Phillies' Nick Castellanos would like to see 'severe consequences' for MLB owners who don't try to win

Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park, the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies picked up an important win over the second-place Atlanta Braves (PHI 5, ATL 4). Atlanta had won nine of its previous 11 games and closed to within five games of first place. The Phillies erased a 4-0 deficit Thursday thanks in large part to Nick Castellanos' go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh inning.

Here is the game-deciding blast. The Phillies were seven outs away from a four-game lead in the division, which would have been their smallest since May 18. Instead, they're back to six games up.

"It's fun, man," Castellanos, who earlier this week explained his lack of approach, said after Thursday's go-ahead homer (via MLB.com). "It's a high. It's a cool feeling when you have everybody stand up and just show you love."

Hours before his game-winning home run, an interview Castellanos recently did with MLB FITS was posted online. The Phillies slugger said he would like to see owners penalized when their team performs poorly. 

Here's what Castellanos said when asked what he would do if he were commissioner for a day:

"I would change that ownership doesn't have any severe consequences for losing for an extended period of time," Castellanos said. "You know, so like, just like if we're in the big leagues and we don't perform well, we get demoted or cut. If their organization didn't perform well, somebody else would have an opportunity to buy it from then. You know, just to, just you know like keep to where nobody can really own the game of baseball 'cause the game of baseball is above true ownership."

While I appreciate the sentiment -- giving owners a reason to prioritize winning -- I'm not sure forcing owners to sell their team for several billions of dollars is the best way to go about it. The only language a lot of owners speak is money. To get their attention, you have to hit them in their wallet. Taking away national broadcast money or revenue sharing dollars would probably be more effective than forcing them to sell. That's just my two cents though.

Castellanos' comments come less than two weeks after Phillies chairman John Middleton, one of the select few owners who clearly puts winning above all, said owners have an obligation to the city and the fan base to try to win. Middleton purchased a minority stake in the Phillies in 1994, increased his ownership over the years, and took over as the team's control person in 2016.

"It's remarkable how special this city is as a fan base," Middleton said. "It's why I keep telling everybody, it may be a privately held business that we own, but it's not a private organization. It's a very public organization. It's a stewardship. We have an obligation. We are accountable to the fans and to the city. If you don't approach it that way, you shouldn't be an owner, in my opinion."

The current collective bargaining agreement, which covers 2022-26, introduced several new measures intended to combat what we'll call anti-competitive behavior. There's a new draft lottery, so being terrible doesn't automatically mean you pick at the top of the draft, plus teams are rewarded with extra draft picks when they do not manipulate the service time of their top prospects.

Because of the lottery rules, the Chicago White Sox can not pick higher than 10th overall in next year's draft despite being on pace to lose over 120 games. Chicago held the No. 5 pick in the 2024 draft and teams that pay into revenue sharing can not have lottery picks in back-to-back years. That's one punishment for being bad for several years, though not an especially harsh one.

Castellanos, 32, is hitting .250/.303/.425 with 19 home runs this season. He's been especially good the last few weeks, authoring a .297/.338/.505 line with 14 doubles and eight home runs in his last 51 games.