Why Phillies OF Nick Castellanos swings so much

PHILADELPHIA — A swing is an crazily positive choice. 

Nearly a quarter of hacks wear’t even lead to contact. Most produce nasty balls or outs. Statistically speaking, the future worth of a take is constantly greater than that of a swing. To swing is to overlook the chances, to technique an difficult job with silly levels of self-esteem. In order to getinvolved in this dumb sport, one needto think in the unreasonable.

Enter Nick Castellanos.

“I’m constantly allset to hit. That mindset has constantly come simplest to me,” the Phillies’ charmingly aloof outfielder justrecently discussed to FOX Sports, when asked why he swings so typically. “It’s been like batting practice my entire life.”

Since the start of the 2017 season, Castellanos hasactually seen 13,135 pitches. He has swung at 7,155 of them. In that period, just Freddie Freeman hasactually taken more cuts. Only a handful of gamers have a greater swing portion. For most of that stretch, the hack-happy method worked gloriously for Castellanos, as the easygoing Miami native industrialized into one of the videogame’s more reputable bats and made a five-year, $100 million agreement with Philadelphia ahead of the 2022 season.

And then the wheels fell off.

Fifty-seven percent of the time someone tossed a baseball in the area of Castellanos last year, he swung at it, the greatest rate in the videogame. As the Phillies stampeded to October magnificence, Castellanos invested the year toppling off a cliff in sluggish movement. His batting line was cluttered with catastrophes — 13 homers, a .694 OPS, a 5.2% walk rate — while his outfield defense was a blindfold-inducing scary program. And though a handful of impressive diving captures in the postseason endeared himself to the Philly devoted, Castellanos’ maiden trip in the City of Brotherly Love was a overall flop.

Five weeks into this season, Castellanos has turned things around. It’s early, however the tatted-up slugger is raking (.862 OPS with 4 homers) and his typically dreadful outfield D hasactually been directly league average. And while his swing rate (52.1%) stays top 25 in baseball, a deep dive into some zone charts on Baseball Savant reveals that Castellanos hasactually been much, much muchbetter at laying off raised fastballs above the strike zone (2022 on the left, 2023 on the ideal).

Was that a point of focus in the offseason? Did Castellanos invest the winterseason training himself to pass on the alluring high heat?

“No, not always,” Castellanos clarified. “It’s simply being more in control, actually. Doing something like that [training to swing less] is like knowing a brand-new language. For someone like me who’s constantly done it this method consideringthat I was a little kid, it’s not that I can’t do anything else, it’s simply that there’s constantly a huge knowing curve.”

For lotsof big-league players, every at-bat is a chess match, a tactical tête-à-tête inbetween which pitch-type a pitcher will toss and which offering the batter is anticipating. The entire thing is as much psychological as it is physical. The intrusion of modern-day innovation into the world of baseball has just magnified this vibrant. Before the intro of the pitch clock, players would frequently action out of the batter’s box to videogame strategy their at-bat in genuine time. As you may haveactually heard, there was an whole sport-altering scandal that revolved around the Astros understanding which pitch was coming.

But Castellanos dumbs things down in a method that he declares has constantly been practical for him.

“You see, I puton’t appearance for pitches,” he asserted. “I’m simply prepared to hit.”

For a male who developed a portfolio on a see-ball hit-ball mindset, Castellanos diverted into overthinker area last year. In his mind, it wasn’t about how frequently he was swinging, however about the types of swings he was getting off.

In truth, his frustrating offending season a year ago was infact more about a failure to do damage in apparent players counts than his aggressiveness getting the muchbetter of him. Castellanos had a shockingly abysmal .575 OPS after a pitcher opened an at-bat with a ball, the fifth-worst mark in all of baseball in2022 By contrast, Castellanos had published a 1.087 OPS after 1-0 counts a year prior. He was, rather merely, not taking benefit when he was up in the count.

It’s clear in talking to Castellanos and others around the Phillies that there were parts of last season where the big-money signee felt an responsibility to drive in runs. But things haveactually been various in2023 Now, he’s affecting the baseball when he’s anticipated to, publishing a 1.063 OPS when ahead in the count. Castellanos declares that’s duetothefactthat he’s “taking what the videogame provides him,” rather of pushing himself into bad swings. 

Phillies striking coach Kevin Long concurred that enhancement for Castellanos hasn’t been about changing swing frequency, it’s about stressing swing quality when he does deal. Everyone, Castellanos consistedof, is acutely conscious of his hostility at the plate. It is an intractable part of his videogame. He will not develop into a walk-happy Juan Soto overnight, nor must he. The dawg, as they state, is permanently in him.

Jake Mintz, the louder half of @CespedesBBQ is a baseball author for FOX Sports. He played college baseball, badly at veryfirst, then really well, really quickly. Jake lives in New York City where he coaches Little League and trips his bike, insomecases at the verysame time. Follow him on Twitter at @Jake_Mintz.