LAS VEGAS — The Phillies have made no secret about their first orders of business in this crucial offseason, and it’s a message they have repeated this week to rival clubs and player agents at the annual general managers meetings. They are happy to discuss hypotheticals, but they cannot commit to a path until they know whether they are retaining one, both or neither of Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto.
The industry expectation is that both will re-sign with the Phillies. But, until they do or don’t, it is hard to know how everything else fits into place.
“At some point you have to say, ‘Well, we can’t wait any longer,’” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Tuesday at The Cosmopolitan. “But we’re not anywhere near that at this point.”
The offseason is long. There are obvious priorities independent of Schwarber’s and Realmuto’s futures. It’s that time of year — the sun is setting earlier, the leaves are piling up, and the Phillies are searching for a competent outfield mix.
This much is clear: It will somehow involve Justin Crawford. Dombrowski has all but decided the prospect will be on the club’s Opening Day roster. It will not include Nick Castellanos, whom the Phillies are actively shopping at this week’s meetings, multiple major-league sources told The Athletic.
Dombrowski said he had a “lengthy conversation” with Castellanos. Without going into specifics, Dombrowski said the club is “open-minded” about Castellanos’ future.
“Sometimes a change of scenery can be beneficial for people,” Dombrowski said, “but we’ll wait and see what happens.”
The Phillies do not have much leverage here; the trade return for Castellanos will not be significant. He is owed $20 million in 2026, the final season of his five-year deal. The Phillies have signaled to clubs that they are willing to eat a large chunk of Castellanos’ salary. Teams might prefer the Phillies to attach a prospect to Castellanos instead of paying down the money. The Phillies would rather avoid that scenario.
If the Phillies cannot find a viable trade partner, they could release Castellanos, who turns 34 in March.
Nick Castellanos finished with an 88 OPS+, his lowest mark in any season in which he played more than 11 games. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
There are layers to this. The Phillies are seeking a righty hitting corner outfielder while trying to trade the guy they hoped would fill that role for the duration of his $100 million contract. The entire sport is seeking right-handed outfielders.
“Somebody just asked me earlier, ‘Well, do you want to get a right-handed outfielder?’ Well, yeah, I do,” Dombrowski said. “So do a lot of other people. And where do I find him? It’s not easy to do. That’s just what our jobs are. That’s why we have jobs.”
Last season, there were only 26 players who hit right-handed, played at least 60 percent of their games in the outfield, and accrued 400 plate appearances. That was the fewest in a non-shortened MLB season since 1968. The league had 20 teams then.
Two of those 26 players ended the season on the Phillies’ roster — Castellanos and Harrison Bader. The path of least resistance is re-signing Bader, putting Crawford in left field, then sliding Brandon Marsh to right field while securing a better platoon partner. It is unclear where Johan Rojas fits; he still has a minor-league option, but the Phillies have made him available in trade talks, league sources said.
The Phillies have been asking many of the same questions about their outfield for years. Can Rojas be an everyday guy? Can Marsh hit lefties? They might be content to move past those ideas.
Crawford, a polarizing prospect because of a swing that is tailored to hit the ball on the ground, will be a major factor.
“In my mind, Crawford has a real strong chance to be with our club,” Dombrowski said. “We’re giving him that opportunity to be with our club. We think he can play center field. Will that be our best with him in center? He’s never played right, so if it’s not center, he would have to play left. Is that our best setup as we go forward? I don’t know that. It’s very dependent, but we feel very comfortable if we said, ‘OK, you’re our center fielder.’ If that were the best (way), he would be fine to do that.”
Dombrowski acknowledged this whole puzzle would be easier if the Phillies were convinced Crawford could play a quality center field in the majors; then, they would be talking in different tones. Crawford’s offensive skill set — contact and speed without power — is suited for center field. It would allow the Phillies to pursue slugging options for the corner spots, where it’s traditionally easiest to find those types.
For now, Dombrowski sees a benefit to Crawford’s unsettled position. It allows him some flexibility in how he reconstructs the outfield.
“Are we better off signing somebody as a corner guy?” Dombrowski said. “Are we better off signing somebody who is a center fielder? What makes us the best? But I think we feel comfortable with him either way.”
The Phillies have money to spend; their 2026 payroll is expected to be near last year’s approximate $310 million, which ranked fourth in MLB. But there is no obvious right-handed-hitting outfielder to spend it on, outside of Bader. Free agent Rob Refsnyder makes sense as a potential platoon partner for Marsh. But that’s not solving everything in the outfield.
Ideally, Dombrowski said, he would acquire a righty hitter. But it could be a lefty. Boston’s Jarren Duran is one potential trade target. Regardless, the Phillies are setting measured expectations for how they will fill the outfield. Unprompted, Dombrowski talked about Max Kepler to illustrate the current outfield pursuit. The Phillies paid Kepler $10 million in 2025, and he was a replacement-level player for much of the season. He was, in Dombrowski’s estimation, a fine contributor.
“When you look at what our alternatives were, I don’t really know where we were going to get a better all-around player,” Dombrowski said. “I mean, he did well defensively. Was he an All-Star? No, but he did a solid job. And sometimes you have to realize that’s what you’re going to get — solid jobs. You’re not going to get all All-Stars. They’re not easy to find.”