The Tigers have pulled the plug on the short-lived Christin Stewart era in Detroit and have DFA’d the former first-round pick.
Stewart’s fate was ultimately decided when the team opted to add the contract of veteran reliever Derek Holland to the 40-man roster leaving the 27-year-old as the odd man out.
Today’s news for Stewart to comes on a day that only two years ago had Tigers fans thinking that the outfielder’s career trajectory would go in a much different direction. For those who can remember it was Stewart who belted a game-winning two-run home run in the 10th inning of Opening Day against the Blue Jays.
Since then though things went relatively downhill for Stewart who over 157 career games in parts of three seasons hit .225 with 15 home runs, 59 RBIs, 49 walks, and 146 strikeouts. Last year was especially bad though for the 27-year-old hitting .167 with three homers, nine RBIs, five walks, and 30 strikeouts in 36 games which eventually earned him a September demotion to the team’s alternate training site in Toledo.
Fast forward to this spring where Stewart went 3-for-18 (.167) with no homers or walks, two RBIs, and 10 strikeouts in 10 games. From there the Tigers seemingly saw enough sending him to Toledo in March as part of the team’s second round of cuts.
Nonetheless, it would seem that this is the end of the line for Stewart in Detroit considering he still has minor league options which very well could be enticing for other teams who could be looking to take a flyer on a 27-year-old project. With that said, look for Detroit to try and make a trade instead of trying to pass him through waivers.
