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The Detroit Tigers should be patient and hold onto top prospect Nick Castellanos, believes Jamie Samuelsen of the Detroit Free Press. Samuelsen says the Tigers are "playing so poorly right now that it seems insane to consider mortgaging the future for what seems like a fruitless attempt at the playoffs this season".
Samuelsen notes that he’s not against trading top prospects. If the Tigers were one player away from making a run he says he’d surely consider making a trade.
However, Samuelsen doesn’t view the Tigers as a team that’s one player away. Instead, Samuelsen lists Detroit’s current needs, in no particular order, as second base, outfield, relievers and starting pitching.
While he admits this list of needs could change as players get healthy, Samuelsen says at this point "there is no one hidden treasure out there on an opposing roster that will turn this walking dead team into an American League favorite".
Castellanos entered the 2012 season ranked baseball’s 45th best prospect by Baseball America. The 20-year-old started the year with the Tigers High-A affiliate where he hit at a clip of .405/.461/.553 with 23 extra-base hits and 32 RBIs in his 215 at-bats. Castellanos was recently promoted to Double-A.