The post Nick Castellanos brought beer into Phillies dugout amid Miami bench incident originally appeared on The Sporting News. Click here to add Sports News as your go-to source.
The Philadelphia Phillies finally made the decision everyone had been waiting for: They released Nick Castellanos. The $20 million outfielder won’t be on the roster for the 2026 season, and it’s a matter of time, not question, if he leaves the team.
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But someone close to Castellanos also responded to the news, expressing his gratitude to Phillies fans while also revealing what happened in the Miami incident that prompted the eventual release.
On Castellanos’ Instagram, he revealed that he brought a bottle of beer into the dugout after being pulled during a Miami switch. The story behind this incident is crazy, and it’s not just the beer in the break room.
Nick Castellanos brings beer into Phillies dugout
“As a veteran of the game of baseball, there are rules, but I broke them in Miami,” Castellanos wrote. “I brought a speaker into the dugout after being escorted out of a close ballgame in front of my friends and family. Then I sat next to Rob and let him know that some areas were too loose and other areas were too restrictive for us to win. Kudos to my teammates and Howie who took the beer out of my hand before I could even take a sip of it (I thank you guys).”
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We now know the story behind last season’s crazy benching incident with Castellanos in Miami. It was reported at the time that Castellanos said something inappropriate to Rob Thomson and he was substituted the next day.
But now, Castellanos’ story suggests that while his criticism was unfounded, the real problem was that he brought beer into the break room.
This is an unwritten rule not just in baseball, but in the workplace as a whole. It would have been highly inappropriate for Castellanos to drink a beer in the dugout after coming on as a substitute.
While his frustration was slowly getting to him, luckily, as Castellanos explained, he never drank that beer because his teammates stopped him from making a bad situation worse.
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Castellanos revealed that he went to apologize to Thomson after the game and that Dave Dobmrocks was also in the meeting. He offered to clarify the matter to the media but was asked not to do so.
While the Phillies did not impose a suspension on Castellanos, his penalty was to be benched in a game in Miami the next day.
The incident was one of the biggest ones for the Phillies last year, and we now know why things were kept secret and why Castellanos was benched.
Castellanos is now a free agent and can sign anywhere this offseason. His tenure in Philadelphia ended a year earlier than it should have, but as 2025 progresses, a split isn’t a matter of if, but how and when.
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