Phillies' Nick Castellanos on MLB Players Aging: 'You're Either Milk or Wine'

As he prepares for his 12th MLB season, Nick Castellanos is determined to have the best season of his career.

"There's a lot of baseball players that are like milk," Castellanos told Matt Gelb of The Athletic. "Milk is only good when it's fresh. And then as you leave it out a while, it spoils. There are some other baseball players that are like wine. What happens with wine?

"Exactly. Those are the only two kinds. You're either milk or wine. There's no in the middle."

Castellanos is in the third season of a five-year, $100 million contract he signed with the Phillies ahead of the 2022 season. After a wildly disappointing first year in Philly, Castellanos hit 272/.311/.476 with 29 home runs and 106 runs batted in. He made his second career All-Star team in the process.

While Castellanos' overall numbers were solid last season, the Phillies will hope for better consistency in 2024. He failed to record a hit in his last 23 postseason at bats as Philadelphia was upset in the NLCS by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

"It's cool because I find that in my 30s, even though I'm coming into my 11th year (in the majors), there's just so many different avenues that are motivating me to keep it fresh," Castellanos said. "And I think that the more that I get older, the more I realize how temporary it all is."

The Phillies enter the 2024 season with high hopes of making another postseason run and have one of the most loaded lineups in baseball. Castellanos is joined by Bryce Harper, Trae Turner, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto and Alec Bohm in a powerful group that could each top 20 home runs easily next season.

It'll be up to Castellanos to continue proving he's aging like wine for the Phillies to reach their potential.