Nick

Castellanos

Manny Machado’s sac fly won the game in the 10th. Before that, Castellanos deposited a 98.5-mph sinker from Riley O’Brien into the seats in left to break up a shutout bid with two outs in the ninth. It was his second at-bat off the bench after he was inserted as a pinch-hitter in the seventh. Castellanos is sitting at .192/.231/.329 with two homers in 78 plate appearances. His roster status should still be pretty shaky, but it’s helping him right now that Miguel Andujar is struggling of late.

The Padres again used Fernando Tatis Jr. at second in order to play Castellanos in right field tonight, and it again made very little sense. Castellanos missed a ball that Tatis easily would have caught to produce the Cardinals’ second run of the game in the seventh in what wound up being a 2-1 loss. It might be worth it if Castellanos were hitting, but he’s at .183/.224/.282 in 78 plate appearances.

Miguel Andujar also hit his first homer today and still has 330 points of OPS on Castellanos (.830 to .493), so we’re not sure this is going to help much with playing time. Castellanos has started three of the Padres’ last 10 games, compared to seven for Andujar and five for Ty France. It still wouldn’t be much of a surprise if Castellanos is off the San Diego roster by Memorial Day.

Machado was removed from Monday’s game with a calf injury and sat out on Tuesday, but he’ll be right back out there on Wednesday. Miguel Andujar will play third again, while Nick Castellanos will start in left field and bat eighth, with Ramon Laureano getting a day off.

France, now 9-for-34 with three homers on the season, has started two straight games against righties and should be clearly ahead of Miguel Andujar and Nick Castellanos on the Padres’ depth chart for the moment. It’s not really relevant outside of NL-only leagues, but it is extra reason to think the Padres might move on from Castellanos in the not-so-distant future.

Even if Fernando Tatis Jr. functioning as a backup second baseman does make it a little more workable to have Castellanos, Miguel Andujar and Ty France all on the roster together, it’s still not going to make sense for the Padres to stick with this arrangement forever, especially since Luis Campusano might be a better right-handed DH than any of them. At this point, Castellanos seems like the obvious choice to get the boot if the Padres want to add a little more versatility. He’s just 7-for-43 with three doubles and no RBI.

It will be the first time that Tatis starts at second base. The 27-year-old is a former shortstop and plenty athletic, so it shouldn’t be too difficult a transition; even if there are some growing pains. Nick Castellanos will be the right fielder, Jake Cronenworth will handle shortstop and Xander Bogaerts is on the bench to begin Saturday’s game.

It’s just a routine day off for Machado, who doesn’t get many of those. Miguel Andujar will start at third base with Nick Castellanos in the lineup at designated hitter.

Andújar had the day off on Wednesday and has been alternating games a bit with Nick Castellanos to start the season. Andújar has gone 2-for-12 to start the season, which is exactly the same as Castellanos. For now, nobody is running away with the job.

Laureano takes a seat after making four consecutive starts in left field to open the season. The 31-year-old is off to a really strong start at the dish, hitting .357 (5-for-14) with one homer and one steal in four contests. It’ll be Nick Castellanos heading out to cover left field and face Giants ace Logan Webb.