The Ramos roundup is a weekly sports column highlighting all the news of the week featuring the Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, Sixers, and Union.
Phillies Cut Castellanos; Signs One-Year Deal with Padres
On Thursday, the Phillies have announced that they have released right fielder Nick Castellanos. He is owed $20 million for the upcoming season, which Philadelphia will be on the hook to pay out a large majority of that deal. On Saturday, he agreed to terms with the San Diego Padres on a one-year deal.
Moreover, Castellanos took to Instagram to say his goodbyes to the city and addressed his reportedly rocky relationship with manager Rob Thomson. The relationship reached an all-time low over last summer, when Thomson pulled Castellanos from a game for defensive purposes in Miami. After being yanked, Castellanos proceeded to bring an unopened beer into the dugout and exchanged words with Thomson.
In my view, nobody really comes out of this situation without some blame. The Phillies should have severed ties with the Castellanos camp sooner in the off-season when it became clear they could not trade him. Castellanos, on the other hand, could have been more of a professional and not resorting to that kind of childish behavior. As spring training begins to get underway, the organization doesn’t need to draw anymore negative attention at this time.
Edgecombe Wins Rising Stars MVP, Maxey Wins All-Star Game Championship
On Friday, Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe compiled 17 points in the semifinals and six in the title game to win the Rising Stars Challenge MVP award. Edgecombe played for Team Vince Carter in the event and defeated Team Melo. He took the game seriously, stating that he was coming to the event to win it and did just that. His teammate and friend, Tyrese Maxey was sitting courtside to support his teammate before he took the floor in his first all-star start on Sunday.
Maxey, on the other hand, participated in the All-Star game, which featured a brand new format on Sunday with two USA teams of American players and Team World of international players in a round-robin tournament. Maxey played alongside Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker, Chet Holmgren and others on Team USA Stars. They met the other USA team, Team Stripes, in the finals and Maxey finished with nine points on 4-for-8 shooting as his team won 47-21 over to clinch the championship.
Checking in with Flyers at Milano Cortina 2026
The Flyers remain off for the Winter Olympic Games, but a trio of players are representing their countries from the orange and black. Travis Sanheim suited up in two of Team Canada’s three games during the Group A round robin this past week. Canada lost defensemen Josh Morissey to injury, which allowed Sanheim to get into the lineup.
Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar picked up a 6-3 win in his only start of the round robin on Friday. Vladar was not very busy at all, as he saw just 12 shots in the contest. The most impressive effort, however, has been Rasmus Ristolainen’s at Milano Cortina. The Finnish defender leads all players in the tournament with a plus/minus rating of plus eight through the first three games. He also registered two assists in an 11-0 crushing of Team Italy on Friday.
The knockout stage of the tournament will begin Tuesday.
