On Sunday, the Detroit Tigers promoted left-handed hitting outfielder Brett Callahan from Triple-A to the major league club. To open a spot on the active roster as well as on the 40-man roster, outfielder Trei Cruz has been designated for assignment.
The 24-year-old Callahan has been a really nice success story even to get to this point. He was the Tigers 13th rounder out of Saint Joseph’s College back in 2023. He was banged up quite a bit in 2024 and again in 2025, but once he finally got beyond the injury bug, he made rapid progress in the second half of the 2025 season at High-A West Michigan.
Callahan had no helium coming out of a small college, but we identified the natural loft in his swing and pull-hitter tendencies early on, along with solid plate discipline and a good all-around toolkit, and ranked him 36th in the system heading into 2025. After a strong second half there, he made a little noise in major league camp back in the spring, hitting a pair of pretty majestic home runs. We ranked him 26th in the farm system in the preseason, and Callahan then proceeded to tear through the Eastern League with the Double-A Erie SeaWolves. He hit .268/.374/.504 with 12 home runs, 20 stolen bases, and a 133 wRC+ there, with a strikeout rate of 20.8 percent against a walk rate of 12.8 percent.
Callahan was promoted to Triple-A Toledo along with John Peck in late June. He is an aggressive swinger who, like Hao-Yu Lee, rarely gets cheated at the plate. He takes his walks, but he will still chase out of the zone too much. Improving his approach at the Triple-A level was the key to reaching the major leagues, but he hasn’t really had much time to work on it yet.
Typically playing right field, Callahan has enough speed and experience to handle center field, but he’s certainly best in the corners, where his plus arm can play effectively. He’s capable of stealing some bases as well. Overall it’s a pretty well-rounded profile, but he’ll likely struggle to adapt to the type of sequencing major league hitters can deal out to an aggressive young hitter. This is the first season where Callahan has cleared 300 plate appearances, and those injuries stunted his progress for a while in pro ball. Despite his age, he really hasn’t had a long stretch of uninterrupted reps until this season, and since he’s been healthy he’s moved quickly through the system. We like him, but this is coming really quickly after his promotion to Triple-A Toledo, and he is going to have some struggles at the major league level.
As for Cruz, injuries in his mid-20’s, including Tommy John surgery, interrupted his development in some crucial years. He bounced back with a really good 2025 campaign that got him added to the 40-man, but wasn’t able to show much in his major league debut, and has really struggled at the Triple-A level this season. Now 28 years old, there just wasn’t goint to be a big breakout at this point, but Cruz did become the third generation of his family to reach the major leagues.