Tigers' September call-ups include Riley Greene, reliever who should be on last legs with Detroit

The Tigers made their Sept. 1 roster expansion moves a little early, promoting No. 20 prospect John Peck and reliever Yilber Díaz on Tuesday. It made Riley Greene and Beau Brieske, who called up on the actual day without the Tigers having to make corresponding roster moves, the "official" 27th and 28th men.

Greene was finishing up a rehab assignment, and the front office might've just wanted to put off promoting Brieske — who hasn't been great in either the major or minor leagues this year — by an extra day.

Although Greene went 1-for-6 in two games for Triple-A Toledo, it was all the Tigers needed to see to bring him back up to help their floundering offense. Brieske was injured until late May and has spent two brief stints in the majors, the last of which lasted four games in early July.

The Tigers will be relieved to have Greene back, but Brieske is probably going to be on thin ice. His cup of coffee back in July at least went better than the one between late May and early June (4 1/3 innings, six runs allowed), but he hasn't been the same pitcher who was key to the Tigers' late-season success in 2024.

Tigers call up Riley Greene, Beau Brieske to wrap up roster expansion moves

Maybe the Tigers are trying to recapture the same energy from that 2024 run with their playoff odds now almost identical to what they were before that miraculous stretch (the Tigers were famously down to 0.5% odds, and they're at 0.7% entering play on Tuesday).

But this is a dramatically different bullpen to the one that carried Detroit into October in '24. Tyler Holton, and now Brieske, are really the only two left. Jason Foley is no longer in the organization. Ty Madden, Brant Hurter, Brenan Hanifee, and Sean Guenther are in the minors. Will Vest is out for the season.

The 2026 Tigers bullpen is certainly far more expensive, but they don't inspire the same confidence the 2024 core did — not even close.

Brieske is leaving Triple-A with a 6.00 ERA in August. That doesn't sound much like the recipe for replicating the Tigers' old success.

This year, if Detroit manages to defy the odds, it'll be in spite of the bullpen, not because of it. Greene is back to give the lineup that extra oomf, and we'll just have to hope the rotation keeps things mostly clean (and pitch efficiently) to win the Tigers a few more ballgames.

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