Nick Castellanos is Mr. Consistency for the Phillies? Don’t be Surprised

It’s funny how just a few days ago, the 2024 Phillies were being discussed in the same breath as their 1964 brethren or the 2023 Eagles. How they were in the midst of an epic collapse. How they were going to waste what at one time seemed like a magical season.

They had been holding onto the best record in baseball for more nearly three months and then suddenly, it was gone, yielding the top spot to the Cleveland Guardians sometime in the middle of the Yankees sweep.

Things didn’t get any better last weekend in Seattle, and despite winning one game there Sunday, after losing to the Dodgers on Monday night, the Phillies lead in the National league was down to just 1/2 game.

But then they won Tuesday. And Kyle Schwarber basically carried them all by himself Wednesday:

Here’s one for you @jaysonst :

Kyle Schwarber became just the fifth player to ever have 4+ hits, 3+ HR and 7+ RBI in a game in which his team scored fewer than 10 runs and won the game. The others?

1924 George Kelly
1970 Orlando Cepeda
1983 George Brett
1999 Larry Walker…

— Anthony SanFilippo (@AntSanPhilly) August 8, 2024

And just like that, in the span of two days, they not only stretched their lead in the N.L. East back to eight games, but they moved 2 1/2 games ahead of the Dodgers for the best record in the N.L. and they ever reclaimed the best record in all of baseball.

Funny how this game works sometimes, isn’t it?

It’s why you can’t look at baseball the same way you do football. It can’t be overreaction – either positive or negative – after every game because there are just so many.

Each football game is 6.0% of a season. Each baseball game is 0.6% of a season. That’s one meaningful decimal point.

And it’s also indicative of individual play.

Take Schwarber, for example, he has a chance to set a career high in batting average, on base percentage, and OPS this season – All while probably hitting fewer than 40 homers.

Bet you wouldn’t have thought that back on May 25th when he was hitting .206 with a .697 OPS.

But this post isn’t about Schwarber. There’s been enough talk about his and his heroics all day already. Instead, I want to focus on someone else. Someone who, for some reason, continues to fly under the radar this season when he’s going good – which has been for quite some time – and is in everyone’s crosshairs when he’s not.

Look at this stat line since May 29th:

58 games, 242 PA, .288/331/.513; .844 OPS, 20 2B, 2 3B, 9 HR, 36 RBI, 19.4% K rate

The player who those stats belong to:

• Has the best batting average on the team in that span
• Is third in both slugging and OPS
• Leads the team in doubles
• Is second in RBI

That guy is Nick Castellanos.

Kinda flying under the radar that Nick Castellanos has been the Phillies most consistent hitter for 2+ months now

— Anthony Dabbundo (@AnthonyDabbundo) August 8, 2024

I didn’t just cherry pick May 29th as a starting point either to make my case. The reason because that was the last time he was batting below .200.

Frankly, you can push Castellanos stats back even further and they’d still be incredibly acceptable. For instance, since April 30th, which was the last day of the worst hitting month of his professional career, He is slashing .269/.317/.480 for a .797 OPS. That’s in the last 84 games. More than half a season.

Yet, he’s still being labeled as streaky and everyone is waiting for him to go ice cold again.

Sure, it’s possible, but he’s been anything but streaky this season. In fact, he’s been incredibly consistent. Slowly, but surely, he’s brought his season-long numbers back to respectability. Sure, he’d like them to be better overall, but when you consider how good he’s been for some time now, it’s hard to say he’s been a net negative for the Phillies.

Still, everyone stuck on his awful April – and it was incredibly bad – but Castellanos has quietly been one of the guys who’ve helped the Phillies get back to the top of the standings in the sport on August 8.

Only Schwarber and Bryce Harper have been more productive in the last 10 weeks, and frankly, it’s close with Harper. Alec Bohm leads the Phillies with 40 doubles, yet he has less than Castellanos in the last 58 games.

And for a guy who is known as a free-swinger, Castellanos is striking out less frequently than Brandon Marsh (37.2% of PA), Schwarber (25.8%), J.T. Realmuto (22.8%) and Harper (21.4%) and is only one-tenth of a percentage point worse than Trea Turner (19.3%).

Castellanos had a plate appearance this week against Logan Gilbert that was 15 pitches long. It was the longest by any hitter in baseball this season.

The next night, he led off the ninth inning with a single on an eight-pitch at bat to bring the tying run to the plate. The next three hitters after him all popped out on a combined three pitches to end the game.

And Castellanos is a leader in the clubhouse. His taking Johan Rojas under his wing has been well documented. Tyler Phillips talked Wednesday about how Castellanos had a conversation with him in the dugout after the second inning, when the Phillies were trailing 4-1, and how he was able to help get him refocused on keeping the Phillies in the game so they could have a chance to come back and win it.

They did.

Castellanos went 2-for-2 with two doubles in the game. He also walked and was hit by a pitch, the latter of which he wasn’t happy with and prompted a response from Matt Strahm the next inning when he plunked Gavin Lux.

Nick Castellanos had some words for Michael Grove after this 97 MPH hit by pitch pic.twitter.com/I4r0trCnfA

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 8, 2024

The Phillies retaliate after Nick Castellanos was hit

Next time the Phillies and Dodgers would meet is in the playoffs pic.twitter.com/obrGDzkn6S

— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) August 8, 2024

That’s the kind of gravitas Castellanos has in the clubhouse. It’s one of the reasons he plays every game and doesn’t take a day off. The guys at the top of the lineup may get all the accolades, but it’s Castellanos who has been Mr. consistency for the Phillies for a long time now. The Phillies know it, they appreciate it and they are better for it.

The same can and should be said for you.

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