At this point in the offseason, the Royals faithful are well read up on the team’s need for outfield reinforcements.
That beings said, at this point in time Kansas City’s outfield depth chart is in a much better spot than it was when they entered the winter months, with veteran Lane Thomas and dynamic youngster Isaac Collins entering the fold.
While a more ground-breaking Jarren Duran or a Brendan Donovan-type addition would be a welcome sight, the sky suddenly no longer feels like it’s falling for J.J. Picollo and the Royals front office.
This means that some names who previously seemed like potentially decent offseason targets suddenly feel a lot more awkward or frankly redundant fits, including Philadelphia Phillies All-Star Nick Castellanos.
Nick Castellanos suddenly no longer feels like good fit for Royals
On Thursday, Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter put together Opening Day lineup projections for each MLB team and Castellanos was listed as the DH for the Royals.
“Nick Castellanos looks like a good buy-low target for a Royals team that is lacking in proven run producers,” Reuter wrote.
That might be the case, with the lineup containing plenty of question marks outside of their core four in Bobby Witt Jr., Maikel Garcia, Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez, but as mentioned already, the outfield situation is not as a dire as it was when they entered the offseason as a 73 wRC+ unit fresh off sending their most productive contributor in Mike Yastrzemski to free agency.
Is Castellanos and his consistent ability to post 70+ RBI for a large amount of his career majority better from a run production standpoint than either of the Royals’ new outfield additions in Thomas and Collins? Yes, absolutely.
That being said, Collins is coming off a 122 wRC+ rookie campaign, in which he finished fourth in NL ROY voting with Milwaukee. With 16 stolen bases and well-above average defensive capabilities, he offers plenty more than just his bat.
And Thomas is only one season, which he was largely unhealthy for, removed from a four-year stretch in which he was a 98 wRC+ hitter or better. In his best season too, back in 2023 with the Washington Nationals, he was quite the producer himself, belting 28 homers and driving in 86 runs.
On top of all of this, these two seem a lot more capable of being outfielders for Kansas City, rather than just run producing bats who happen to be listed as an outfielder like Castellanos is more these days.
The jig may be up for the 33-year-old when it comes to gracing the corners, having posted matching -12 OAA and FRV totals along with a -11 DRS last season in Philly.
The other issue with his supposed fit in Kansas City is the fact that Kansas City really doesn’t need anymore help at their flexible DH spot and frankly don’t have the room whatsoever.
Salvador Perez isn’t getting any younger, and after a 2025 season with plenty of DH appearances along with the rise of Carter Jensen, Perez stands to see more time their in 2026, meaning the Royals and their band of three catchers will need all the open DH ABs they can get.
Not to mention also, Castellanos and his $20 million salary next season would already be a challenging enough situation for the smaller market Royals to navigate.
The fit just reads more and more clunky by the day, so perhaps Picollo and Co. should just let matters lie with Castellanos and focus their continued offensive improvement efforts elsewhere.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
