There are two big storylines floating around Detroit concerning Detroit Tigers prospect Nick Castellanos. Fans are either dying to bring him up to the majors or ship him out of town for a player that can help this team win right away. However, the third option of keeping him in the minor leagues may be the best. 

Castellanos started this season with the Class-A Advanced Lakeland Flying Tigers. After hitting .405 with an OPS of 1.014 through 55 games, he was promoted to the Class-AA Erie Sea Wolves. In the 35 games since joining the Sea Wolves, Castellanos has hit .294 with a much lower OPS of .794. He has six home runs since the promotion, despite only having three in Lakeland and seven in all of 2011 with the Class-A West Michigan Whitecaps. However, with Erie, he has struck out 33 times, with 30 of those coming from right-handed pitchers. There is no doubt he is a capable hitter who could excel in Detroit. The kicker is, though, that he is not quite ready yet.

In order to justify a move to the big leagues, Castellanos must be better than the player he would replace. General Manager Dave Dombrowski is not gonig to bring the kid up to sit on the bench. His natural position, third base, is occupied by All-Star Miguel Cabrera. Castellanos recently started playing right field in Erie, but that spot is taken by Brennan Boesch, who is hitting .395 in July. All of the speculation about Castellanos being moved up is premature because he still needs to develop as an outfielder and could always improve his eye at the plate. Dombrowski recently said that Castellanos' hitting is ready for the big leagues. However, his defense is not.

So if the Tigers are not going to bring him up, why not trade him? One of the most common critiques of the Tigers organization is their lack of prospects in the farm system. Multiple baseball sources rank the Tigers' farm system in the bottom third in the major leagues. The criticism is that the farm system thins out drastically after the top two prospects, Jacob Turner and Castellanos. 

Now I'm not going to complain that the Tigers don't have a prospect like Bryce Harper or Mike Trout, but when was the last time a rookie position player made a significant impact on this team? Before Austin Jackson and Brennan Boesch received AL Rookie of the Year votes in 2010, guess the last Tiger to receive a vote in the RoY race.

I'm waiting ...

That's right, it's Deivi Cruz in 1997. He came in 4th in the voting after hitting .241 with 2 HR and 40 RBI. That was the year Nomar Garciaparra won AL Rookie of the Year and Ken Griffey Jr. won the AL MVP. 

If you look at the Tigers' prospects after Castellanos, you will see most of them are pitchers. In fact, five of the top six prospects, according to Baseball America, are pitchers. Rounding out the top 10 are two catchers, an outfielder and another pitcher. Great ... just what we need, another catcher. 

With Justin Verlander and Victor Martinez signed through 2014 and Miguel Cabrera through 2015, there may not be enough money to go around to sign all of them. That will leave an opening for a player like Castellanos to play his natural third base position.

The point I'm getting at is the Tigers cannot afford to trade away Castellanos, even for a summer of Cole Hamels. If they do trade him, the next Tiger receiving a Rookie of the Year vote may be five or more years away. Can Tigers fans handle that? Based on recent history, I'm going to go with no.