Philadelphia Phillies Slugger Must Be More Consistent This Postseason

The Philadelphia Phillies need their star slugger to have a much more consistent outing this time around after an unbalanced 2023 postseason performance.

Sep 20, 2024; New York City, New York, USA; Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos (8) follows through on an RBI double during the third inning against the New York Mets at Citi Field. / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Phillies have already punched their ticket to the postseason, which means some players can begin to put their focus on preparing for the pressure that is about be put on them.

Brian Murphy of MLB.com recently put together a list of stars that need to put together a better postseason than they did last year. Phillies slugger Nick Castellanos made the list, thanks to his wildly inconsistent presence in October.

Though Castellanos has been a prolific slugger for much of his career, that success hasn't always translated to the postseason.

He has a career postseason slashing line of just .197/.252/.386 over his four career appearances.

The pressure of batting in the postseason is relatively new to him, despite being a 12-year veteran. With the Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds, he made it just twice and played in just five games. It was a mediocre couple of games, but a small sample size to pull from.

Philadelphia's 2022 run was the Florida native's first extensive experience in October (into early November) and the results were no where anyone wanted them to be, but that wasn't too shocking given that it was a down year overall.

His regular season slashing line of just .263/.305/.389 with 13 home runs was easily the worst of his career.

He followed it up by posting just a .185/.232/.246 line in 17 games with no home runs. The outfielder drove in just one run in the World Series and struck out nearly half the times he went up to the plate.

When the former Silver Slugger winner made his way into his second career All-Star game in 2023, hopes were high that he could turn things around with a better postsesaon outing.

It certainly started out dominant with a .391/.440/1.000 slashing line through the first two series, which included four home runs in the final two games of the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves.

He became just the second player, joining 'Mr. October' Reggie Jackson, to hit five home runs in a three-game span in the postseason after he started the NLCS out with another bomb.

Over the next six games he went 0-for-20 at the plate with 10 strikeouts, leading to a heartbreaking series loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Castellanos has already turned his season around from a horrid start, so now he just needs to right the ship from his past postseason shortcomings.