Take Nick Castellanos’ name, track record and contract away, and there’s a reasonable chance the right fielder wouldn’t have made the Phillies’ NLDS roster.
There’s also a reasonable chance the Phillies would be down 1-0 to the Braves.
Castellanos’ production — or, rather, lack thereof — didn’t exactly instill much confidence leading into the week. He went 0-for-7 in the Wild Card Series against the Cardinals, not exactly an aberration from the .263/.305/.389 slash line and career-worst .694 OPS he posted in the regular season. Not to mention, he’d been a negative defensively all year — negative-11, specifically, in terms of outs above average.
But none of that matters anymore. If lineup decisions and roster management are political, well, good thing they are.
Sure enough, Castellanos, perhaps for any of the three reasons mentioned above, found his name in his usual No. 5 slot in the lineup on Tuesday. Fast forward a few hours, and Castellanos had driven in three of seven Phillies runs, made possibly a game-saving catch in right and served a vital role in a Game 1 win that would not have come without him.
“That,” the oft-straightforward Rob Thomson said postgame, “was a great game for him.”
Thomson might deserve some credit, particularly for the defense. Not only could he justifiably have chosen to keep Castellanos out of the starting lineup on Tuesday; he also — more than justifiably — could have swapped Castellanos for Dalton Guthrie as a defensive substitution for that final inning.
Chatter surrounding that non-decision surfaced when Dansby Swanson lined a ball over Castellanos’ head to put the tying run on deck with nobody out (though, as Thomson said, Guthrie might not have caught that ball either). The chatter silenced when Castellanos kept the tying run off the base paths after the lead had whittled down to a run, putting Zach Eflin and the Phillies an out away from stealing Game 1 in Atlanta.
Come Game 2, Castellanos will be hitting fifth again, playing right field, and — at least for a day — no one will bat an eye.
“It’s kind of just a fresh start, a clean slate, so to speak,” Castellanos said after the game about the postseason. “And obviously these games are really intense. For me, that helps me lock in and kind of slowed things down. It’s just a lot of fun. Baseball is really, really fun right now.”
Castellanos came to Philadelphia this offseason in part because — as he put it — “I’ve made money, I’ve hit homers, I’ve played on TV, but I haven’t won any games that matter.” His first three career postseason wins have come as a Phillie. He lost the Wild Card Round as a Cincinnati Red in 2020 and got swept in the ALDS as a Detroit Tiger in 2014, his first full season in the big leagues. He went a combined 4-for-20 with a double and a homer in those series.
Despite that limited postseason experience, it’s still more than every other starter in the Phillies’ Game 1 lineup outside of Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. Maybe, in a weird way, the drama and spotlight of the postseason was exactly what Castellanos needed to become something near the version of himself that the Phillies exceeded the luxury tax for back in March.
“The air is different, the atmosphere is different,” Castellanos said. “And those are all things that I really enjoy.”
Besides, as Harper pointed out: “He played a way bigger game when we were 18 years old with USA Baseball.”
It’s funny what October can do to a player’s reputation. When postseason baseball returns to Citizens Bank Park on Friday, Castellanos’ likely reception will make it hard to imagine that he might have been the most booed Phillie (at home) over the course of the regular season.
Maybe that’s part of what was going through his head when he laid on his back, his arms and legs outstretched in full starfish mode in right field after making that sliding catch in the bottom of the ninth.
Or maybe he was just really happy the baseball landed in his glove without hitting the ground.
Actually, knowing Castellanos, it was probably that.
“Just looking, like, thank God I caught that ball,” Castellanos said. “They obviously had a big point in the game right there, with putting them within one. So to be able to catch that and have two outs and nobody on base, I mean, was huge.”
So now, it’s on to Game 2. The right-fielder himself said he has a “short-term memory,” that he felt great, that that’s his only focus for now, along with getting ready for tomorrow and hoping to feel great tomorrow and doing whatever he can to help the team win tomorrow — you know, all the clichés.
Fine. Whatever works. Phillies fans — and Thomson — will let themselves think a little bigger.
“Maybe he’s really getting his timing back now,” Thomson said. “I hope that’s the start of something.”
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