September call-up options that could further shake up Tigers' 2024 MLB roster

Come September, the Tigers will be able to get a little creative with their roster. All 30 teams' rosters will expand to from 26 to 28 men, with a cap on 14 pitchers. The Tigers may be fighting for a spot in the postseason, so the players they bring up might have the chance to contribute to one of the most improbable stretch races in recent memory.

But first, they'll have to do some trimming. The Tigers currently have 15 pitchers, 12 of them relievers, and they just made a one-for-one swap activating Casey Mize and DFA'ing Joey Wentz, so they'll have a make a few cuts here and there. Although limiting relievers might be a detriment to the starter-deficient and bullpen game-dependent Tigers, we can hope that Reese Olson will be able to return in September. If not, he could be placed on the 60-day IL to make space for a bullpen arm.

So the Tigers probably won't be adding any more pitchers, but they could do with two more position players. One option who's already put in time in the majors immediately springs to mind, but it could also be an opportunity to give Triple-A standouts a shot.

With rosters expanding on Sept. 1, who could the Tigers call up?

There are five position players on the Tigers 40-man — Eddys Leonard, Bligh Madris, Akil Baddoo, Justyn-Henry Malloy, and Ryan Vilade. Calling any two of them back up would make things easy for the Tigers, and this is ultimately the likeliest pot they will choose from. It should probably be Malloy and maybe Madris, who put on a respectable show at the plate during his brief stint in the majors this year, but more realistically it'll be Malloy and Baddoo, the Tigers' go-to Quad-A man.

However, if they really wanted to get experimental, they could also give farmhand Riley Unroe a shot. Unroe was drafted in 2013 and still has yet to make his major league debut, but he's sneakily been one of the Mud Hens' best players this season, with a .296 average and .834 OPS.

That would create a complicated 40-man shuffle, though, and would mean having to outright a player off the roster to take a chance on an unknown quantity in the majors. Malloy and Baddoo — or maybe Malloy and Vilade — are the most viable options.

At least Malloy would get more time in the majors to really try to solidify himself as at least a bench option next season. Maybe he'll be able to ride this recent hype for a possible postseason push and help the Tigers get there.