{"id":422065,"date":"2026-01-20T19:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T19:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/422065\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T19:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T19:53:10","slug":"nick-castellanos-not-expected-to-return-to-phillies-what-are-his-top-trade-landing-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/422065\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Castellanos Not Expected to Return to Phillies, What Are His Top Trade Landing Spots?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Phillies still aren’t expecting Nick Castellanos to return next season, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski confirmed to reporters Tuesday (h\/t Crossing Broad’s Luke Arcaini<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Castellanos is currently signed through 2026 and set to earn $20 million next season, per Spotrac<\/a>. The Phillies have been expected since the end of the 2025 campaign to either trade or release him this offseason, per The Athletic’s Matt Gelb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Phillies will likely need to eat some of Castellanos’ salary in order to facilitate a trade for the veteran right-fielder. <\/p>\n

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale<\/a> posited last week the Phillies would have to take on at least $17 million to move the remainder of Castellanos’ contract.<\/p>\n

In that case, Nightengale named the San Diego Padres as a potential fit after the club missed out on Nolan Arenado.<\/p>\n

Castellanos played multiple seasons earlier in his career for both the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers and could potentially eye a reunion with either team should he split with Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The Chicago White Sox have recently been tied to free agent outfielder Michael Conforto by the New York Post’s Jon Heyman<\/a>, and could potentially consider pivoting to Castellanos depend on how much money the Phillies take on to shop him.<\/p>\n

The Phillies could potentially model salary retainment for Castellanos off the St. Louis Cardinals’ recent trade of Arenado.<\/p>\n

The Arizona Diamondbacks acquired Arenado from the Cardinals, in exchange for right-handed pitching prospect Jack Martinez, after the Cardinals agreed to take on the majority of Arenado’s remaining salary.<\/p>\n

Arenado was owed $42 million over two seasons, and the Cardinals are paying $31 million to the D-Backs as part of the deal, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That will leave the Diamondbacks paying $5 million in 2026 and $6 million in 2027 to have Arenado on the roster, per Spotrac<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal<\/a> reported that the Padres had been interested in acquiring Arenado, but that San Diego was “unwilling” to take on the remaining $11 million on his contract.<\/p>\n

The Athletics were also interested in trading for Arenado, and would have been willing to take on more salary in the deal than the D-Backs, per Rosenthal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arenado had a no-trade clause on his contract, however, and Rosenthal reported he “indicated he would not necessarily approve a trade to the A’s.”<\/p>\n

The A’s apparent willingness to take on money could make them another potential fit for Castellanos.<\/p>\n

Castellanos slashed .250\/.294\/.400 last season with 17 home runs and 72 RBI in 147 games for the Phillies.<\/p>\n

His defense suffered in right field as he recorded minus-12 outs above average in 2025, per Baseball Savant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Phillies already have Castellanos’ replacement in right fielder Adolis Garc\u00eda, who signed with the club in December, and the DH spot is occupied by Kyle Schwarber.<\/p>\n

A team with a hole at DH could consider exclusively bringing him in for his offensive contributions, especially if the Phillies make his remaining salary a more affordable prospect.<\/p>\n

The Phillies have just over a month left to find a new spot for Castellanos before the club opens Grapefruit League play on Feb. 21 in Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Phillies still aren’t expecting Nick Castellanos to return next season, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-422065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422065","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=422065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}