Detroit Tigers: Nicholas Castellanos was a big part of the 2018 lineup

With the 2018 season coming to a close, we are providing year-end grades to each Detroit Tigers player who donned the Old English D in 2018.

The Detroit Tigers completed the first year of what looks to be a multi-year rebuilding process. While the team was hard to watch at times, there is still plenty to evaluate from this season as we look ahead to the next few years.

As with any team, there were a lot of excellent performances, surprise performances, and of course disappointing performances. Here at Motor City Bengals, we are going to be evaluating each player who suited up for the Detroit Tigers this season. We will analyze how they performed, what their future holds in the Motor City, and we will provide them a grade.

Note: the grade will be relative to what was expected of them. So a player who performed well above expectations may earn a B or an A, even if their actual season numbers are not that elite. If you disagree, feel free to drop us a comment. We would love to have discussions about these!

A handful of Tigers infielders have already been evaluated, including Jose Iglesias (here) Dawel Lugo (here) Niko Goodrum (here) and Jeimer Candelario (here).  Next, we look at arguably the biggest part of this past season’s lineup – Nicholas Castellanos.

Nicholas Castellanos

Nicholas Castellanos finished 2018 as the team leader in runs scored, home runs, and RBIs. Arguably he was the biggest part of the lineup, Jeimer Candelario was a close second though. He’s expected to stay in right field next season and the Tigers are noncommittal on his future with the team. Not helping his cause either is that he was the worst player defensively in all of baseball according to FanGraphs.

Grade: B

Castellanos’s defense is worrisome. He’s been moved around several times in an attempt to help stop the hemorrhaging he brings on defense.  However, it’s hard not to ignore him being the best offensive player for the Tigers this past season.

Check back here daily for more player grades! And if you’d like to discuss any grades, please leave us a comment on our Facebook or Twitter page.