Before he ultimately changed teams, New York Yankees decision-makers did their homework on a former All-Star, who most fans wouldn’t have wanted.
According to Dylan Svoboda of the New York Post, New York explored the possibility of acquiring veteran slugger Nick Castellanos from the Philadelphia Phillies earlier in the offseason before he was released and later signed by the San Diego Padres.
The interest, however, never became much.
“The Yankees were talked out of pursuing Nick Castellanos,” Svoboda wrote.
“The team looked into trading for the Phillies slugger earlier this offseason, but backed off after receiving mixed reviews, according to The Post’s Jon Heyman.”
Ultimately, New York went with a familiar option in Paul Goldschmidt. While Goldschmidt isn’t what he once was at this stage of his career, neither is Castellanos, and Goldschmidt doesn’t come with the attitude that the former Phillies outfielder does.
While Castellanos’ power profile may have intrigued the Yankees on paper, there’s not much to say about him at this stage of his career. He also wasn’t content with his role and that’s something the Yankees shouldn’t have wanted to deal with.
“A lot of times when a good player has their role change with the club, it can cause some friction, and his role changed last year from where it was,” Dave Dombrowski said. “I mean you played every single day for a lot years in a row, and so sometimes that can contribute to it. Sometimes then people have debates between themselves where they’re not all on the same page. But when you put all that together, sometimes you just need to make sure that you have a change of scenery.”
