Phillies’ Nick Castellanos finally ‘at peace’ with playing in the Philadelphia sports fishbowl

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Nick Castellanos leaned back on a black leather chair in the Phillies’ clubhouse on a recent morning. As he chatted with a reporter, Larry Bowa wandered over to ask how he liked the Italian restaurant that he has been telling him to try.

“Hey, you’re the man,” Castellanos said, announcing his approval.

The slugging right fielder stood up, extended his hand, and detailed a mouth-watering meal of mussels, Caesar salad, bruschetta, spaghetti and meatballs. Then, he made a regular-season plea to Bowa, the 1980 World Series shortstop, former coach and manager, and franchise icon who spends spring training in uniform as an instructor.

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“Do me a favor,” Castellanos said. “Keep hanging around the dugout, OK? Will you do that for me?”

He smiled. He laughed. He looked — dare we say it? — at home.

It took a while. Philadelphia can be a fishbowl for professional athletes. Fans want to know everything about their teams and the people who play for them. The passion for sports runs deeper than in most other markets. It isn’t for everybody.

Castellanos, 32, still isn’t entirely at ease with the athlete/celebrity dynamic. Two years ago this week, he chose a five-year, $100 million offer from the Phillies, and for much of the 2022 season, he felt the stares of prying eyes, real or imagined. He endured the worst season of his career. And the worse he played, the more uncomfortable it got.

But after a decade of losing, the city fell hard for the Phillies again during an unexpected run to Game 6 of the World Series. Castellanos found it intoxicating. Last season, he leaned into the Philly Baseball Experience, soaking it up with his son, Liam, the most popular 10-year-old at Citizens Bank Park last summer.

Now, as he enters Year 3 with a Phillies team that has a $260 million-plus payroll and World Series aspirations, he’s finally breathing easy.

“Am I comfortable? I wouldn’t say that,” Castellanos said. “No, I’m not comfortable. Am I at peace? 100%.”

Castellanos is sensitive and direct. He can be a philosopher. He’s as likely to rattle off fortune-cookie wisdom as a one-word answer to a simple question. Phillies shortstop Trea Turner sums up his personality by calling him “one of one.”

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“I don’t know if I’ve met anybody like him,” Turner said.

Castellanos is also down the list of big names on a star-studded roster after Bryce Harper, Turner, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, J.T. Realmuto, and Kyle Schwarber. He makes $20 million per year but is a supporting actor. He could hit behind Harper in the cleanup spot or seventh in manager Rob Thomson’s batting order.

When baseball returned from the owners’ lockout in March 2022, Castellanos, a South Florida native, thought he might wind up with his hometown Marlins after years with the Tigers, Cubs, and Reds. Instead, he represented the signing that put the Phillies over the luxury-tax threshold for the first time ever.

And it took two weeks for him to realize he wasn’t in Cincinnati — or Detroit, or even Chicago — anymore.

When Castellanos landed in Philadelphia to take his physical, a television camera awaited him at the airport. On the eve of opening day, local sports radio noted that he bought Ben Simmons’ 10,000 square-foot home in South Jersey, which went on the market after the former Sixers star got traded to Brooklyn.

Suddenly, with a simple Google search, anyone could find Castellanos’ address.

It was unnerving.

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“When you have a pregnant wife at home, for sure,” Castellanos said. “And everybody knows your schedule — when you’re on the road, when you’re not home, you know what I mean? If you’re a private person, no doubt, I struggled with that.

“Honestly, when I signed here, I didn’t know who Ben Simmons was other than that he was dating a Kardashian. Because I don’t really watch sports. When I first got here, it felt like I didn’t have a place where I could disconnect because everything that was mine in the city was public. I didn’t feel like I had a space that was my own.”

And now?

“Castellanos Manor in New Jersey is one of my favorite places to be,” he said, cracking a smile. “It just took some time.”

Everyone told Castellanos to relax. He got unsolicited advice from family, friends, former coaches, and teammates, including Harper, who has known him since they were teenagers and personally recruited him to Philadelphia.

But Castellanos’ middle-of-the-order power vanished. He hit 13 homers in 2022, one less than in the short 2020 season and his lowest total since 2014, his rookie year in Detroit. He slugged .389, the worst mark of his career.

When the Phillies clinched a wild-card spot in the third-to-last game of the season in Houston, Castellanos mostly kept to himself during the celebration.

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“My first year being a part of a large market I definitely had a learning curve, especially with my personality,” Castellanos said. “I kind of pay attention to [stuff] and don’t forget [stuff] and sometimes take everything too personally. But the more time you spend in an environment, the more you learn, the more you understand, the more you adapt, and honestly, the more comfortably you can move around.”

The 2022 playoff run helped. For the first time in a decade, the Phillies reached the postseason. Citizens Bank Park turned red with rally towels. Fans turned up the volume to ear-splitting decibel levels. The good vibes carried into last season.

It also helped that the Phillies allowed Castellanos to be himself.

And to let Liam hang around as much as possible.

Last season was more indicative of Castellanos as a player.

In April, June, and August, he was among the Phillies’ most productive hitters. In May and July, he struggled. He finished with 29 homers and 106 RBIs and played in his second All-Star Game. But he struck out a career-high 185 times and chased 41% of pitches out of the strike zone. He went 7-for-15 with four homers in the division series against the Braves and 1-for-24 with 11 strikeouts in the NL Championship Series against the Diamondbacks.

Castellanos got cheered and booed, often in equal measure.

But he found greater perspective from being with Liam, who lives with his mom in Florida but spent much of the summer in Philadelphia. Liam was a regular presence in the clubhouse. He joined his dad for pregame outfield drills with coach Paco Figueroa. He stood in the front row behind home plate when Castellanos went to bat. He even accompanied the team for a late-night postseason celebration at XFinity Live.

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Liam designed T-shirts last season and a headband this spring to raise money for the Kisses for Kyle Foundation, which supports families of children with cancer in the Delaware Valley.

And Philly being Philly, he became a fan favorite.

“We were doing all the same things in [Cincinnati], but again, I think it shows how passionate people in Philly are about their sports teams and the players that are on them,” Castellanos said. “They really like knowing you. It’s all good. It definitely gives me a kick.

“I get a little bit concerned only because fame can be dangerous. So far everybody’s been really respectful of him, myself, our relationship. Sometimes he gets bombarded by fans asking him for autographs or photos, you know? I just hope they all remember he’s a normal 10-year-old kid. But I know that he enjoys aspects of it. I enjoy it, too.”

Castellanos is enjoying the entire Philadelphia experience in a way that he couldn’t imagine two years ago.

Teammates regard Castellanos as a clubhouse leader. He encouraged young outfielder Mickey Moniak to stay with the team after breaking his hand at the end of spring training in 2022. He has been a sounding board for Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott, and more recently, Johan Rojas.

“When I came up, he told me what to expect in the game,” Rojas said. “He’s always looking to help me. He’s a great teammate.”

Castellanos once thought he’d play his entire career in Detroit. He got traded to the Cubs at the deadline in 2019, then left as a free agent and spent two seasons in Cincinnati.

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There’s a stability, then, in opening a third season in the same place, even one that was never an obvious fit.

“It’s a lot different than playing in the Midwest,” Castellanos said. “It’s a lot different than playing for, I don’t want to say a less prominent franchise, but not one with the same pressures to perform each and every day. So, I’m still building my relationship with the city.

“But I’m really enjoying my time here in Philly. I want to be able to win a World Series by the time I’m done with my stay here in Philly. It’s a lot of work left to be done.”