MLB: Padres has his first goal after the strike and is an All Star outfielder and Silver Bat

Serving as one of the last free agent rumors of the night before yesterday’s lockout officially began, the San Diego Padres they were “showing great interest” in the free agent, Nick Castellanos. An important disclaimer here is that teams are prohibited from contacting players or carry out transactions during the duration of this block.

Ultimately, it remains to be seen how strong the interest reported yesterday in Castellanos will persist when the transaction freeze ends. Nonetheless, here is some notable tidbit about how San Diego can operate when they are free to reinforce their roster again:

Castellanos, 29, should appeal to the Padres and several teams for one simple reason: He’s a very good hitter. In 138 games last season, the right fielder posted his personal best offensive numbers en route to a line of .309 / .362 / .576 (136 OPS +) with 34 home runs. Statcast’s metrics largely support the exit, by virtue of how often Castellanos makes hard contact.

The ability to be aggressive early in the count but avoid strikeouts is an asset that will likely give teams more confidence in the player than they had in him after a replacement-level display in 2020.

As for the defensive side of things, San Diego (and several other NL teams) may have the mindset that when the lockout subsides, the designee will exist for all 30 teams:

Placing free agent Castellanos as the 10th seed in MLB Trade Rumors in a designated spot, with occasional repeats in the outfield, seems like a perfectly reasonable move for a team whose offense was surprisingly medium last season.

It may interest you: MLB Nick Castellanos rejects Reds’ qualified offer and is free agent

Even without the designated hitter, there may be changes in the outfield to accommodate Castellanos now that current left fielder Tommy Pham is a free agent.

Rafael Martinez

I am a fan of the King of Sports, especially the Boston Red Sox in MLB and in general all of Mexican baseball. This profession has given me the opportunity to cover major events such as the Caribbean Series, the LMB All Star, LMP (uninterrupted since 2009), signings of important players. I had the chance to attend the 2013 World Classic in Arizona, USA, albeit as a fan. Apart from this beautiful sport, I love basketball, where I have also narrated games and even an NBA friendly 10 years ago, but I carry baseball in my veins. Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) , from which I graduated in 2011. I was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa and started in the world of sports journalism in 2004 in the newspaper El Sol de Mazatlán, where I was a baseball columnist and reporter at the same time. In January 2009 I came to El Debate as a journalist reporter and it was almost six years (in the first stage), until in November 2014 I emigrated to the radio providing my services in Línea Directa-Grupo RSN. My cycle there ended in July 2019 and within days, El Debate gave me another opportunity to work and opened the doors for me again. That is how I came to Al Bat, where I have been since 2019 as a web journalist.

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