For Phillies' Nick Castellanos, comfort is measured in deep thoughts and an All-Star bid (2024)

PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies called a team meeting Sunday for noon ET, and that’s when Nick Castellanos learned he was an All-Star for the second time in his career. His teammates and coaches saluted him. Then, as he does before every game this season, he took a walk to right field with Paco Figueroa.

No one associated with the Phillies talks more with Castellanos than Figueroa, the first-base coach who is in charge of the outfielders. They’re both Miami natives, separated by almost a decade in age. They have bonded.

“We always talk about aging like a fine wine,” Figueroa said. “People get to 10 years (in the majors) and start declining. He says he wants to keep going higher and higher and higher. And you know what? The mind is very powerful.”

The mind led Castellanos to a dark place in 2022. He was upset his hometown Miami Marlins did not sign him. He felt validated when the Phillies offered $100 million to employ him, but he was never comfortable. His mind wandered. His performance suffered. He did not feel like he belonged here — not until the magical postseason run that rendered everything moot that came before it.

So, a clean slate is also empowering. The mind is not the sole reason why Castellanos is better in 2023. But Figueroa, like most people around the Phillies, has come to love life with Castellanos. He is a consistent human — on and off the field. He is a deep thinker who, now, is not afraid to share his nuggets of wisdom.

These Nick-isms have infiltrated every corner of the clubhouse. It’s the purest sign of Castellanos’ comfort.

“It has everything to do with my success,” said Castellanos, 31. “Last year, I wasn’t comfortable or relaxed in any part of my surroundings. Building relationships with all my coworkers, the city, the media. I didn’t really have a grasp on all of it. I’m somebody that everything is connected, right? So if I don’t have peace in any of those relationships, I’m not going to have it in the box.”

Earlier this season, Matt Strahm overheard Castellanos talking about his swing. The lefty reliever had faced Castellanos years ago when they were opponents in the American League Central. Strahm laughed.

“I turned to him,” Strahm said, “and said, ‘Nick, when have you ever had a swing?’ He literally sat there and did his Nick thing of thinking. He didn’t say anything for like 45 seconds. He’s like, ‘Yeah. You’re right. I guess I just see the ball and hit the ball.’ Exactly. Just keep doing that.”

The first at-bat Castellanos took Sunday was emblematic of his resurgence. He whiffed at a first-pitch curveball at the bottom of the strike zone. But he took the next three pitches, all down and away, for balls. He did not bite on the type of slider that tormented him all of 2022. He took a fastball on the edge of the zone for strike two. A good pitch, but not one that he could damage.

Then, he saw a 3-2 hanging curve that was a little inside. He turned on it for a 380-foot homer to left field. Later, in the seventh inning, he whipped a run-scoring double down the third-base line. The Phillies still lost 5-4, dropping the series to the Nationals.

He is hitting .316/.358/.516 this season. “He’s been our most consistent hitter all year long,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “He deserves it. I’m really proud of him.” Castellanos was an All-Star in 2021 and he was elected this time in the player ballot. He will reach 10 years of big-league service time later this summer and, after the doubts created last season, he is showing his game can age well.

“I think it’s a little bit of me being a control freak,” Castellanos said. “I analyze a lot of things. You know? It’s kind of hard for me to turn my mind off and just, ‘Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?’ Sometimes, I feel like I can come up with the right answer if I have enough time. And then it’s just applying that each and every day to last as long as you can in this game. It’s going to weed you out eventually. You know?”

Garrett Stubbs, the backup catcher, thought about it for 30 seconds. The best Nick-ism? There is only one answer.

“I think,” Stubbs said, “his favorite word is ‘Why.’ You could say the simplest of statements, but his response is most likely going to be, ‘Why?’”

Back in spring training, Figueroa had a discussion with all of his outfielders. They talked about communication at the wall. “Because,” Figueroa said, “some people like to say, ‘Wall! Wall! Wall!’ Some people like to say it softer.” He wanted each of his outfielders to make it clear what they preferred — whatever would not distract them from catching the ball.

