Team’s just fine with Castellanos and Hoskins
Every team needs scapegoats, even if they almost win the World Series.
The Phillies’, for the moment, are $100 million outfielder Nick Castellanos and chronically errant first baseman Rhys Hoskins — for most people, in that order.
The Phillies disagree.
They say Castellanos just had a lot of distractions this year and that Hoskins actually improved as a fielder.
If you just spit out your coffee, you were not alone.
Castellanos’ OPS fell 245 points, or 24%; his homers fell from 34 to 13, or 71%; and his salary increased to $20 million per year, or 100%.
Hoskins, meanwhile, hit 30 homers in the regular season and six more in the playoffs, but he led the majors with 12 errors at first base and was second-worst with a .990 fielding percentage.
Buckle up. Neither guy is going anywhere.
Hoskins, in his last year of arbitration, will get a qualifying offer; the Phillies are not looking to trade him.
The Phillies also have every confidence that Casty will be nasty again once life settles down.
“I’m not sure how much of it is with dealing with all the adjustments of signing with a new club,” said team President Dave Dombrowski. “A new baby coming into their life in May. Some of that could be [an issue] from a mental perspective.”
Castellanos welcomed a second son into his family in early May. Right around that time he also bought Ben “The Brick” Simmons’ mansion in New Jersey for $4.5 million but clearly failed to exorcise Simmons’ lingering offensive demons.
Dombrowski said Philly played no part in Castellanos’ disappearance. There were more than 100 million other reasons, including worse-than-usual strike-zone discipline — Castellanos swung at nonstrikes more often than all but one other player — and a late-season oblique strain.
“I don’t think this market was his reason behind not performing,” Dombrowski said. “Sometimes they try too hard coming off free agency.”
Castellanos, who played his first nine seasons in the lower-profile Midwest burgs of Detroit and
Cincinnati, disagreed. He didn’t hit a homer in his last 32 games and he hit .188 in the playoffs, but he’ll be better prepared after a year of swimming with sharks.
“I can come in a little bit stronger knowing how to navigate this organization, this city, the media, everything,” he said after the World Series.
Philly special
Hoskins has never played anywhere except Philadelphia, but he’s never faced scrutiny like he’s facing it now. His bosses don’t see his bad hands as a big problem, and they don’t plan on addressing it with any urgency.
“Won’t work on his defense this winter,” Dombrowski said. “He actually improved, metrically, compared to how he has been in the past.”
Again, with the coffee-spitting. Hoskins might be better, but man, he just looks bad. Curiously, his dWAR — his defensive Wins Above Replacement — of minus-0.3 ranked fourth among the 18 qualifying first basemen. Yes, fourth.
At any rate, Dealin’ Dave doesn’t care about Rhys’ bad hands or Casty’s bad year.