Prior to the 2026 season, the San Diego Padres took a gamble on a number of veterans.
A.J. Preller, president of baseball operations, quickly signed Nick Castellanos to the league minimum wage following his release from the Philadelphia Phillies. The former two-time All-Star was still owed $20 million by the Phillies and was in the last year of a five-year contract.
Until it wasn’t, the deal appeared to be a great deal.
In 39 games with the Padres, Castellanos hit.191 with four home runs, 20 runs batted in, and a.560 OPS. As a bench player in San Diego, he faced a new task.
The former Silver Slugger was sent to provide a spark to the Padres lineup in few opportunities after spending much of the previous four seasons as an everyday hitter in the Phillies lineup.
In just one week, the Padres faced Castellanos’ old team twice. During the road series in Philadelphia, the team decided to designate the veteran for assignment.
Although the outfielder expressed satisfaction with his new position in San Diego, manager Craig Stammen feels that the former All-Star’s circumstances weren’t ideal.
According to Stammen, “it just felt like he wasn’t very comfortable in that role.” I am aware that he has a lot going on with his family and that he wants to spend a lot of time with his children. Perhaps this is a chance for it. However, it might be a chance for him to travel and choose a location where he could play every day.
After being swept by the Phillies, the Padres are three games above.500, but the offense is still a serious problem. The Padres may need more pop at the bottom of their lineup, but they also need Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, and Jackson Merrill to do better at the plate.
“The fundamental elements of our offense are not being altered. The offense wants to score more runs than we have been. “I am certain that will occur,” Stammen remarked. “I’m just trying to switch things up a bit to see if that could be the best formula to get this offense moving a little. Get our crew moving a little.
“It’s not necessarily the offense, but just, ‘How can we play some team baseball?’”
As for Castellanos’ replacement, the Padres called up Samad Taylor. According to Stammen, the team brought him up to provide more versatility off the bench.
“It’s not necessarily the offense, but just, ‘How can we play some team baseball?’”
Samad Taylor was called up by the Padres to replace Castellanos. The squad brought him up to give him greater versatility off the bench, according to Stammen.
“We’ve been discussing our roster and the flexibility we’d like to have with the bench—maybe a little bit more speed, a little bit more dynamic players,” Stammen stated. “We have a little bit more speed, some defense, and some versatility that we can use on the bench with our last two guys we brought up.”
In 51 games at Triple-A El Paso, Taylor batted.319/.406/.500 with seven home runs, 25 RBIs, nine stolen bases, and an OPS of.906.
“We’ve been talking a little bit about our roster and the flexibility that we’d like to have with the bench — maybe a little bit more speed, little bit more dynamic players,” Stammen said. “With our last two guys we brought up … we got a little bit more element of speed, some defense, some versatility that we can use on the bench.”
Taylor slashed .319/.406/.500 with seven home runs, 25 RBIs, nine stolen bases and an OPS of .906 across 51 games at Triple-A El Paso.
