ANAHEIM, Calif. — The trade deadline came and went as expected, from the players the Detroit Tigers traded, to the last-minute fashion they traded them in, to a prospect return that can be best described as good as they could get.
It was a close call, as most of the Tigers’ trade deadline transactions have been, 40-odd seconds before the 4 p.m. trade deadline on Wednesday afternoon, and it happened unexpectedly, when Nicholas Castellanos – the team’s best homegrown position player since Curtis Granderson more than two decades ago – reached down for a stick of pine tar on the on-deck circle.