Adolis García, Nick Castellanos and the Phillies’ quest for a righty-hitting OF
SAN DIEGO — Adolis García took three at-bats Monday afternoon. He fell behind 0-2 in the count each time. Twice, he struck out looking. And, in the fifth inning, he took a panicked swing at a curveball well out of the zone. It resulted in a lazy fly ball to center. García stepped on first base, shed his batting gloves and went back out to right field.
There is no other choice for the Phillies and their 33-year-old Cuban outfielder.
“Everything you do in life, you just have to trust that you’re going to get the results that you want,” García said through a team interpreter. “If not, you have to move on and keep working.”
This Phillies season is one-third complete, and as they marked their arrival at Petco Park with a 3-0 win, it was only natural to look toward right field. They clubbed two home runs that traveled over Nick Castellanos’ head to secure the win over the San Diego Padres. García is the one who replaced Castellanos; the Phillies are spending almost $30 million on right field in 2026 between the two men. In reality, with luxury-tax penalties, it is much more.
It has not yielded much.
“I don’t look at the beginning of the season,” García said. “I just look at how it ends.”
That’s fair; it is also fair to wonder whether, by the end of this season, García will still be the team’s primary right fielder. The Phillies, a .500 team, have several issues. The offense is grinding through collective struggles. As a team, the Phillies are eighth in the majors in homers but 17th in slugging percentage. Only three teams (New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays) have experienced bigger year-to-year decreases in slugging percentage.
The Phillies signed García for some thump. It hasn’t appeared yet. He has pulled four balls in the air this entire month. Two were line-drive singles. Another was a pop-out. The most recent one, in Sunday’s loss to the Cleveland Guardians, was a double to the left-field corner for García’s first extra-base hit in 15 days. He has not homered since May 6.
His current rate of pulled balls in the air is the lowest of his career.
“Numbers do not always tell the full story because there was a period of time where I was in the zone a lot, making a lot of hard contact, and the results didn’t show,” García said. “When you do the right things in that way, and things don’t happen, just trust God that it’s going to come through.”
Adolis García and Bryson Stott celebrate after winning the series opener against the Padres. (Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)
García resembles many of the Phillies’ right-handed hitters; the team has wanted them to use the whole field. They should sell out for power, but only in the appropriate counts. The ideal state is a selectively aggressive hitter. It is a difficult nirvana to reach.
Especially for García, one of the biggest chasers in MLB over the last few seasons. The Phillies signed García to a one-year deal, identifying him as a potential bounce-back candidate. He was, after all, an All-Star in 2023. As a Texas Ranger, he played his home games in a ballpark that suppressed power. That must count for something.
He’s hitting .200 with a .598 OPS. He is 2 for his last 43 with 24 strikeouts. It is the type of slump that usually would prompt less playing time or, at the very least, some sort of reset.
The Phillies do not have that luxury.
“I don’t really feel like we have a true alternative,” interim manager Don Mattingly said over the weekend. “‘OK, this guy’s going to totally be an upgrade offensively. We know we’re going to get something out of that.’ Then I’d probably be more willing to try to score some runs and defend (with García as a substitute). But I think Adolis is still in there.”
The Phillies have traded for a righty-hitting outfielder at each of the past two trade deadlines. It was Austin Hays in 2024 and Harrison Bader in 2025. They explored the trade market in July 2023 but stuck with what they had. It has been a perpetual need, and it’s likely something the Phillies must address again before this year’s Aug. 3 deadline.
This season, their right-handed outfielders have combined to produce a .501 OPS in 245 plate appearances. (Most of it is García.) That is 117 points worse than the 1989 Phillies, who own the franchise’s worst mark for that split.
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was content with García as his lone external addition to the lineup this offseason. The Phillies have since passed on potential in-season upgrades such as Randal Grichuk, a veteran who mashed four homers in 27 plate appearances after signing with the Chicago White Sox in early May. Austin Slater, another righty outfielder with some past success, has been with the Miami Marlins and Mets this season and is a free agent. The Phillies are not expected to pursue him as depth, league sources said.
The pool is thinning every year. Across the sport, entering Monday, all right-handed-hitting outfielders had combined to produce a .695 OPS. It is the lowest figure for that specific split since at least 1969, and it was 14 points lower than the next-worst season (.709 OPS in 2024). In fact, five of the six worst seasons for righty outfielders since 1969 have come since 2022.
It’s an epidemic.
Castellanos, who went 0-for-3 in Monday’s game to lower his OPS to .556, said he would have been more receptive to a reduced role as a platoon player with the Phillies. “For sure,” he said. “I always answer my phone when anybody calls me.”
The Phillies see that as revisionist history; it might have taken getting released for Castellanos to have a more magnanimous outlook on things. Even so, Castellanos has not been a productive player for the Padres. If anything, a struggling García can remain close to replacement level because he plays an above-average right field.
That is the tiniest consolation right now. García has tinkered with his approach and stance several times this season. He is not chasing as much as he once did. As he’s attempted to be more disciplined, he might have lost some of the aggressiveness that resulted in power production.
“Hitting is the hardest thing to do in the sport,” García said. “Adjustments take time, so especially with hitting, it’s going to be a hard thing to do. Because it’s just hard.”