MLB fans roasted Nick Castellanos after he narrowly checked his swing on a pitch that missed the strike zone by 4 feet

It’s difficult to imagine an everyday player starting off in a worse early season slump than what the Phillies’ Nick Castellanos is going through this season. And it’s especially easy to pick out a struggling hitter when they can’t even see the most obvious pitches outside the strike zone.

We saw that in a huge way on Monday night.

With Castellanos at the plate against Justin Lawrence in the seventh inning, an 83 mph sweeper completely missed the zone on an 0-2 count. Like, it crossed through the far corner of the left-handed batter’s box — that’s how off the pitch was.

Yet, Castellanos came stunningly close to swinging at the pitch. And really, it took a missed “no swing” call from first base umpire Brennan Miller to save Castellanos from the most embarrassing of strikeouts.

If we’re being honest, that’s a swing. But Castellanos was given the opportunity to strike out the following pitch instead of on a pitch that missed the strike zone by four feet.

Still, just the fact that Castellanos considered swinging at the pitch was enough to have MLB fans roasting the slumping outfielder.