Nick Castellanos

2.1.1. Draft and minor league development

The Detroit Tigers selected Castellanos in the second round of the 2010 Major League Baseball draft, as the 44th overall pick. Prior to the draft, Baseball America rated him as the third-best power-hitting prospect and the fourteenth-best overall prospect. He reportedly slipped in the draft due to his commitment to the University of Miami. He signed with the Tigers, receiving a signing bonus of 3.45 M USD, which was the highest bonus ever given to a player taken after the first round at that time. The deal faced a minor hurdle as the Tigers' email to the office of the Commissioner of Baseball was received three minutes past the midnight deadline on August 15, 2010; however, a text message about the deal sent to the Commissioner's Office at 11:59 PM convinced the Commissioner to approve the agreement.

Though Castellanos played shortstop in high school, the Tigers shifted him to third base as a professional. He appeared in seven games for the Gulf Coast Tigers of the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League in his debut professional season, batting .333 with 3 RBIs. Before the 2011 season, Baseball America rated Castellanos as the 65th-best prospect in baseball. He played for the West Michigan Whitecaps of the Class-A Midwest League, batting .312 with seven home runs and 76 RBIs, leading the Midwest League with 158 hits, and was named the Tigers' minor league position player of the year.

Prior to the 2012 season, Baseball America ranked him as the second-best prospect in the Tigers organization and 45th best in baseball. The Tigers invited Castellanos to spring training in 2012. He began the 2012 season with Class-A Advanced Lakeland Tigers of the Florida State League. He was named the Tigers' minor league player in May 2012. After batting .402 with 32 RBIs in 55 games for Lakeland, the Tigers promoted Castellanos to the Class-AA Erie SeaWolves of the Eastern League on June 4. He batted .264 with Erie that year.

Castellanos appeared in the 2012 All-Star Futures Game, where he hit a three-run home run and was named the game's Most Valuable Player. With Miguel Cabrera at third base and Prince Fielder at first base, Castellanos was initially seen as a potential trade piece for a marquee talent, but the Tigers considered him untouchable in trade negotiations. He began to take outfield practice in left field during the 2012 season.

With Castellanos now playing left field on a full-time basis, the Tigers optioned him to the Toledo Mud Hens of the Class AAA International League at the start of the 2013 season. In 134 games for the Mud Hens, Castellanos batted .276 with 18 home runs and 76 RBIs. He appeared in the Triple-A All-Star Game and was named to the International League's post-season All-Star team.

2.2.1. Debut and early career (2013-2016)

When major league rosters expanded on September 1, 2013, Castellanos was among the players promoted to the Tigers, making his major league debut that day, playing left field. On September 7, Castellanos made his first major league start and recorded his first major league hit, an infield single, off Danny Duffy. However, he received infrequent playing time, as the Tigers were in a pennant race and manager Jim Leyland preferred to use players with more major league experience. He batted 5-for-18 (.278) with the Tigers in 2013.

After the 2013 season, the Tigers traded Prince Fielder. Dave Dombrowski, the general manager of the Tigers at that time, announced that they would shift Miguel Cabrera to first base and use Castellanos as their starting third baseman for 2014.

Castellanos hit his first MLB home run on April 9, 2014, off the top of the wall in dead center field off Josh Beckett of the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. He finished his rookie season with a .259 batting average, 11 home runs, 31 doubles, and 66 RBIs. He was named the 2014 Detroit Tigers/Detroit Sports Media Association Rookie of the Year.

On July 22, 2015, Castellanos hit his first career grand slam off Mike Montgomery of the Seattle Mariners. Castellanos hit .255 that season while slamming 15 home runs and driving in 73.

Through the All-Star break of the 2016 season, Castellanos was hitting .302 with 17 home runs and 51 RBIs, with an OPS of .875, while playing as the Tigers' starting third baseman. On August 6, Castellanos was struck by a pitch from New York Mets reliever Logan Verrett, fracturing the fifth metacarpal bone in his left hand. This injury placed him on the 15-day disabled list for the first time in his career, and he was expected to miss at least four weeks. Castellanos did not return to the Tigers until the final week of the regular season, entering a September 27 game against the Cleveland Indians as a pinch hitter. During the 2016 season, Castellanos set career highs with a .285 average, 18 home runs, .331 on-base percentage, and a .496 slugging percentage, despite being limited to 110 games.

