02/14/2026
BREAKING: The Padres are signing both Nick Castellanos and Griffin Canning to round out their 2025-2026 offseason!!
Castellanos will sign on a 1-year deal for league minimum, with the remaining 19 million on his contract with the Phillies will be paid by them. The specifics on the Canning deal has not been made available yet, but I doubt it will be anything outrageously expensive. When the numbers are made public, I’ll be sure to give an update.
My thoughts on this: Honestly, I really like it. I absolutely love both of these moves by Preller and they address our two biggest remaining needs before the season begins.
Canning is a pitcher with a lot of upside and shores up the rotation. He had some solid performances last season and ended the year with a sub 4 ERA. Canning seems like a Pivetta type signing where we can see him take a big step forward after Niebla and the pitching lab work with him.
Castellanos did not have a great season last year by any metric but we know he’s been capable of putting up elite offensive numbers across multiple seasons in the past, so he’s a solid “change of scenery” pickup. He is able to play first base, DH, and outfield, if we really need him to, although he is notoriously bad in the field. This addresses our final major need on the position player side and, although it’s by no means a guarantee he will be successful, the fact he’s on a league minimum deal makes this risk completely worth it. The Philly org has been very publicly criticizing and trying to get rid of Castellanos for a while, which to some extent, probably affected his success on the field. Hopefully with a fresh start, he can start to look like the Castellanos of old.
What do you guys think of these signings by Preller?
