Castellanos no stranger to Deadline suspense

DETROIT -- If Wednesday was the last game Nicholas Castellanos played at Comerica Park as a Tiger, it went quietly. Even if it wasn’t, Wednesday’s 4-0 Tigers loss to the Phillies went quietly.

There was no fanfare as Castellanos went to the plate, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts as Vince Velasquez and three Phillies relievers combined for a five-hit shutout to complete a two-game series sweep. Castellanos’ eighth-inning strikeout against Adam Morgan drew only applause from the Phillies fans who had shown up well for the team’s first visit to Detroit since 2016.

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The Tigers clubhouse was similarly quiet as players packed for their West Coast trip. While the team boarded a plane, general manager Al Avila and the rest of the front-office evaluators stayed back in Detroit, where they’ll work out of their offices leading up to next Wednesday’s Trade Deadline. Any moves will come either from a phone call or through senior advisor John Westhoff, who is on the trip.

Manager Ron Gardenhire does not expect to dread his phone ringing.

“That’s too eerie for me,” Gardenhire said. “I’m just going to answer the phone and say, ‘How we doing, boss?’”

By the time the Tigers return, the Trade Deadline will have passed, by which point there’s a decent chance Castellanos will be dealt. Some fear the Tigers won’t be offered enough to justify dealing the pending free agent, or else risk a repeat of the reaction to the J.D. Martinez trade two years ago. While Martinez became a late-season catalyst for Arizona, Dawel Lugo is the only prospect the Tigers received in return who has played in Detroit so far.

That said, there’s enough interest for Castellanos to believe Avila will trade him rather than let the season play out and risk getting nothing in return.

The Cubs have been the team most tied to Castellanos, given their need for a right-handed bat. The Dodgers’ rise as the team to beat in the National League behind lefty starters Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu creates a market for Castellanos among NL contenders, despite his subpar defensive metrics. The Tigers could try to maximize their return by packaging Castellanos with closer Shane Greene, who has drawn interest from the Cubs and others.

By now, after nearly two years of trade rumors amidst the Tigers’ rebuilding effort, Castellanos is numb to the suspense.

“I spent a decade of my life here [in the Tigers organization] and I'm only 27, so Detroit is all I know,” said Castellanos, the Tigers’ top pick in the 2010 MLB Draft. “But I do know that when you're a kid, you dream about that opportunity of winning a World Series. Like I said two years ago or 2017 or whenever it was, Plan A is obviously to do that here. But in life, you don't always get Plan A.

“I've been dangled on this trade/waiver wire now since 2017 ended, and to try to speculate or guess or worry about what's going to happen is unnecessary. I did it a lot, and I'm kind of over it. So I'm just having fun playing with these guys, and whatever's going to happen is going to happen.”

As fun as Tuesday’s 15-inning marathon was for many players, despite the 3-2 defeat, Wednesday felt like a hangover from the 4 and a half hour game. Detroit loaded the bases in the second inning before Velasquez fanned Gordon Beckham to end the threat. Back-to-back two-out walks in the eighth inning brought up Christin Stewart, whose 104.6 mph line drive went directly to right fielder Adam Haseley.

Hours after Castellanos hit his MLB-leading 36th double of the season and nearly scored the would-be winning run in the 14th inning Tuesday, none of his at-bats Wednesday came with runners on base. It marked just his fourth hitless game since June 22; he’s batting .320 (33-for-103) with 12 doubles, four home runs, 11 RBIs and a .965 OPS over that stretch.

While Castellanos’ complaints about Comerica Park’s deep dimensions and their impact on home runs have also been noticed, they aren’t expected to impact his appeal in a trade. It might enhance the chances of a deal, rather than Avila risk having an unhappy hitter playing out the final two months of the season before his free agency.

“I don't know, we could be speculating,” Castellanos said. “Everybody was telling me that I was gone last year and joking with me and calling me in the offseason and this and that. And guess what, I'm still here.”

Wednesday’s shutout left no suspense for starter Jordan Zimmermann, who held down the Phillies lineup for three innings with a sharper slider before solo homers from J.T. Realmuto in the fourth inning and Nick Williams in the fifth put Philadelphia in control for good. Rhys Hoskins’ RBI single in the fifth provided the final margin and chased Zimmermann from the game.

Though Zimmermann has struggled since his return from the injured list on June 19, he had allowed one home run over 26 innings in that stretch. Wednesday marked his first multi-homer start since Cleveland hit three off him April 9. Nevertheless, Zimmermann became the third Tiger in the last 100 years to start a season 0-8, and the first since Mike Maroth’s 21-loss season in 2003.

Zimmermann and Miguel Cabrera are the only Tigers under long-term contract. They’ll be back for next homestand, but other veterans could go, making this a different roster coming back than the one that left Thursday.