{"id":123628,"date":"2025-09-06T06:11:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T06:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/123628\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T06:11:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T06:11:21","slug":"phillies-move-to-right-field-platoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/123628\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Move To Right Field Platoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phillies started\u00a0Max Kepler<\/a> in right field tonight against Marlins righty\u00a0Valente Bellozo<\/a>. That left\u00a0Nick Castellanos<\/a> on the bench for the third time in the past four games, all of which came with a right-hander on the mound.<\/p>\n

Manager Rob Thomson said Thursday that Kepler would pick up increased playing time against righties (link via Charlotte Varnes of The Athletic<\/a>). \u201cAt this point in the year, I\u2019m going to put out what I think is the best lineup on any given day to win a ballgame,\u201d Thomson said. \u201cThere\u2019s still a bit of a rotation, if you want to call it that. If you want to call it a platoon, doesn\u2019t matter to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That won\u2019t leave much playing time for the righty-hitting Castellanos. That\u2019s less about handedness and more a reflection of his numbers in the second half. Castellanos carries a .199\/.253\/.309 batting line since the All-Star Break. He had a sub-.600 OPS in both July and August. Kepler\u2019s season numbers are poor, but he\u2019s been the much better hitter in recent weeks. The lefty batter owns a .267\/.318\/.483 slash with a dramatically reduced 12.1% strikeout rate since the beginning of August. That doesn\u2019t include tonight\u2019s performance, in which he chipped in another two knocks and a home run.<\/p>\n

The Phils haven\u2019t wanted to give Kepler playing time against left-handed pitching all season. He\u2019s hitting .196\/.258\/.304 without the platoon advantage. Castellanos will continue to get at-bats against southpaws. The outfield against righty pitching will run Brandon Marsh<\/a>,\u00a0Harrison Bader<\/a> and Kepler from left to right. Castellanos obviously isn\u2019t going to take more than a scattered start at DH or first base from Kyle Schwarber<\/a> or\u00a0Bryce Harper<\/a>. He\u2019ll be relegated to a short-side platoon role barring an injury.<\/p>\n

Castellanos is in the fourth season of a five-year deal that pays him $20MM annually. The Phils signed Castellanos and Schwarber within days of one another coming out of the 2022 lockout. The Schwarber contract has been one of the best free agent pickups in recent memory. The Castellanos addition hasn\u2019t worked out nearly as well. He\u2019s been exceptionally durable and racked up counting stats (including a 29-homer season with 106 RBI in 2023). His rate metrics at the plate have been essentially league average, though, and he\u2019s one of the league\u2019s worst defensive outfielders. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference have each valued Castellanos around a cumulative one win above replacement over the past four seasons.<\/p>\n

Schwarber, Bader and Kepler are each impending free agents. The Phils could turn left field to former first-round pick\u00a0Justin Crawford<\/a> in 2026. It\u2019s tough to imagine they\u2019ll roll with Castellanos as an everyday right fielder next season. They\u2019re going to make an effort to bring Schwarber back at designated hitter. It stands to reason they\u2019ll try to find a trade partner willing to assume a small portion of Castellanos\u2019 salary, but his second-half numbers could leave them weighing an offseason release if they don\u2019t find a taker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phillies started\u00a0Max Kepler in right field tonight against Marlins righty\u00a0Valente Bellozo. That left\u00a0Nick Castellanos on the bench…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,13684,462,13306,82],"class_list":["post-123628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-max-kepler","tag-mlb","tag-nick-castellanos","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}