Photo Credit: On Base with Mookie Betts
By Sam Neumann on

Nick Castellanos has turned hostile media exchanges into an art form, and his recent appearance on Mookie Betts’s show finally explains why.

Castellanos appeared on Betts’s Bleacher Report show, On Base, this week and opened up about his approach to media interviews. The conversation revealed why the Phillies outfielder has become baseball’s most entertainingly confrontational interview subject.

Castellanos explained to Betts that he felt comfortable in this informal setting because he didn’t consider it a traditional interview where he needed to have his guard up against reporters trying to paint their predetermined narrative.

“I won’t be as blunt because I don’t consider this an interview, I feel like this is a conversation,” he told the Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop. “Sometimes with media, I’ll have my guard up because I know that they’ll ask questions because they’re just trying to paint their narrative.”

Betts immediately acknowledged how brutal the Philadelphia media market can be, noting that “Especially in Philly, too. Philly’s gotta be a tough market when it comes to writers and all those other things.”

The discussion took an entertaining turn when both players started mocking the obvious questions that apparently drive them crazy.

“The questions I hate are like, ‘What happened when you didn’t catch the ball?’ It’s like, well, I didn’t catch the ball,” Betts said. “There’s no other… That was it. You watched what happened.”

“I swung and missed at that pitch,” Castellanos said. “I tried to hit it, and it didn’t work.”

“They’ll be like, ‘What did you see when you hit this double in the ninth inning to go ahead?’ I saw a pitch and I swung and I hit it,” Betts added.

Castellanos brought up a specific example that apparently still annoys him.

“There was one interview I had after I got a walk-off hit, I think it was against the Braves last year,” he said. “And I mean, the question, the way that this lady asked the question was, it was marvelous, to say the least.”

That comment likely refers to his exchange with ESPN’s Nicole Briscoe in September 2024. After Castellanos delivered a walk-off hit against Atlanta, Briscoe asked what he saw on the pitch that allowed him to be “the guy who was mobbed on the field.” He responded with a deadpan “Four-seam fastball.”

It’s far from his only memorable media moment. Castellanos has built quite the highlight reel of uncomfortable reporter exchanges. His July 2022 confrontation with NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury remains perhaps his most infamous.

After being asked if he heard boos from fans following a strikeout, Castellanos sarcastically replied, “No, man, I lost my hearing,” then called it a “stupid question” and asked other reporters to explain why it was so obvious. The exchange grew so heated that Phillies PR had to end the session early.

Then there’s his October 2023 playoff exchange with TBS’s Matt Winer. After Winer told him about his historic postseason performance without actually asking a question, Castellanos fired back: “Where’s the question in that?” When Winer admitted there wasn’t one, Castellanos replied: “Thank you for telling me.”

During their conversation, both players acknowledged the awkward reality of dealing with media obligations.

“They’re just trying to do their jobs,” Betts said. “We try to answer questions respectfully, but you know…”

Castellanos explained that he actually appreciates when reporters structure their questions properly. Sometimes reporters will answer the question within the question, allowing for a yes-or-no response, but open-ended questions give them room to articulate their thoughts.

Based on their conversation, it sounds like Castellanos’s media moments aren’t about being difficult with individual reporters. It’s more about his frustration with getting asked the same obvious questions over and over again. When reporters phone it in, apparently so does he.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann