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Phillies move struggling Nick Castellanos to eighth in lineup

You didn’t have to do too much detective work when listening to Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson after Friday night’s loss to the Miami Marlins to determine that he was planning to move a struggling Nick Castellanos down in the lineup.

However, seeing Castellanos — the best hitter on the Phillies for much of the first half of the season — penciled into the No. 8 spot in the lineup for Saturday’s evening’s game was still a bit jarring.

That Alec Bohm has replaced Castellanos as the cleanup hitter — at least for the time being — isn’t especially surprising. When Thomson declined to comment on whether he had considered moving Castellanos down in the lineup Friday night, it seemed pretty likely Bohm would hit fourth Saturday. After all, he’s been a machine hitting with runners in scoring position this season, as evidenced by his .359 batting average in said situations.

The real surprise comes in the fact that Castellanos didn’t just flip with Bohm and go to the six spot. Instead, he’s eighth, with J.T. Realmuto sliding up to sixth. It’s not quite Joe Torre — a mentor of Thomson — having Alex Rodriguez hit eighth in the 2006 playoffs, but it’s still pretty surprising to see for a player who represented the Phillies in the All-Star Game less than two months ago.

So why all the way to eighth, rather than sixth?

“Just to balance the lineup out,” Thomson said Saturday afternoon in the Phillies dugout. “So we’re going left/right all the way down through [the lineup]. I did it a few different ways and I was creating some pockets the other ways we would do it.”

Castellanos wasn’t present in the Phillies clubhouse during pregame media access Saturday, but many players are in and out or altogether absent and doing something at another part of the park during that time.

While likely frustrated, Thomson said that Castellanos handled the situation respectfully when informed of the decision after Friday night’s loss.

“Totally professional,” Thomson said of Castellanos’ response. “I’m sure he’s not exactly happy, and I don’t blame him for that. But he’s an experienced guy, and for the most part, he’s been our most consistent hitter — especially in the first half.”

Nick Castellanos has struggled of late. (Don Otto/PhilliesNation)

Since the All-Star Break, though, Castellanos is slashing .214/.241/.381 with a .622 OPS in 210 at-bats. Mind you, this was a player who slashed .301/.344/.496 with an .840 OPS in 345 first-half at-bats, earning his All-Star nod.

Thomson doesn’t believe that Castellanos looks tired, which is why he’s still in the lineup, as opposed to getting a day or two off. But there is a belief that he has once again gotten off kilter mechanically, which is leading to him chasing pitches outside the zone at a high clip.

Quietly, Castellanos O-Swing% — a metric used to track the percentage of pitches a batter swings at outside the strike zone — has crept up to 43.7%. That’s slightly above the career-high 43.6% Castellanos posted last year. When the Phillies signed Castellanos to a five-year/$100 million deal prior to last season, they didn’t believe they were signing a player who would lead the league in pitches seen per plate appearance. But there’s a drastic difference in chasing pitches out of the zone 38% of the time, as opposed to the 43% clip he’s at right now.

There is also a reality here that no matter how much Castellanos may be struggling, a bad team wouldn’t be able to move him down to eighth. Heck, the Phillies played in the World Series last year and didn’t have him hit that low in the lineup, even during what was a nightmarish offensive season from a personal standpoint.

But they didn’t have Trea Turner last season. Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott are all better players — probably by a significant margin –than they were last season. So while Castellanos’ recent performance is the driving factor behind this decision, that he’s been moved so far down by Thomson is partially a credit to how deep the Phillies lineup is. If Turner stays this hot and Castellanos rediscovers the form he showed in the first half of the season, the Phillies will be a tough out in October.

And there is a belief that Castellanos — as steady of a worker as there is on the Phillies — will heat up again before the 2023 season is out.

“But you know the one thing about Casty, he posts every day,” Thomson said emphatically. “And he never complains, ever. He’s a pro.”