The American League's starting left fielder is the offensive anchor for a Detroit team with the best record in baseball.
ATLANTA — The MLB All-Star break has arrived, and the best hitter on the team with the best record has struck out more than any other big leaguer — and that’s perfectly fine.
That hitter is 24-year-old Tigers outfielder Riley Greene, who will be starting in the outfield and batting second for the American League in Tuesday’s All-Star Game. Greene has struck out 125 times in 95 games — and he’s playing the best baseball of his career. He has amassed as many homers before the break (24) as he hit in the entirety of his first All-Star season a year ago. He has driven in 78 runs, four more than last season’s total in nearly 200 fewer plate appearances, and his 143 wRC+ ranks seventh among all qualified AL hitters.
In some respects, Greene’s placement atop the strikeout leaderboard is a reflection of the modern game, as strikeouts have become more common and accepted among the game’s best bats. But there’s more to Greene’s elevated whiff rate than meets the eye, and that’s best understood by those who have watched up close as he has become one of the most dangerous left-handed hitters in the sport.
Take Tarik Skubal, the Tigers’ ace who will start the game on the mound for the American League. Earlier this month, I asked Skubal about how Greene has leveled up his game this season, despite striking out more than ever and more than everyone else.
“Does he strike out a lot?” Skubal responded earnestly.
The pitcher who has struck out more batters than any other hurler since the start of last season didn’t seem familiar with the inverse leaderboard for hitter punchouts. Skubal’s lack of awareness speaks to how Greene’s approach to hitting is normalized, not just within the broader scope of pro baseball nowadays but also among his teammates, who understand there’s a method to the madness. Plus, Skubal is quick to point out that Greene’s place atop the strikeout leaderboard is the byproduct of something undeniably positive: playing time.
"There was a stretch where [Justin] Verlander and [Gerrit] Cole were leading the league in home runs given up but also throwing 200 innings and striking out 300,” he noted. “There's something to be said in the fact that [Greene’s] in our lineup every day, and it doesn't matter. He doesn't come out of it.”
He’s right. On a Tigers team known for mixing and matching and frequent pinch-hitting, Greene’s constant presence in the starting lineup and secure status late in games stands out.
“[His] strikeouts should be higher because he plays the most, and he's also getting the toughest matchups,” Skubal added. “Their manager has it circled on the board: ‘Hey, this is the matchup we want to avoid. We need to make sure we bring in our best guy for him.’
“For him to hit [.284] with all that being said, I think it's pretty impressive.”
'You think you can do more, so you swing more'
It’s not just impressive — it’s nearly unprecedented. It’s one thing for a hitter in the phylum of peak Joey Gallo or Kyle Schwarber to mitigate his mountain of strikeouts with a ton of walks. But Greene is managing to have his cake and eat it, too, taking monster hacks with intent to do damage while also racking up way more hits than the typical whiff-heavy slugger. He’s one of just six qualified hitters striking out more than 30% of the time this season, and none of the other five has a batting average higher than .212.
Greene is on pace to strike out more than 200 times this season, which has happened only 21 times in baseball history (all this century). Of those 21 seasons, 13 hit below .240, and just once has someone hit above .270. That was Aaron Judge in 2017, when he hit .284 en route to Rookie of the Year honors and an MVP runner-up finish.
That iconic Judge campaign also featured a league-leading 127 walks, culminating in one of the great three-true-outcome seasons of all time in tandem with his 52 homers. But this year, Greene is attacking his at-bats completely differently. His 6.8% walk rate is comfortably a career low, and he’s swinging with more ferocity and frequency than ever. In fact, for the first time in his career, Greene is swinging more often than not, with his overall swing rate jumping from 44.3% to 51.3%, the second-largest year-over-year increase of any hitter in baseball.
The data overwhelmingly suggests an intentional shift in offensive approach that has been executed to great effect. When I asked Greene, however, he had a different answer.
“It's totally random,” he told me earlier this month. “I did not make an effort to swing more or swing less. I literally didn't even know any of those stats.”
Alrighty then!
If anything, it’s a reminder that the game’s best hitters all operate in different and often volatile ways; there isn’t always an analytic or scientific purpose behind the ebbs and flows of a batter’s tendencies. That said, Greene did shed some light on what might be behind this drastic difference in his at-bats.
“It's random, but I'm feeling good,” he said. “And body-wise, I feel good. So when you feel good, in my opinion, body-wise, you think you can do more, so you swing more.”
Greene noted meaningful strides he has made over the past year with his weight training and physical preparation that have put his body in position to succeed at the plate. That can come at a cost, however.
“When my body feels better, I want to do more,” he said. “Like, in L.A. to start the season, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I feel incredible.’ And I swing 17 balls in the dirt because I feel like I can hit them.”
'I'm here to hit the ball'
Greene’s overeagerness and determination to do damage have without a doubt contributed to his uptick in strikeouts. But he remains unfazed in a way that allows him to dig back in right away with the same intent.
