How the Phillies are trying to help Nick Castellanos get back on track just as they need him most

The Phillies' struggling $100 million slugger goes by feel at the plate, not mechanics. And he turned to a stretch in 2017 to try to get his mojo back.

The Phillies will need more from Nick Castellanos, especially with Bryce Harper out with a fractured thumb.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

by Alex Coffey

Published July 1, 2022, 9:48 a.m. ET

Nick Castellanos stepped up to the plate in the second inning on Thursday, saw one pitch, and launched it to the right-center field seats. It was his first home run in a month, and it came off his bat hard (101.4 mph). Somewhere in the dugout, Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long was entirely unsurprised.

About a week earlier, Castellanos approached Long with an idea. He asked Long to pull up film of him from April 2017. Castellanos doesn’t like talking mechanics; he prefers to go by feel. He told Long that in that month, he hit the ball as hard as he ever had, but he wasn’t being rewarded, and the numbers reflected that.

Castellanos hit .245/.315/.459 with a .774 OPS from April 4-30 with the Detroit Tigers in 2017. For a career .276/.327/.478 hitter, with an .805 OPS, that slash line looks a bit low. Nevertheless, Castellanos liked the way he felt that month, and wanted to capture some of the feeling again, with a few other adjustments.

So Long went to work. He studied the film and noticed that at the time, Castellanos was staying back more. He decided to workshop that into Castellanos’ hitting mechanics moving forward so his swing wouldn’t be as dramatic to the front side. He also decided to have Castellanos bend his back elbow a little more upon contact, rather than fully extending his arm.

“Basically what it boils down to is controlling your energy and controlling your movements more,” Long said. “It’ll be more controlled. There’ll be more weight staying on the back side, and he’ll be using the ground quite a bit more in his swing. He’s felt good every day since he’s done that, and he’s trusting the process. It takes a little bit of time, but I feel like we’re getting there, and I feel like he’s in a really good spot right now. And his work has been tremendous. There’s different ball flight. It’s coming off like I saw it in spring training, which means it’s got that extra carry again to his ball flight.

“It’s a little more line drive-esque. You’ll probably see the launch angle go down just a little bit because he’s going to be behind the ball a little bit more, which means the ball is going to travel and come to him a little bit more.”

Castellanos, who signed a $100 million contract as a free agent in March, has acknowledged that this season has been frustrating for him. A few weeks ago, he said he “hasn’t felt comfortable all year.” If the season ended today, he’d have one of the worst seasons of his career, statistically. His .689 OPS through Thursday is the lowest mark he’s posted since his rookie season in 2013. He’s slashing .248/.301/.388.

Long believes a significant part of Castellanos’ struggles come from the baseballs being different this season.

“I will be the first to admit the balls are different,” Long said. “It’s probably affected him as much as anybody because he uses the big part of the field. That’s where he does his damage. And when the ball doesn’t leave, which you’re used to in years past, I think that’s where some of his trying too hard and some of these issues came where he was literally swinging at, you know, everything. I think that’s where some of that came from. Because you go, ‘Well, I’ve got to adjust to the times, and the times are telling me that these balls are no longer going out of the ballpark.’

“So, now he has to use a different part of the field. Which part of the field would that be? Well, for him, that would be to the pull side. And that’s a recipe for disaster. It really is. His swing just doesn’t work that way. It wasn’t built that way.”

Long said the different baseballs and the humidors being used in parks to ensure they are stored in average humidity is not an excuse, but “it’s definitely affected him.”

“There are some people who are thriving [in this environment], but if you look at all those guys, who are hitting all the home runs, it’s the big guys,” Long said. “I mean, literally. Pete Alonso and Aaron Judge and [Giancarlo] Stanton and [Kyle] Schwarber. These are guys that have massive power. And I wouldn’t call Nick a massive power guy. I would call him an elite hitter who has extra-base-hit power. It’s just not who he is. He’s a guy who racks up extra-base hits and uses the big part of the field about as good as anybody, and some of those balls are just dying.

“I’m used to seeing that extra gear, and so is he, and so that’s probably where he got some of the violence out in front. He started to go get the ball a little bit more than he wanted to, because he was looking for some extra juice and some extra power. And sometimes by trying to go out there and doing that, it goes just the opposite way. And in this case, it did.”

With Bryce Harper out indefinitely with a left thumb fracture, it’s important as ever that Castellanos rights the ship. The results haven’t been immediate, but his four-hit game Sunday and his home run Thursday were encouraging signs. Long said he’ll still need a bigger sample size to know if these adjustments are the key to fixing what’s been ailing Castellanos. His pupil agrees.

“[On Tuesday] I hit two balls hard,” Castellanos said Wednesday. “I got four hits in San Diego the other day. Hit some balls hard to the warning track in San Diego. There’s moments where I’m hitting the ball hard, but right now, the game isn’t really rewarding me.

“It’s hard to really explain or get into words. I know when I feel it click, and I know when I don’t. I haven’t really been there from a consistent day in, day out basis yet. Now, for whatever reason, I’m still working through it. The only thing I can do is continue to go about my day and work with this curveball machine, and when it clicks, it clicks.”

Long is more optimistic.

“He’s got that look in his eye back that means he knows he’s dangerous,” Long said. “And it probably couldn’t happen at a better time.”