Source: Phillies finalizing one-year, $10 million deal with outfielder Adolis García

At a time when righty-hitting outfielders with power are in short supply across baseball, the Phillies will wager on a onetime postseason star to have a bounceback season.

The Phillies are finalizing a one-year, $10 million contract with free-agent outfielder Adolis García, major league sources said Monday. The deal, which is pending a physical, was reported first by Beisbol FG.

García, 32, is expected to replace Nick Castellanos in right field. The Phillies intend to trade or release Castellanos, who is owed $20 million in 2026 but lost his everyday job in August amid declining performance and clashes with manager Rob Thomson.

» READ MORE: Adolis García could be the new Nick Castellanos, and he looks the part. Uncomfortably so.

The Phillies’ agreement with García comes 361 days after an identical one-year, $10 million free-agent deal with outfielder Max Kepler.

It represents a similar bet, too.

García, who will be 33 next season and played for the Rangers since 2020, wasn’t tendered a contract last month after batting .225/.278/.397 with a 96 OPS-plus over the last two years. He was projected to make $12.1 million in salary arbitration, according to MLB Trade Rumors.

In particular, García struggled to make contact, with a 30.3% whiff rate last season and 33.6% the year before. For context, Castellanos had a 29.9% whiff rate last season and 30.1% in 2024. García’s bat speed has also dipped in the last two years.

But when García connects, he still hits the ball hard. He ranked in the 89th percentile among all hitters last season in average exit velocity (92.1 mph), which mirrored his mark from 2023 when he smashed 39 homers and had a 127 OPS-plus, career-best totals. García also batted .323 with eight homers in the 2023 postseason and was MVP of the American League Championship Series en route to helping the Rangers win the World Series.

The Phillies will count on hitting coach Kevin Long to bring about a revival for García. And maybe he will benefit from hitting in Citizens Bank Park.

» READ MORE: The Phillies intend to move on from Nick Castellanos. But will they find a trade match?

Even if García’s decline at the plate continues, he figures to be a massive defensive upgrade in right field. Known for his elite arm strength, García tied for third among all outfielders with 16 defensive runs saved above average and was a Gold Glove finalist. He won a Gold Glove in 2023.

Castellanos rated among the worst defenders at any position last season, 11 runs saved below average, according to Sports Info Solutions. His offense is in a three-year decline (OPS-plus: 112, 104, 88 over the last three years). And Thomson benched him in June in Miami for insubordination in the dugout after being removed for defense in the ninth inning.

Even with Castellanos, the Phillies, like many teams, looked everywhere in recent years in search of righty-hitting outfield help. After committing to Johan Rojas as a rookie in 2023, they traded for Austin Hays and Harrison Bader on back-to-back July deadlines.

Last winter, the available righty-hitting outfield options were so scarce that the Phillies signed lefty-swinging Kepler, who batted .216/.300/.391 with 18 homers and an 88 OPS-plus. And although president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has defended Kepler’s season, he also said multiple times that the Phillies would not re-sign him.

The scarcity of righty-hitting outfielders was evident earlier in the offseason, when the Orioles traded a pitcher with four years of team control (Grayson Rodriguez) to the Angels for Taylor Ward, a corner outfielder entering his last year before free agency.

García ranks 10th among all righty-hitting outfielders with 44 homers over the last two seasons.

“There’s just a lot more left-handed hitters nowadays than there are right-handed hitters, for whatever reason,” Dombrowski said last week. “We’ll talk about something that comes up, and I’ll say, ‘Yeah, but that’s a left-handed hitter again.’”

» READ MORE: The Phillies are sticking with a veteran core in 2026. But this time the kids have to play too.

García’s presence in right field likely means top prospect Justin Crawford will play center with Brandon Marsh in left, at least against right-handed pitching. The Phillies could still add a righty-hitting outfielder, or open the door again to Rojas, to share time with Marsh.

Once finalized, García’s contract will boost the Phillies’ 2026 payroll commitments to approximately $295 million, as calculated for the luxury tax. That figure includes Castellanos’ salary. If the Phillies are able to trade him, they almost certainly will have to swallow all or most of the $20 million.

» READ MORE: Kyle Schwarber found his way back to the Phillies, and he hopes J.T. Realmuto does the same

The Phillies still hope to bring back free-agent catcher J.T. Realmuto, which would put them in range with their final 2025 payroll figure of roughly $312 million.

During the winter meetings last week in Orlando, rival team officials painted the Phillies as interested in trading from the major league roster to create payroll space to add in other areas, including the outfield and bullpen. They remain interested in re-signing Bader, although he’s believed to be seeking to parlay a career-best season at the plate into a three-year contract.

It’s possible, then, that García will represent the Phillies’ biggest outfield addition.