Detroit Tigers: Nicholas Castellanos not expected back at third base

Nicholas Castellanos has made the move to the outfield and Detroit Tigers fans shouldn’t expect to see him back at third base.

The Detroit Tigers will feature a number of new faces in 2018 and even though Nicholas Castellanos is a familiar face, he will be found in an unfamiliar position. Castellanos, a fixture as the Tigers’ third baseman since breaking into the big leagues as a regular in 2014, will be manning right field this season.

It’s a transition that started last September but is now complete – at least as it pertains to how Ron Gardenhire will fill out his lineup card each day. After last season’s trades emptied the Tigers outfield while stocking their supply of infielders, the organization now views Castellanos exclusively as an outfielder.

The trade that brought Jeimer Candelario to Detroit was the deal that made the move possible since Candelario is ready to step in at the major league level. We started seeing it at the end of last year as Castellanos made 20 starts in the outfield – all September 8 or later. He did still make a couple starts at third base after September 8 but we shouldn’t expect to see him shuffling between the infield and outfield this season.

That was one of the points Gardenhire made clear when discussing Castellanos with the media from Spring Training. He wouldn’t go so far as to say “never” but only in a “never say never” sort of way. You can check out Gardy’s comments in Brad Galli’s video posted to twitter.

Next: Tigers 2018 spring training broadcast schedule

Never say never because shit happens, as they say, or at least Gardenhire does. So, if we see Castellanos at third base in 2018 we will know that shit has indeed happened. Castellanos has always been regarded as a bat-first player so we may see an awful lot of shit happening just by virtue of Castellanos playing exclusively in the outfield.