The Phillies Benched Nick Castellanos After He Made an "Inappropriate Comment"

Baseball players tend to play every game barring an injury or some other external circumstance. Nick Castellanos, who usually plays in the outfield for the Phillies, was benched during a recent June game after reports suggested that he made an "inappropriate comment."

Given the vagueness of that claim, many naturally wanted more information on exactly what Nick said that got him benched. An inappropriate comment could be any number of things, but here's what we know about the exact circumstances around Nick's benching.

Nobody inside of the Phillies organization appears willing to divulge exactly what was said, but manager Rob Thomson said that Nick got a little too heated after he was pulled out of a recent game.

"One of the many things about Nick that I love is that he's very emotional," Rob told reporters in Miami. "He loves to play, and he loves to play every inning of every game. I just thought last night he made an inappropriate comment after he came out, and so today, he's not going to play."

Rob didn't offer any detail on exactly what was said, but Nick did offer more of an explanation for how he wound up on the bench.

He apparently made the comment after he was pulled from a game in the eighth inning for defensive purposes.

"I wasn't happy about it, spoke my mind," Castellanos said Tuesday, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. "He said that I crossed a line. So, my punishment is I'm not playing."

Nick signed a five-year, $100 million deal with the Phillies in 2022 and is batting .278 this season. It seems this benching will only last for a single game, and we may never know exactly what was said. Whatever it was, though, it seems clear that Nick was irate about it, so much so that he got heated enough to say something terrible to his manager. Now that he's taken his punishment, hopefully, he's learned that he has to check his temper, at least to some extent.

Although he might have taken the decision personally, it doesn't seem like Rob's intention in pulling Nick from the game was to make him angry. Instead, it was to ensure that the best outfielders were on the field while the game still hung in the balance. Ultimately, the Phillies lost to Miami 8-3, so the effort was not a success, but that doesn't excuse Nick's decision to rage at his manager over it.

“I talked to Nick about it the other day,” Rob said after the game. “Just moving for — because we have this run of right-handed pitching, and you got Rojas sitting on the bench. He’s really an elite defender, so you might as well use him.”

Clearly, when it came time for the substitution to happen, Nick felt a little bit more strongly about it.