Detroit Tigers: Impact of a potential Christin Stewart 2018 call up

Offensive firepower

After trading J.D. Martinez, Justin Upton and Alex Avila this season, the Detroit Tigers are a bit thin offensively.

The trades, coupled with Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez spending time on the sidelines, have left Detroit’s offense ranking 24^th in runs scored in September.

Other September offensive ranks for the Tigers include checking in at 21^st in ISO, 19^th in wOBA and 18^th in wRC+.

As it stands, there aren’t many in-house options to significantly improve the team’s offense.

A rebound season from a healthy Cabrera would certainly help, but Detroit has lost plenty of the lineup depth that came with the likes of J.D. Martinez, Upton and Avila.

This is all without mentioning that Ian Kinsler and Jose Iglesias could conceivably be traded, so the offense could be in need of more run producers.

One run producer could be Stewart.

The outfielder has the upside to be a run producer for years to come. While he’s a different player than Martinez and Upton, Stewart can fill a similar role in terms of driving in runs behind Miguel Cabrera.

Right now, the only player capable of doing that on the roster is Castellanos.

The lack of options is a far cry from last year when Brad Ausmus could slot in J.D. Martinez, Victor Martinez, Upton or Castellanos behind the future Hall of Famer.

2018

How the Detroit Tigers fare statistically next season probably doesn’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things.

However, the team can accelerate the rebuild somewhat if the younger position players can take a significant step forward at the plate.

This means players like Stewart, Castellanos, Mahtook, catcher James McCann and third baseman Jeimer Candelario having strong seasons.

If those five can play at a higher standard and Cabrera rebounds, that’s a decent base to build on for the future—especially considering Stewart, Castellanos, Mahtook, McCann and Candelario could all be part of the next great Detroit Tigers team.

Next: Predicting Jose Iglesias' trade market

Add in some consistent starting pitching behind Michael Fulmer from pitchers like Matthew Boyd and Daniel Norris and the Tigers will be that much closer to contending.