your input Mrs.Castellanos, we’ll take it under advisement. 🤣
That all you got?!
Lame response
Then I guess I’ll just have to keep trying, Mary. 🤣
King Floch, Phillies already had DH covered by an exceptional hitter. No way would the play him there with Kyle Schwarbef’s bat.
Then. LF or don’t sign him in the firstplace.
They had Marsh and others who could have played RF and Castellanis play LF.
Another team will be glad to have Nick Castellanos, provided the team’s manager isn’t the kind of short-sighted refugee from a personality farm who would end a veteran player’s long consecutive game streak for no good reason, and the new organization isn’t a chapter of the Alfred E Newman Fan Club that would pay someone $20 million not to play so they could pay an additional $10 million for a replacement who’s not as good as the guy they’re replacing.
The ironies here are that Thomson ended Castellanos’ consecutive game streak so he could play Kepler who has since been suspended by MLB for PED use, not one general manager came to Dave Dombrowski’s aid with an offer to take Castellanos during a time when Dombrowski needed to save face and could have used a friend, and some lucky team will now be gifted a player for minimum wage who, under other circumstances, would have easily commanded $10 million as a free agent. All this will shower upon the Phillies the ignominy they richly deserve and further dissuade top-shelf ball players from ever joining the team.
Did the Phillies really believe the time would never come when a hard-working and proud veteran player would not decompensate when having his bragging rights to a long consecutive game streak unnecessarily ended while one teammate was being paid $27 million a year in perpetuity to underperform but still model and endorse footwear, designer elbow wraps and headbands, another teammate was about to be paid $30 million a year to hit four times a game, take batting practice between innings, and pick splinters out of his rear-end for all the time he sat on the bench, and yet other teammates were never called out for their mediocrity or inability to win important ball games?
The Phillies made the mistake of pointing a finger at a good player and trying to make an example out of him. It seemed like no one in the Newman Fan Club ever learned that when you point one finger at someone, you’re pointing three at yourself.
Good luck, Mr. Castellanos. A lot of longtime Phillies fans will be rooting for you. I know I will.
Gallen to Angels, book it…
Nick should sign with Florida or Washington. Maybe offer a little payback to Philly for bad mouthing him and dumping tim