Philadelphia Phillies Slugger Says 'Chasing Less' Is Hurting Offense

One of the Philadelphia Phillies sluggers thinks that he knows what has ailed their offense so far to start the season.

Mar 4, 2024; Dunedin, Florida, USA; Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos / Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies have not gotten off to the start offensively that they would have liked.

Despite their entire lineup entering the season healthy, they have not produced at the plate like they did late last year when they were one of the most dominant teams in baseball.

Entering Thursday, they were 25th in runs scored (45), 19th in homers (11), 25th in RBI, and bottom half in batting average (.235), on-base percentage (.315), and slugging percentage (.340).

The Phillies look like a completely different team on offense and one of their sluggers thinks he knows why.

"I think that I put too much stress on my chase percentages. Wanting so much to just swing at good pitches that I feel like I lost the whippiness and the looseness that I had attacking the ball," Nick Castellanos told Matt Gelb of The Athletic.

It's been a struggle this year for the 2023 All-Star as he held a slash line of .163/.265/.163 through 12 games. He had yet to record an extra-base hit during this time, meaning he also hadn't had one go over the fence.

When looking at Castellanos' numbers from last season to this one, he has dropped his chase rate.

In 2023 it was at 41.0%. This year it's 38.1%.

Castellanos isn't the only one either. Philadelphia wanted to put an emphasis on being more disciplined at the plate throughout 2024 after they flamed out in the National League Championship Series last year.

So far, that's been the case as their chase rate has gone from 31.3%, good for fourth-worst in the MLB, to 28.8%, which puts them at 19th in the league.

Manager Rob Thomson knows there's a fine line between being disciplined at the plate, and being too cautious.

"I think we have to be careful sometimes because we talk about, 'Don't chase. Don't chase. Don't chase.' And then we want to have balance because you want to maintain your aggression in the strike zone. So I think there could be a couple of guys going through that," he said.

Here's the good news: it was only 12 games into the season before they began their series against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday.

They have plenty of time to figure out this new approach at the plate, and while it might not be pretty right now, this could actually help them in the long run.