2.2.2. Growth and performance improvement (2017-2019)

On January 13, 2017, the Tigers avoided arbitration with Castellanos, agreeing on a one-year contract worth 3.00 M USD. On July 18, Castellanos hit a single, triple, and two home runs in a game against the Kansas City Royals, becoming the fourth Tigers player to do so since 1913, and the first Tigers player to do so since Dmitri Young in 2003.

On September 29, Castellanos recorded his 100th RBI of the season. He became the 10th player in Tigers history to drive in more than 100 runs at the age of 25 or younger, and the first player to do so since Miguel Cabrera in 2008. He also became the sixth player in Tigers history to record 10 or more triples, 25 or more home runs, and 100 or more RBIs in a season, and the first player to do so since Al Kaline in 1956. Castellanos finished 2017 with a .272 batting average, while setting career highs in doubles (36), triples (10), home homes (26), and RBIs (101). His 10 triples led the American League. He struggled defensively at third base, leading all third basemen with 18 errors and having a league-worst .939 fielding percentage among qualified third basemen. With the acquisition of third baseman Jeimer Candelario and the departure of right fielder J. D. Martinez, Castellanos began playing games in right field from early September to the end of the 2017 season.

On January 17, 2018, the Tigers avoided arbitration with Castellanos, agreeing on a one-year contract worth 6.05 M USD. On August 13, Castellanos went 5-for-5 with five RBIs, for his first career five-hit game. He became the first Tigers player with five hits in a game since Ian Kinsler in 2015. With two singles, two doubles, and a home run, he also became the first Tiger with 10 total bases in a game since Justin Upton in 2017. Castellanos earned American League Player of the Week honors for the week of August 13-19. In seven games, he batted .393 with an OBP of .485 and had two homers, three doubles, eight runs scored, and ten RBI. This was the first weekly honor for any Tiger player in 2018.

Castellanos hit a career-high .298 in the 2018 season, adding 23 home runs and 89 RBIs. He finished among the AL leaders in hits (185, third), doubles (46, fourth), and multi-hit games (56, third). He also led all MLB hitters (with 60 or more plate appearances) in batting average against left-handers, at .381. He was named the 2018 Tiger of the Year by the Detroit Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA).

On January 11, 2019, the Tigers avoided arbitration with Castellanos, agreeing on a one-year contract worth 9.95 M USD. On July 21, 2019, he recorded his first career walk-off home run against the Toronto Blue Jays. He played 100 games for the Tigers in 2019, batting .273 with 37 doubles, 11 home runs, 37 RBIs, and a .328 on-base percentage.

2.3.1. Trade and performance

On July 31, 2019, the Tigers traded Castellanos along with cash considerations to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Alex Lange and Paul Richan. In August, Castellanos hit .348 with 11 home runs, 20 RBIs, and nine doubles, along with a .385 on-base percentage and a .713 slugging percentage. In 51 games for the Cubs in 2019, Castellanos hit .321 with 16 home runs, 36 RBIs, and a 1.002 OPS.

For the entire 2019 season, combining his time with the Tigers and Cubs, Castellanos had a .289 batting average, 27 home runs, 73 RBIs, and an MLB-leading 58 doubles. His 58 doubles were the tenth-highest single-season total in MLB history and the most by any player since Todd Helton's 59 doubles in 2000, earning him the nickname "Nicky Two Bags." He also joined Hall of Famers Hank Greenberg (1934) and Joe Medwick (1937) as the only right-handed batters to ever hit 55 doubles and 25 home runs in the same season. His total bases exceeded 300 for the third consecutive year.

On defense in 2019, he posted -9 defensive runs saved, the worst in the major leagues among right fielders, and -4.4 ultimate zone rating, second worst. He became a free agent on October 31.

2.4.1. Contract, notable seasons, and controversies

Castellanos signed a four-year, 64.00 M USD contract with the Cincinnati Reds on January 27, 2020. The contract included an opt-out clause for the 2020 and 2021 seasons, as well as performance incentives for awards like MVP and All-Star Game selections. It also included a mutual option for the 2024 season with a 2.00 M USD buyout. This was the highest contract for an outfielder that offseason and matched the large contract of Mike Moustakas, who had joined the Reds the previous month. Upon joining the Reds, he reverted his registered name to "Nick Castellanos".

In the 2020 season, which was shortened to 60 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Castellanos played in all games, but his batting average dropped to .225. He still recorded 14 home runs and 34 RBIs, and participated in his second career postseason. Defensively, he had a fielding percentage of .963, the lowest among all major league right fielders, with -4 defensive runs saved and a -3.0 ultimate zone rating.

