The Phillies’ Nick Castellanos is making progress at the plate, and it started with a subtle change
A video breakdown showed Castellanos a difference in his positioning that resonated. His production — and hard hit rate — have improved since.
A few weeks ago, the Phillies hitting coaches pulled Nick Castellanos aside. They showed him a series of videos. One was of Castellanos at his best, around 2022 before the All-Star Game. The other was of an at-bat this season, when he was struggling to make hard contact.
They pointed out a difference in his positioning. When the right fielder was at his best, his bat was flat. His feet were grounded. He got to the hitting position sooner. When Castellanos was struggling, his bat was vertical, his front foot was angled, and he got to the hitting position later.
Castellanos is not someone who responds to a lot of technical information thrown at him. He goes by feel. But seeing the two videos back-to-back resonated.
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“For me, the earlier I can start, and the more I can flow with the pitcher, the more my direction goes back to the middle,” he said. “Sometimes if I get stuck, my posture will break, and everything will kind of happen at once, and then my swing decisions will break down, and then I’ll get in and out of the zone pretty quickly.”
It was a subtle but important change.
“If he’s grounded, and his bat is a little flatter before he starts, that just allows him to get to the position he wants to fire from sooner,” said assistant hitting coach Rafael Peña. “Sometimes his bat gets a little more vertical, he’s not in the legs as much, and then it just takes time. That little millisecond that it takes for him to get into those positions, that’s what makes the pitches a little tougher on him.”
Castellanos has hit .245/.267/.480 with a .747 OPS and four home runs since May 24. That is a big jump from the .206/.278/.312 and .590 OPS he was hitting from the start of the season through May 23.
He is also hitting the ball harder more consistently. Castellanos has a hard-hit percentage of 43% since May 24. From opening day to May 23, he was hitting the ball hard at a rate of 38%.
The Phillies see this as progress, and Castellanos does too.
“It has [helped],” said Castellanos, who went 7-for-13 against the Padres this week, including a walkoff double on Tuesday night. “Honestly, throughout the past couple of weeks there’s only been two games where I was like, ‘Man, I was [expletive] today,’ and those were the last two games in Baltimore. Other than that, I feel like I’ve taken pretty good swings at the baseball. Now it’s just staying there and finding some holes and getting some results.”
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The trick is making sure he stays consistent with his proper positioning. Peña, assistant coach Dustin Lind, and hitting coach Kevin Long have helped him with that. Over those two games in Baltimore, Castellanos went 0-for-9. Peña approached him afterward to show him the difference in his positioning.
“He was just like, ‘Hey, I just want to point out these two things to you,’ ” Castellanos said. “And it was like wow, I didn’t even realize those two games … it was drastic. When he pulled it up in London and early games in Boston and stuff, even then it was better.
“Baseball is hard. But maybe just a little bit of altering things without even realizing that I’m doing it. And that’s where Raffy is good.”
“It was just certain ABs,” Peña said. “We’re on top of every single AB, but there were a few where it was like, ‘Huh, that’s a little different.’ But he’s been doing great. I just think it’s going to help keep him on track.”
Another difference that made an impact in those two games was that Castellanos didn’t hit on the field with Peña before the game. He’s been doing that since he had the conversation with the hitting coaches about positioning, and it has helped him.
“Getting out and hitting on the field, too, is great for me before games,” Castellanos said. “And I didn’t get to do that in Baltimore.”
“It’s correlating with results, and you know this game is about results,” Peña said. “Hitting outside is helping him see the ball flight, it’s allowing him to see when he’s doing it right. In the cage, you can hit one ball well, but it kind of tricks you if it hits a net that’s a couple of feet away.”
These are all pieces of the puzzle for Castellanos, who has struggled to find consistency this season.
“The more inconsistent variables you can take out of hitting, the simpler hitting gets,” he said, “and the easier it becomes.”
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