Nicholas Castellanos on the Detroit Tigers: 'This was my trial-and-error' - Detroit Free Press

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Nicholas Castellanos reacts to being traded from the Tigers to the Cubs at the trade-deadline buzzer, Wednesday, July 31, 2019 in Anaheim.
Anthony Fenech, Detroit Free Press

SEATTLE — The first time Nicholas Castellanos walked into Comerica Park as a Detroit Tiger, he was 21 years old and wore a thick goatee. His hat was too big — as was his uniform — and he couldn’t stop smiling.

He wore No. 30, played left field and was a great quote even back then, pointing out with a smile that he was cool playing the outfield because he wasn’t going to be playing third base in Detroit any time soon, not with his idol, Miguel Cabrera, over there.

Barely old enough to drink, Castellanos was a father to a one-month-old son. He was on page 58 of "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown. He was every bit a youngster, arriving for a September sneak peek on arguably the best team in baseball. Back then, baseball was just a game.

Six years later, walking into the dugout in T-Mobile Park, less than a week beforehe was dealt to the Chicago Cubs, he was a grown man. He wasn't going to talk about a possible trade — he had a preference, but he’d bite through his tongue before expressing it — he knows better.

“Unfortunately,” Castellanos says, “This is a business.”

A day earlier, he had walked off the field at Comerica Park for perhaps the final time.

He was frustrated, he remembers — The Tigers had just been shut out again, for their 263rd loss in the past three seasons. But slowly, as the bottom of the ninth inning wore on, he embraced the moment in Detroit.

Tigers right fielder Nicholas Castellanos looks to the home plate umpire after trying to score from second base on a single by Brandon Dixon during the 14th inning of the Tigers' 3-2 loss to the Phillies on Tuesday, July 24, 2019, at Comerica Park. (Photo: Duane Burleson, Getty Images)

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He sat by himself, looked around and thought about all of his memories there. The things he wrote on the poles inside the dugout as a reminder to himself about certain things. He looked at Cabrera — stared at him, really — thinking about how cool it was to be his teammate.

“Thinking about what that was all like and kind of where I’m at now and just kind of reflecting on the whole day in general,” he says. “That whole moment in general, I just took my time getting my stuff, took my time walking up the stairs, specifically remembered the postgame spread meal — that Italian food on getaway — and just appreciated it.”

That’s something you notice about Castellanos. He thinks a lot. Sometimes, too much. He can be sensitive. Outspoken. And before he walks out that door, like so many of his teammates before him, he wants to say a couple more things.

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A message for the fans

First of all, Castellanos wants to say that he’s sorry.

He pauses when asked what his message to the fans would be — there he goes, thinking again — and 12 seconds later, he says this: “First, I would say I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to bring home a World Series for this city because I know what the people in Michigan are like, how prideful they are, how hard-working they are and how much they’re proud of where they’re from, even though where they’re from may not be the quote-unquote fanciest or luxuriousest or tropical or nicest to look at, but they’re very proud people, I consider myself one of them and I wish I could have made those people extremely proud with winning them a World Series to give them more of a reason to be proud of where they’re from and where they live.”

Second, he never wanted to leave. Castellanos has said it publicly so many times he’s lost count, but he wanted to stay in Detroit for his entire career, playing in the same place he used to visit so often — his grandparents live in Dearborn and his aunt lives in Grosse Pointe and his mom grew up here — but, as he’s accustomed to saying, “It is what it is.”

"It" was the Tigers’ decision to not offer him a contract extension. Though it was reported that the two sides were close to agreeing to a contract extension in spring training, they weren’t: the talks never even reached a point where figures were exchanged. There was a time this spring when they seemed like they were getting there, but it never led to anything.

Castellanos says he knows there were people fighting for him within the organization, but he also knows it’s a business. He had to make a business decision of his own this season — the second-toughest decision he’s ever made in his life, he says — when he switched agents in mid-April, something he still doesn’t want to talk about.

