Nick Castellanos dissed his manager and got punished.
Not benched.
Not rested.
Punished.
Rob Thomson realigned his outfield defense late Monday in Miami, inserting Johan Rojas in center, pushing Brandon Marsh to left, pushing Max Kepler from left to right, and pulling Castellanos out of right field. Castellanos made an “inappropriate comment,” Thomson said.
“Spoke my mind,” Castellanos told The Inquirer about being held out of Tuesday’s lineup. “He said that I crossed a line. So my punishment is I’m not playing.”
Castellanos, who had hit a consistent .278 with seven home runs this season, had started 236 consecutive games. He is proud of his streak, and Thomson knows it.
“He loves to play. He loves to play every inning of every game,” the Phillies manager said.
Castellanos is sensitive and emotional. He’s also a Miami-area native, so he got benched in front of his home folks. This was the worst punishment for Castellanos, and Thomson knew it.
Good.
For all the folks who say Topper is too soft on his Phillies, consider this Exhibit A in his defense. Hopefully, it’s not the end of the evidence. This probably should happen more often.
Castellanos returned to the lineup Wednesday in Miami.
The Phillies proceeded to lose the game Tuesday, mostly because of poor pitching, but also because they made three baserunning errors. Baserunning errors have been as common with Thomson’s teams as home runs. It’s an epidemic, stemming from hubris and inattention. It costs runs. It is inexcusable.
Let’s see what Topper does the next time Rojas foolishly tries to take an extra base with the play right in front of him, as he did Tuesday. Let’s see what Topper does the next time Bryce Harper rounds first with his hair on fire and gets nailed by 10 feet at second.
Topper doesn’t always get this stuff right. He did on Tuesday. Maybe it’s a sign of things to come. Maybe it’s a sign of him maturing as a manager. He’s a baseball lifer, but it’s only his third full season as a manager, and he’s had a stable full of well-paid stars, Castellanos among them.
Guys get heated for all sorts of reasons, but there was no excuse for insubordination. Castellanos knew that he might be coming out. Thomson had told him.
» READ MORE: Phillies bench Nick Castellanos after ‘inappropriate comment’ during Monday’s game
Castellanos knew why he was coming out, too. He’s a god-awful defender, perhaps the worst in the game. His “fielding run value,” a metric that seeks to measure a player’s defensive ability against the league average, is minus-9, worst in all of baseball.
This, after he spent the last three seasons diligently working to improve his defense. And he has. Don’t forget, when the Phillies signed Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber before the 2022 season, they planned to split the designated hitter duties between them. But Harper got hurt and moved to first base, and Schwarber is even worse than Castellanos, so Casty plays outfield every day.
Badly. Frankly, replacing Castellanos late in games with a lead is a move Thomson should make more frequently.
Castellanos is an odd duck, but his teammates love and protect him, and they respect his grind. In an era of load management, which is an epidemic in basketball, Castellanos is an old-school ballplayer who, God bless him, believes that he is better than any alternative. He also believes that he has earned the right to play all the time. And he wants to help his team win, every day.
That does not give him the right to be disrespectful. It does not give him the right to be unprofessional. Castellanos was both when he reached the bench Monday night.
It was a moment of truth for Thomson. If Castellanos got away with it, Thomson would lose face in the eyes of his team. Who knows what Zack Wheeler would’ve said the next time Thomson pulled him off the mound in the sixth or seventh inning of a rough start. Perhaps more pointedly, who knows what Castellanos would say the next time Thomson pulls him for a defensive replacement.
A good manager gives his players rope. He lets them complain, as Wheeler has done often, if diplomatically. Castellanos just ran out of rope.
As fate would have it, Castellanos’ replacement in right field Tuesday, also Kepler, botched a fly ball in the sixth inning that cost the Phillies a run. Kepler said he lost it in the lights at clunky LoanDepot Park, where the retractable roof was closed. There’s no telling whether Castellanos would have had the same issue, but Kepler is an appreciably better fielder Castellanos; he’s just a minus-2.
The Phillies lost, 8-3. Rojas took Castellanos’ place in the lineup and went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Could the Phillies have used Castellanos’ offense? Probably. But they still had eight hits, had some loud outs, and got lousy pitching.
Whether Castellanos’ punishment cost the Phillies a win isn’t really the point. The point is, Thomson set a tone — perhaps he reset a tone, or enforced the tone that always existed — on a team with a half-dozen very highly paid players. To their credit, they are diligent, hardworking, focused, selfless, and extremely professional players.
Phillies sources say both as a group and with Castellanos individually, this behavior was an aberration. But it was so abhorrent that Thomson felt compelled to stand his ground. He sent a message. That message reverberates and applies not only to Thomson but also to his staff.
» READ MORE: From 2023: Nick Castellanos and the Phillies shake off ‘punch in the face’ to finish the Braves in the NLDS
Sure, the Phils could’ve used another hit or two, and maybe some power, which are the reasons Castellanos makes $20 million a year. The team is still without Harper, who is recovering from a chronic wrist issue.
Which underscores the necessity of benching Castellanos.
Thomson has a thick skin and a small ego. He hates to lose. In his mind, punishing Castellanos would bring a greater long-term benefit than allowing him to play after misbehaving.
The thing about the Castellanos situation is, no one had to know. Thomson made sure everyone knew. He sent the message. He asserted his authority.
It might have cost the Phillies a win, but Thomson did exactly the right thing, as he so often does.
Hopefully, this begins a trend of accountability.
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