Detroit Tigers: Christin Stewart, Mike Gerber should be September call-ups

The 40-man roster

Neither Stewart or Gerber are on the Detroit Tigers 40-man roster at this point in time.

However, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to add both to the active unit.

With the trade of Upton to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, there are currently 39 players on the 40-man roster.

That obviously opens up a roster spot for one of the two, but the Tigers could easily free up another place by designating a struggling reliever for assignment in order to try and sneak the pitcher through waivers.

From a depth standpoint, Detroit has been fortunate to sneak the likes of Edward Mujica, Tyler Collins and Steven Moya through waivers after the trio were designated for assignment.

The Tigers could try and designate a reliever like Arcenio Leon, Drew VerHagen or Blaine Hardy for assignment and see if any can make it through the waiver process.

This is all speculative mind you, but Leon seems like a decent bet to get through waivers considering he allowed nine runs, seven hits and six walks in 6.2 frames of work for Detroit earlier this season.

In the minors, Leon has pitched to a 5.24 ERA, a 4.50 FIP and a 4.49 xFIP at the minors’ highest level.

VerHagen (6.22 FIP, 1.523 WHIP in the Majors, 4.90 ERA in minors) and Hardy (6.05 ERA and 6.08 FIP in the Majors) are other conceivable candidates. Although—again—this is all speculative.

Next: Breaking down the Justin Upton trade

Either way, with Justin Upton gone and a significant number of at-bats becoming available in the outfield, the Detroit Tigers should bring up Christin Stewart and Mike Gerber to get acclimated to the Majors.