diff --git a/src/main/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/service/operation/reranking/ScoredDocument.java b/src/main/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/service/operation/reranking/ScoredDocument.java
index de61c343a2..2c9cc8626c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/service/operation/reranking/ScoredDocument.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/service/operation/reranking/ScoredDocument.java
@@ -123,26 +123,9 @@ static ScoredDocument create(
             ? DocumentScores.fromBm25Read(rank)
             : DocumentScores.EMPTY;
 
+    // only text can be a passage, missing, null and other types are dropped
     var passageNode = passageLocator.findValueIn(document);
-    var passage =
-        switch (passageNode) {
-          case MissingNode ignored -> {
-            // undefined in the document, default to null so it is dropped
-            yield null;
-          }
-          case NullNode ignored -> {
-            // explicit {$vectorize : null} treat same as undefined, empty passage to rerank on
-            yield null;
-          }
-          case ValueNode valueNode -> {
-            // could be text, number, boolean, but not array or object
-            yield valueNode.asText();
-          }
-          default ->
-              throw new IllegalArgumentException(
-                  "Passage field %s is present but not null or a valueNode _id=%s , passageField=%s"
-                      .formatted(passageLocator.path(), documentId, passageNode));
-        };
+    var passage = passageNode.isTextual() ? passageNode.textValue() : null;
 
     // we will have one or the other of the vector or bm25 scores, merging handles this.
     // normalise passage to null, to make it easier to use optional.
diff --git a/src/test/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/api/v1/FindAndRerankCollectionSuccessIntegrationTest.java b/src/test/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/api/v1/FindAndRerankCollectionSuccessIntegrationTest.java
index 0d5c1ff380..6c3df7807f 100644
--- a/src/test/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/api/v1/FindAndRerankCollectionSuccessIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/api/v1/FindAndRerankCollectionSuccessIntegrationTest.java
@@ -185,6 +185,27 @@ void missingPassagesAvoidProviderCalls() {
     reranker.verify(0, postRequestedFor(urlEqualTo(RerankingTestResource.PATH)));
   }
 
+  @Test
+  void nonStringPassagesAreExcluded() {
+    insertDocuments(
+        collectionName,
+        List.of(
+            Map.of("_id", "text", "$vector", VECTOR, "content", "score:1 text passage"),
+            Map.of("_id", "number", "$vector", VECTOR, "content", 42),
+            Map.of("_id", "boolean", "$vector", VECTOR, "content", true),
+            Map.of("_id", "array", "$vector", VECTOR, "content", List.of("score:2 array")),
+            Map.of("_id", "object", "$vector", VECTOR, "content", Map.of("text", "score:3"))));
+
+    findAndRerank(
+            collectionName,
+            Map.of(
+                "sort", Map.of("$hybrid", Map.of("$vector", VECTOR)),
+                "options", Map.of("rerankQuery", "query", "rerankOn", "content")))
+        .body("data.documents._id", contains("text"));
+
+    assertThat(requestedPassages()).containsExactly("score:1 text passage");
+  }
+
   @Test
   @DisabledIfSystemProperty(named = TEST_PROP_LEXICAL_DISABLED, matches = "true")
   void hybridCandidatesAreDeduplicatedBeforeReranking() {
diff --git a/src/test/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/service/operation/reranking/ScoredDocumentTests.java b/src/test/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/service/operation/reranking/ScoredDocumentTests.java
index 3c63398a6f..d48fc33568 100644
--- a/src/test/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/service/operation/reranking/ScoredDocumentTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/io/stargate/sgv2/jsonapi/service/operation/reranking/ScoredDocumentTests.java
@@ -270,47 +270,23 @@ public void testCreatePassageField() {
     var docWithNumber = baseDocument().put(VECTOR_EMBEDDING_TEXT_FIELD, 1);
     var numberField =
         ScoredDocument.create(1, Rank.RankSource.VECTOR, docWithNumber, VECTORIZE_LOCATOR);
-    assertThat(numberField.passage())
-        .as("passage is present and correct when field is a number")
-        .isPresent()
-        .hasValue("1");
+    assertThat(numberField.passage()).as("passage missing when field is a number").isEmpty();
 
     var docWithBoolean = baseDocument().put(VECTOR_EMBEDDING_TEXT_FIELD, true);
     var booleanField =
         ScoredDocument.create(1, Rank.RankSource.VECTOR, docWithBoolean, VECTORIZE_LOCATOR);
-    assertThat(booleanField.passage())
-        .as("passage is present and correct when field is a boolean")
-        .isPresent()
-        .hasValue("true");
-
-    var docWithObjectPassage = baseDocument();
-    docWithObjectPassage.putObject(VECTOR_EMBEDDING_TEXT_FIELD);
-    assertThatThrownBy(
-            () ->
-                ScoredDocument.create(
-                    1, Rank.RankSource.VECTOR, docWithObjectPassage, VECTORIZE_LOCATOR))
-        .as("Cannot use object as passage node")
-        .isInstanceOf(IllegalArgumentException.class)
-        .hasMessage(
-            "Passage field %s is present but not null or a valueNode _id=%s , passageField=%s"
-                .formatted(
-                    VECTOR_EMBEDDING_TEXT_FIELD,
-                    ID_1,
-                    docWithObjectPassage.get(VECTOR_EMBEDDING_TEXT_FIELD)));
-
-    var docWithArrayPassage = baseDocument();
-    docWithArrayPassage.putArray(VECTOR_EMBEDDING_TEXT_FIELD);
-    assertThatThrownBy(
-            () ->
-                ScoredDocument.create(
-                    1, Rank.RankSource.VECTOR, docWithArrayPassage, VECTORIZE_LOCATOR))
-        .as("Cannot use array as passage node")
-        .isInstanceOf(IllegalArgumentException.class)
-        .hasMessage(
-            "Passage field %s is present but not null or a valueNode _id=%s , passageField=%s"
-                .formatted(
-                    VECTOR_EMBEDDING_TEXT_FIELD,
-                    ID_1,
-                    docWithArrayPassage.get(VECTOR_EMBEDDING_TEXT_FIELD)));
+    assertThat(booleanField.passage()).as("passage missing when field is a boolean").isEmpty();
+
+    var docWithObject = baseDocument();
+    docWithObject.putObject(VECTOR_EMBEDDING_TEXT_FIELD).put("text", PASSAGE);
+    var objectField =
+        ScoredDocument.create(1, Rank.RankSource.VECTOR, docWithObject, VECTORIZE_LOCATOR);
+    assertThat(objectField.passage()).as("passage missing when field is an object").isEmpty();
+
+    var docWithArray = baseDocument();
+    docWithArray.putArray(VECTOR_EMBEDDING_TEXT_FIELD).add(PASSAGE);
+    var arrayField =
+        ScoredDocument.create(1, Rank.RankSource.VECTOR, docWithArray, VECTORIZE_LOCATOR);
+    assertThat(arrayField.passage()).as("passage missing when field is an array").isEmpty();
   }
 }