The Tigers are going to recall infielder/outfielder Trei Cruz, reports Ari Alexander of 7News Boston. He’ll be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. He’ll take the spot of Wenceel Pérez, who is headed for the injured list, per Chris McCosky of Detroit News. The Tigers are off today, so the move might not be made official until tomorrow.
Cruz, 27, is the grandson of José Cruz and the son of José Cruz. Per Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, the Cruzes will soon become the fifth family with a grandfather, son and grandson all to have played in the major leagues. The other four are the Bells (Gus to Buddy to David and Mike), the Boones (Ray to Bob to Bret and Aaron), the Colemans (Joe to Joe to Casey) and the Hairstons (Sam to Jerry to Jerry and Scott).
The Tigers selected Trei with a third-round pick in 2020. He didn’t show too much in his first few seasons as a professional but burst onto the radar last year. Splitting his time between Double-A and Triple-A, he stepped to the plate 564 times in 2025. His home run tally of 13 was fairly modest but he drew walks at an exceptional 18.1% pace. That helped him produce a .279/.411/.456 slash line. The resulting 149 wRC+ indicated he was 49% better than league average. He got some help from a .349 batting average on balls in play but it would have been a nice showing even with some more neutral luck.
That prompted the Tigers to give him a roster spot in November, to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He can play all three outfield spots and the three infield spots to the left of first base. He can swipe a few bases, getting to 17 last year. Coming into 2026, Baseball America ranked him the #18 prospect in the system. FanGraphs was a bit more bearish putting him at #32, expressing some concern with the switch-hitter’s lack of power as a righty and his general propensity to struggle with breaking stuff.
Cruz hasn’t carried over that momentum into this year. He was on the minor league injured for over a month, starting about three weeks into April and going through most of May. Around that IL stint, he has a .225/.331/.326 line in 163 plate appearances this year.
Pérez injured himself in a freak accident this week when a plyo band snapped and hit him near his eye, per McCosky. The Tigers will give him some time to recuperate and add Cruz into an outfield mix that also includes Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter, Zach McKinstry, James Outman, Jahmai Jones and Matt Vierling. Since Cruz can also play multiple infield spots, he’ll give Detroit some extra flexibility on the dirt as well. The infield group currently consists of Spencer Torkelson, Kevin McGonigle, Colt Keith, Hao-Yu Lee and McKinstry.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images
