The Philadelphia Phillies have a star-studded, well-paid roster, but not all of their assets have been a positive return on investment.
A once-in-a-generation talent like Bryce Harper is actually underpaid at 13 years/$330 million (savvy move by Phillies GM Dave Dombrowski), and on the other side of the coin is Nick Castellanos’s contract, which has the right fielder earning only a few million dollars less than Harper this season, amazingly.
Castellanos’s .249/ .305/ .420 slash line (16 homers) this season isn’t terrible, but it’s also costing the Phillies $20 million (kind of terrible).
According to a new report from Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller, Castellanos is one of the two most overpaid right fielders in Major League Baseball. In the article released Sunday entitled, “Introducing MLB’s 2024 All-Overpaid Team”, Miller named Castellanos as the runner-up to Kris Bryant of the Colorado Rockies for the unfortunate title of most overpaid right-fielder in the league.
“Castellanos has at least drastically turned things around after a horrific start to the year,” Miller said. “In addition to his permanently subpar defense in right, he had a sub-.500 OPS 35 games into the season. Dating back to May 6, he has an OPS slightly north of .800.”
“However, he has needed that solid three-month run at the dish just to scratch and claw his way back up to replacement-level production.”
Castellanos signed a five-year, $100 million deal with Philadelphia in 2022 that has him locked up at $20M per season until 2026.
Such a handsome contract has not matched Castellanos’s disappointing production, which makes it no surprise that the Phillies are rumored to be planning to trade Castellanos next season.
At the same time, baseball is a magical sport wherein fortunes can change overnight. Say Castellanos revs up his production heading into September, crushes the ball in the playoffs, and even hits a walk-off home run during the 2024 World Series, which the Phillies win!
All of a sudden, no one will be talking about $20 million as an overpay.
Phillies Nation can only hope.
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