Padres fans weren’t ready for Nick Castellanos to look this smooth at first base

The Padres losing a spring training opener 7-4 is the kind of thing that’s supposed to vanish into the cactus air by dinner. Box scores in February are basically fan fiction. But if you were watching for anything real — anything that might actually matter — Nick Castellanos getting a start at first base was the kind of experiment that can quietly turn into a solution.

Castellanos made two plays in the fourth inning that were way more telling than “nice spring defense.” The first was the kind you only notice because it’s clean: he ranged to his right on a J.P. Crawford grounder, gathered it like it wasn’t new terrain, then flipped an underhand toss to Wandy Peralta covering first for the out. No panic. No awkward feet. No “new position” clunkiness. Just a play that looked normal.

Padres’ first base experiment with Nick Castellanos looks dangerously convincing

Then he followed it with the one that actually makes people sit up. Colt Emerson hit a hard grounder with a runner on second, and Castellanos dove to his right, popped up, and made an overhand throw to Peralta at first to end the inning and keep the Mariners from tacking on. He looked like a natural. 

This is the part where you can feel the Padres fan brain start doing the spreadsheet work. Because if Castellanos can be even passable at first base, it doesn’t just give the Padres another option — it changes the way they can build a lineup on a given night. It opens a door to keep a better bat in the mix, to mix-and-match without turning the defense into a nightly compromise, and to protect the roster from depth issues.

Nobody should crown him the answer off two fourth-inning plays in February. But the early returns matter because they didn’t look fluky. They looked repeatable. And that’s the whole game here: the Padres don’t need Castellanos to be a Gold Glover at first. They need him to look like he belongs there when the season stops being theoretical.

For one inning, he did. And that’s exactly why this spring training experiment might not stay one for long.