Tigers designated hitter Nicholas Castellanos blows a bubble as he rounds the bases after hitting a solo walk off home run during the 10th inning of the Tigers' 4-3 win in 10 innings on Sunday, July 21, 2019, at Comerica Park. (Photo: Raj Mehta USA TODAY Sports)

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He has grown to accept the business side of the game. He knows that his upcoming free agency could be his only chance to get the money he deserves — get that first contract out of the way and worry about the rest later, as he heard from former Texas Rangers infielder Michael Young via Ian Kinsler, a mutual teammate — but it’s not about the money.

 “I know that wherever I go, somebody says it’s about the money,” he says. “I’m not stupid. I know I’m not going to sign some gargantuan contract. I just want what I deserve. You get one chance.”

Last season, Leonys Martin’s loud, high-pitched voice could be heard chastising Castellanos on a daily basis for wearing the same pair of shoes every day.

“I’m not one that’s extremely bougie,” he says. “I’m good already. I have enough money to put my kid in a good school, help my brother and sister and my parents, but when people just look at me like I’m out for cash, that hurts me.”

But it’s not the only thing.

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Ever since Castellanos arrived in Detroit for good, the starting third baseman for a World Series contender at 22 on a field with veterans who wouldn’t let him get away with anything, there’s always been something.

Move here. Move there. His defense is bad. He can’t play third. Can’t play right. How good of a hitter is he really? Quit talking about the contract extension. Quit whining about Comerica Park, it has feelings, too.

Baseball players have them, too. They’re human and they’re embarrassed when the veteran closer throws them under the bus for making an error to prolong a game and result in a game-winning home run, as Joe Nathan did back in 2014. They lose confidence when they start getting pulled in the late innings shortly thereafter.

“That weighs,” he says. “And eventually, you’re like, ‘Damn, you are that bad at defense.’ The layers cake on, and it’s difficult.”

And it was a difficult pill to swallow when he finally realized his time in Detroit was coming to an end. He had been yo-yo'ed around for years, moved back to third when Cabrera went to first, then moved to right field when they brought in a new third baseman. That was because the Tigers told him it would help the team, despite the narrative that he just couldn’t play third. That narrative has become that he can’t play right field, but Castellanos is too sure of his abilities to entertain those thoughts.

“I think I’m going to be good out there one day, man,” he says.

But it won't be as a Tiger, traded less than a minute before the July 31 deadline. For the rest of this season in Chicago, he knows he’s going to flourish, no longer constrained by the uncertainty of his time in Detroit. He'll be in a winning atmosphere, a night-and-day difference from the Tigers' rebuild.

Tigers right fielder Nicholas Castellanos watches the ground rule double by Mariners catcher Omar Narvaez bounce into a fan's glove in the fourth inning of the Tigers' 10-2 loss on Thursday, July 25, 2019, in Seattle. (Photo: Lindsey Wasson, Getty Images)

But he’s going to miss this place.

“Extremely,” he says. “It’s all that I’ve ever known, and putting on that uniform, I just always felt like I was a kid playing for my mom’s hometown team, my grandparents' hometown team. I was proud that my little cousins got to go to school and brag that their cousin played for the Tigers.”

He’s not a kid anymore. In fact, his kid, Liam, turned six years old on Thursday. That was also Castellanos' debut with the Cubs, wearing No. 6 as a tribute to Liam and Al Kaline.

But if it was up to him, he’d still be wearing No. 9 and playing a game for the Tigers. But it’s not a game. It’s a business.

“I wanted it bad,” he said. “I wanted it bad. But it is what it is. I don’t think that I’ve nearly hit my stride as an everyday veteran. I know that I’m going to look back at my time in Detroit, that this was my college, this was my trial-and-error. This was me growing up and figuring out who I am and how I would go about my business because every year has been a different adventure for me in its own way.”

Contact Anthony Fenech atafenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@anthonyfenech. Read more on theDetroit Tigersand sign up for ourTigers newsletter.

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