Dave Dombrowski can tell you how it tastes to eat $20-million. Technically, if Castellanos signs elsewhere, that team would have to pay the now former Phillies right fielder $700-thousand, so it’s really only $19.3-million. Still, it’s enough to leave a bad taste in your mouth, I’m sure. The Phillies were unable to find a team to deal Castellanos to, so the only alternatives were to bring him back — which never was going to happen — or just release him.

It was reported on Wednesday that the Phillies had told Castellanos to not report to Spring Training and that there was no locker with Castellanos name on it in the Phillies clubhouse in Clearwater.

On his way out the door, Castellanos posted two hand-written letters to his Instagram account. The first is a thank you to the Phillies and the fans. The second is the interesting one; Castellanos details the night in Miami when he was pulled from the game, which led to him facing a benching and effectively pushing himself out the door. In the letter addressing the incident, Castellanos noted breaking a team rule by bringing a beer into the dugout.

“I then sat right next to Rob (Thomson) and let him know that too much slack in some areas and to [sic] tight of restrictions in others are not condusive [sic] to us winning,” says Castellanos in the letter. “After the game, I went into the office with Dave & Rob. We aired out our differences and the conversation ended with me apologizing for letting my emotions get the best of me. I would like to note that I was ready to share the details of the incident in its entirety to the media the next day but was instructed not to by management.”

Matt Gelb in The Athletic provided more details that included a dugout confrontation and other details. (Because a subscription is required to read the article, the details will not be detailed here.)

Castellanos is now free to sign with any club and that team would need only pay him the major league minimum for the final season of his contract while the Phillies pay the remainder of the salary. Castellanos is from Miami, which ironically is where the dugout incident occurred, and the Marlins would make sense for both him and the team. It remains to be seen if other teams will shy away from Castellanos because of the incident.