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PITTSBURGH – After the Reds were knocked out of the playoffs on Tuesday, Reds right fielder Nick Castellanos began to think more about his future. Castellanos may exercise a opt-out clause from his four-year, $ 64million contract during the offseason, but he has yet to make his decision.
“I have no information for you simply because there is [are] so many variables that have yet to be revealed, ”Castellanos said on the pitch at PNC Park ahead of Saturday’s game against the Pirates.
Castellanos plans to have conversations with his wife, Jess, and his agent, Scott Boras, after the season.
“I don’t know what I want,” Castellanos said. “There is so much information that I will integrate. I also have to take into account the state of the match. The collective agreement is coming now. Once I step back from the season and have a few days at home with my family and can just hang out with my wife, dog, and kid, we can just talk about what’s going on. happened and get as much information as I did. can.”
Coming in on Saturday, Castellanos, 29, already has new career highs in batting average, base percentage, stroke percentage, OPS and home runs. He’s down .308 / .362 / .570 with 33 home runs and his 97 RBIs are just short of his career mark of 101 of 2017 with the Tigers.
“It was the most consistent 162-game season I’ve had,” said Castellanos. “Coming back from 2019, 2020 is hard for me to criticize in any way because of how different it is. I am proud of myself, but there are areas where I recognize that I have failed and that I can improve myself.
Castellanos remains disappointed that the Reds are not a playoff team this year.
“We failed, plain and simple,” he said. “We didn’t make the playoffs.
This could be Castellanos’ second foray into the free agent market after hitting it after the 2019 season before signing with Cincinnati in January 2020. He knows it could be a stressful winter trying to figure out where he wants to play .
Even if Castellanos pulls out and hits the open market, he could still come back to the Reds. The club would likely extend a qualifying offer to him to ensure the return of a compensation pick if he fails.
“These are important decisions,” said Castellanos. “You have to balance everything you can: how much you love the place where you play, how close it is to you because I’m co-parenting, where the organization is able to compete and, well of course, the part is also important. It’s a balance of all this, which goes [help] make the best decision possible. It could very well be here in Cincinnati. The negotiation agreement could go to [pot] and i am not able to retire so i have no idea what will happen.
During his first year with the Reds, Castellanos lamented that COVID-19 protocols kept him from getting used to Cincinnati, Reds fans and his general environment. His performance and intensity helped make him a fan favorite throughout 2021.
“First of all, I have enormous respect for the organization of the Reds; just the history of baseball in Cincinnati, how they played the game, the pride they have in playing the game, the chip on their shoulder that they played the game with during the time they succeeded and won ”, Castellanos said. “It’s really instructive to be able to use that. I think being able to have conversations and learn what the best teams in the Reds all had in common, just so I could make the most of those characteristics and implement them into my game to improve myself.
As he played in the Reds’ last home game in 2021 – a 13-1 win over the Pirates on Monday where he hit a home run with five RBIs – Castellanos tried to soak up the stage for a possible dead last memory.
“Great American is a beautiful stadium,” said Castellanos. “The weather was perfect. It was a great win, the fans and everything. Of course I was taking everything into account. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it has been the most consistent and the happiest I have ever had. played baseball… my 2021 season.
Reds second baseman Jonathan India was not in Saturday’s lineup against Pittsburgh. India is uninjured, but he has been plagued by many aches and pains after playing 149 games and being touched by pitches 22 times at the top of the National League.
Reds manager David Bell also didn’t rule India out of the roster in Sunday’s final.
“He had a great season. He played a lot, ”said Bell. “No player is 100% right now, he might be the furthest physically. I kind of made the decision to get him out of there because he’ll never let it show or of course , won’t ask to come out of the lineup. He wants to play so badly I had to and I didn’t need to talk to him about it. I just took him out of the roster for his sake.
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