Last week, the Philadelphia Phillies and Nick Castellanos butted heads after manager Rob Thomson pulled the right fielder late in a game for defense. It ruffled Castellanos' feathers, and led to a one-game benching thanks to an inappropriate comment.
The brief fiasco would have been disastrous for some teams and for some players, and would have backfired in the most spectacular fashion. But Castellanos showed just how level-headed he is with a level of professionalism you'd expect from the Phillies' clubhouse.
Instead of sulking or pouting or making a public spectacle of it all, the veteran did the best thing he could do. According to Lochlahn March of The Philadelphia Inquirer, he asked the Phillies to provide defensive reports (subscription required). Castellanos wants to understand the metrics they look at, and, hopefully, improve.
Nick Castellanos has asked the Phillies to provide him with a packet of his defensive metrics after each series, so he can start to understand them better.
— Lochlahn March (@lochlahn) June 19, 2025
He talked today on evaluating his defense and his relationship with Rob Thomson: https://t.co/vYWuRr0wjh
Nick Castellanos might not like what he sees in advanced defensive reports from the Phillies
Of course, Castellanos made a game-saving catch to end the next game after serving his one-game punishment. But that doesn't mean he's a defensive analytics darling. Using the eye-test, Castellanos is a consistent defender who makes the plays he can make, and makes the catches on the balls he can get to. You don't play 414 consecutive errorless games accidentally.
We don't know what information and data the Phillies look at, but there's plenty of publicly available data from Statcast. Castellanos has limitations as a defender and doesn't rank well in these advanced metrics.
In fielding run value (FRV), Statcast's "overall metric for capturing a player’s measurable defensive performance" in which 0 is league average, Castellanos ranks last in the majors among qualified right fielders. In fact, his -9 FRV is the worst rating in the majors among every defensive player. His -7 outs above average (OAA), which measures range, is the worst among right fielders.
One of the components in the defensive metrics is an outfielder's "jump," which measures the first three seconds of a player's movement in the correct direction toward the ball. Castellanos' jump grades out at -1.3 (where 0 is league average). The three components include the initial reaction to the ball, which he is above average at 0.7, the burst (-1.7) and the route (-0.3).
For reference, here's how the Phillies' other outfielders grade out in these advanced metrics, with the rank in parentheses. Note: FRV is ranked out of 323 MLB fielders, OAA is ranked out of 110 outfielders, and jump is ranked out of 88 outfielders.
Player | FRV | OAA | Jump |
|---|---|---|---|
Nick Castellanos | -9 (323rd) | -7 (108th) | -1.3 (80th) |
Johan Rojas | 3 (57th) | 4 (17th) | 3.8 (4th) |
Brandon Marsh | -1 (220th) | -3 (90th) | -0.2 (54th) |
Max Kepler | -2 (249th) | -1 (66th) | -0.7 (65th) |
You can see that while Johan Rojas is an above-average defender, Brandon Marsh and Max Kepler both grade out as slightly below average. That doesn't make them bad fielders, just not as good as others around the league.
As for Castellanos, kudos to him for wanting to improve his defense, but he's 33 and isn't getting any faster. Based on how these metrics are measured, Rojas will always be a better defender, so Thomson will likely continue to make defensive substitutions when the game warrants.
At least Castellanos cares enough to try.