“This is so Nick,” Figueroa said. “He’s there the whole time, quiet. He’s thinking. And he goes like this: ‘You know what, guys? It’s like a stoplight. So you have green and the stoplight turns yellow and then it goes red. It doesn’t go green to RED!'”

So, everyone knew where Castellanos stood. Figueroa smiled.

“And,” he said, “it’s a great analogy!”

The Phillies discovered this last season: It’s important for Castellanos to feel like someone is listening. It might sound weird — and weird is not something always embraced inside big-league clubhouses — but Castellanos uses his thoughtful rants tofeel in control.

“You could ask him the most simple question and you get the most thorough answer,” Bryson Stott said. “Anytime you ask him anything, it’s kind of funny just to listen to him rant on. Then, three minutes later, you’re like, ‘All right. I didn’t even think about that part of it.’”

Strahm, who is playing for his fourth club, sympathized with Castellanos’ prolonged adjustment. Strahm has opinions. He’s louder than Castellanos, although Castellanos is the only one in the clubhouse who carries around a small speaker to play his personal soundtrack no matter where he is — the cage, his locker, the shower. He didn’t do that last season.

“It’s comfort,” Strahm said. “You come into a new clubhouse and 25 guys are looking at you like you have a third eye. It just takes some time to settle in. Especially when you have a personality like him. You don’t know if he’s joking. But once you get to know, more than likely, it’s always joking. That’s a big part to do with his season.”

After Thomson broke the news to the clubhouse Sunday afternoon that Castellanos was the team’s lone All-Star, a line formed to congratulate him. Normal stuff. But this meant more to Castellanos.

“It was really cool to see how happy everybody else was for me — coaching staff, my teammates,” Castellanos said. “All the embraces, it’s something that meant a lot.”

Castellanos has appreciated a veteran coaching staff sticking with him. It’s a lot. A conversation with Castellanos is intense and confusing but often rewarding. Castellanos, who proclaimed his lack of a college degree but his affinity for hitting baseballs when he signed with the Phillies, has a singular style that is welcomed.

“He’s like a deep thinker but not a deep thinker,” Stott said. “It’s great, though. It’s funny.”

The seminal moment of Castellanos’ Phillies career is a lazy fly to right field. Castellanos caught the 27th out of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series and raised his arms to the sky to celebrate the pennant. He didn’t move from the spot for a few seconds because he said he wanted to experience the moment through the eyes of everyone else around him.

“Nick’s a guy that knows his surroundings really well,” Figueroa said. “He’s aware of that. But he embraces it big-time. He loves it.”

It’s why Castellanos, in the wake of Rhys Hoskins’ season-ending injury, told people around the Phillies that he needed to step into a spokesman’s role for the team. He felt as if it was his duty. At the beginning of the season, he wrote a small “17” — Hoskins’ number — in gold ink on his Phillies cap.

On Sunday, a few hours before he learned he was an All-Star, Castellanos consoled an irritated Kody Clemens, who had just been demoted to Triple A to make room for Darick Hall. Castellanos listened to Clemens, then shared some of his wisdom. They hugged.

A month or two ago, when the Phillies were going bad, someone heard the criticism spewing from NBC Sports Philadelphia’s postgame show. Castellanos sprang into action.

“He put it louder so everyone could hear it,” Figueroa said. “He’s that kind of guy. ‘Let’s hear them. They’re talking s— about us. Let’s hear it.’ Other people would turn that s— off. But that’s Nick. He’s like that.”

He likes that control. “I go about baseball the same way I go in every aspect of my life,” Castellanos said. He’s played more games in 2023 with an unbuttoned uniform top. It’s not perfect. But Castellanos is doing it his way, and the Phillies are happy to listen to some deep thoughts after long, awkward pauses. It is working.

“Going from last year, which was his worst year maybe, to be an All-Star?” Figueroa said. “That’s really cool. You know what I mean? I’m proud of him. Because I know last year was hard on him.”

(Top photo: Rich Graessle / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Matt Gelb is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Philadelphia Phillies. He has covered the team since 2010 while at The Philadelphia Inquirer, including a yearlong pause from baseball as a reporter on the city desk. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and Central Bucks High School West.