On August 19, 2020, during the opening game of a doubleheader at Kauffman Stadium, Reds broadcaster Thom Brennaman was in the middle of apologizing for a homophobic slur he had uttered on a hot mic earlier. Mid-apology, Castellanos hit a home run, and Brennaman interrupted his apology to deliver the play-by-play. This moment, along with future instances of Castellanos recording hits during broadcast discussions of negative events, became an internet meme as a copypasta. ESPN's Pablo S. Torre famously described it as "like listening to the band play on as the Titanic was sinking. Except the band was also somehow the iceberg." On July 5, 2021, Castellanos hit another home run at Kauffman Stadium while the Kansas City Royals' broadcast was in the middle of a eulogy for a military veteran.

On April 3, 2021, in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Castellanos was hit by a pitch from Jake Woodford. After advancing to third on a wild pitch, he attempted to score but was tagged out at home plate. During this play, he confronted Woodford, leading to a brawl involving both teams, and Castellanos was ejected from the game. He received a two-game suspension. On May 2, against the Chicago Cubs, Castellanos had a stellar performance with five hits and two home runs, including a walk-off hit in the 10th inning. He also recorded a 21-game hitting streak that lasted until June 5.

On July 1, 2021, Castellanos earned his first All-Star selection, ranking second in the outfield fan vote behind Ronald Acuña Jr., and was selected alongside teammate Jesse Winker. He was announced as the starting right fielder, batting fifth, for the All-Star Game on July 12. In his first All-Star Game at-bat in the second inning, he grounded out against Lance Lynn of the Chicago White Sox. By the end of the 2021 season, Castellanos had posted career highs in batting average (.309) and home runs (34), while driving in 100 runs. It was his second career 100-RBI season and first since 2017. Defensively, he showed an improved fielding percentage of .991, committing only three errors, but also had -4 defensive runs saved and a -4.5 ultimate zone rating.

Castellanos opted out of his contract after the 2021 season, becoming a free agent. He also rejected the 18.40 M USD qualifying offer from the Reds. On November 23, he was selected as one of the outfielders for the All-MLB Second Team for the first time in his career.

2.5.1. Contract and current performance

On March 22, 2022, the Philadelphia Phillies signed Castellanos to a five-year, 100.00 M USD contract.

He again interrupted a broadcast moment in a spring training game against the Toronto Blue Jays on March 27, when he recorded his first hit as a Phillie while the Blue Jays broadcast team was discussing the DUI arrest of Toronto pitching coach Pete Walker two days earlier. On Memorial Day, Castellanos hit a home run just as broadcaster Tom McCarthy had finished telling viewers about the American Gold Star Mothers Chair of Honor in Citizens Bank Park.

In 2022, Castellanos batted .263/.305/.389 in 524 at-bats. He swung at 57.0% of all pitches, the highest percentage among all major league batters. Castellanos was the last out of the 2022 World Series, fouling out to Houston Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker to end Game 6 and clinch the series for the Astros.

On July 2, 2023, Castellanos was selected for his second career All-Star Game via player vote. In 2024, Castellanos played in all 162 games for the Phillies, slashing .254/.311/.431 with 23 home runs, 86 RBI, and six stolen bases.

2.5.2. Postseason performance

In the 2023 National League Division Series, Castellanos hit two home runs apiece in Games 3 and 4 against the Atlanta Braves, becoming the first player in MLB history to hit multiple home runs in consecutive postseason games. In Game 1 of the 2023 National League Championship Series, Castellanos hit a home run in his first plate appearance, joining Reggie Jackson as the only players in postseason history to hit five home runs in a three-game span. However, he went hitless with 11 strikeouts in his final 23 at-bats as the Phillies lost in seven games to the Arizona Diamondbacks despite holding a 2-0 series lead.

3.1.1. All-Star selections

He has been selected to the MLB All-Star Game twice: in 2021 and 2023. His 2021 selection was his first, where he was a starter.

3.1.2. Silver Slugger Award

Castellanos won the Silver Slugger Award as an outfielder in 2021, recognizing his exceptional offensive performance that season.

3.1.3. All-MLB Team

He was selected to the All-MLB Second Team as an outfielder in 2021, acknowledging him as one of the top players at his position across MLB.

3.1.4. Other awards

In his minor league career, Castellanos was named the All-Star Futures Game MVP in 2012. In MLB, he earned American League Player of the Week honors for the week of August 13-19, 2018. He was also named the 2014 Detroit Tigers/Detroit Sports Media Association Rookie of the Year and the 2018 Tiger of the Year by the Detroit Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA).