Tigers outfielder Nicholas Castellanos hit a walk-off solo home run in the 10th inning on Sunday afternoon against the Blue Jays. Nevertheless, he wasn’t a happy camper. Talking to the press after the game, Castellanos used his platform to bash Comerica Park. Per 97.1 The Ticket, Castellanos said, “This park’s a joke. It’s to the point where, how are we going to be compared to the rest of the people in the league for power numbers and OPS and slugging and all this stuff, when we’ve got a yard out here that’s 420 feet straight across to center field? We get on second base, third base, and (opposing players) looking like, ‘how do you guys do this?’ We play 81 games here, I don’t want to hear it about your two you hit that are questionable.”
Castellanos added, “There’s no reason that I hit a ball 434 feet off Aníbal Sánchez and it goes in the first row. That shouldn’t happen.” He is referencing the June 28 home run he hit off of the Nationals’ pitcher.
Castellanos, 27, is batting .284/.342/.480 with 11 home runs and 36 RBI in 409 plate appearances this season. He leads the majors with 34 doubles. A free agent after the season, the 30-65 Tigers seem quite likely to trade Castellanos to a contender ahead of the July 31 trade deadline. The Cubs have reportedly expressed interest. In the event Castellanos does leave Detroit, it doesn’t sound like he’ll be all that broken up about it.
Interestingly enough, Castellanos -- who has spent his entire career with the Tigers -- has slightly better numbers at home than on the road, with an .808 home OPS and a .766 road OPS. Baseball Reference has Comerica Park’s one-year batting park factor at 104. 100 is set as the average and anything over is considered above-average. Its multi-year park factor is 101. As a point of comparison, the Phillies’ Citizens Bank Park is at 102 for both its one-year and multi-year batting park factors.