“There's no ignominy with the strikeout for him at all,” Tigers broadcaster Jason Benett saidi. “It's an emotionless strikeout, as much as one can be.”
Unbothered by the optics of punching out on nearly a third of his trips to the plate, Greene can confidently plow ahead, with his spike in power production validating his amped-up approach. To that end, he has exhibited even more extreme upticks in aggression on first pitches and pitches defined by Statcast as “meatballs” (pitches in the middle of the strike zone), ranking near the top among the year-over-year risers in those categories.
“First pitch, if it's there, why not swing?” he said. “I'm not here to work an at-bat — I'm here to hit the ball.”
Tigers manager AJ Hinch echoed this sentiment, suggesting that hitters of Greene’s caliber shouldn’t wait around for opponents to gift them hittable pitches.
“I think the more that players have watched stuff improve, velocity improve … There is no free pitch anymore,” he said. “You're not going to be guaranteed to get a 3-0 fastball anymore. You're not guaranteed to get a first-pitch, get-me-over breaking ball. We max out all the time now in this industry, and so you do need to be ready to hit from pitch one. It might be the only pitch that you get. Now, you put the fact that it's Riley Greene, and that is going to be even more aggressively utilized by the other side.
“... And he doesn't leave a lot in the tank when he swings. He's trying to do damage, and he's trying to be a run-producer. And for the last month-plus, he's been as good as anybody.”
Indeed, the results speak for themselves. With elite bat speed and a knack for the barrel, Greene is doing more damage than ever.
"You talk about somebody who is geared to ruin. He wants to exta-base-hit you to death,” said Benetti of Greene, whose 46 multi-baggers rank fourth in the AL behind only Judge, Cal Raleigh and Bobby Witt Jr. “That's what the swing is geared to, and that's the whole point. And he does it.”
'If he could just get the ball in the air, it's game over'
As we look ahead to the season’s second half, Greene is the offensive anchor for a Detroit team that has zoomed to a monumental lead atop the AL Central, with a 59-38 mark that is the best in the sport. It’s shaping up to be the kind of season that teams dream of when they draft a player such as Greene — and one that Greene himself has been building toward for years.
While starring at Hagerty High School outside of Orlando, Greene was heralded for much of his amateur career as one of the top position players in his class alongside shortstops and future major-league All-Stars Bobby Witt Jr. and CJ Abrams. It made Greene a wholly sensible selection for Detroit with the fifth pick in the 2019 Draft. At that time, the Tigers were still plummeting to the dark depths of a rebuild, and Greene was an ideal young hitter to target with hope that his immense offensive potential would manifest by the time the major-league team was ready to compete again.
Greene’s bat was so advanced that the organization pushed him to Low-A West Michigan for the final month of the 2019 season. Just months removed from high school, he was one of the youngest players in the Midwest League. Primed to shoot up prospect lists the following year, Greene’s developmental journey was instead delayed when the pandemic wiped out the 2020 minor-league season, leaving a teenager like him, at the outset of his career, in limbo of sorts.
But behind closed doors in empty ballparks in Detroit and Toledo — Greene was included as the youngest player on Detroit’s alternate site roster — he was still able to make an impression on his new teammates by scorching line drives against pitchers way older than him and robbing home runs to boot. The hype didn’t slow down in 2021, when Greene mashed his way to Triple-A before his 21st birthday, putting him on the doorstep of his debut entering 2022.
That day came the following June, marking a new era of Tigers baseball in tandem with the arrival of Spencer Torkelson, the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft. But after tearing through the minors without much issue, Torkelson and Greene both took their lumps as rookies. A strong finish boosted Greene’s final line (.253/.321/.362) closer to league average, but it was clear he was struggling to unlock the level of slugging he displayed while coming up through the system: He hit just five homers in 93 games, and his 56% ground ball rate was the fifth-highest mark among hitters with at least 400 plate appearances.
To Torkelson, Greene’s batted-ball pattern wasn’t much of a concern. He was well-aware of the power that lay dormant, waiting to erupt.
"It was a lot of ground balls, but the ground balls were like, 112 [mph exit velocity],” he said. “So you’re like, this guy has the most natural juice ever. He just needs to get the ball in the air. He's always on the barrel, he’s got a great approach, great swing … if he could just get the ball in the air, it's game over.”
It didn’t take long for Greene to make that adjustment, one he credits to a greater emphasis on using his legs to supply power from the ground up. As an amateur, his exquisite hand-eye coordination and upper-body athleticism enabled him to produce at a high level without maximizing the strength of his lower body. But as he climbed each level, he realized the importance of leveraging his lower half when trying to impact the ball with force against the best pitchers in the world.
Along that line, Greene’s groundball rate dipped to 48.9% in 2023, and he more than doubled his home run total to 11 while adding nearly 90 points to his slugging percentage. It was a step forward that went somewhat unnoticed on a 78-win Tigers team, but it was a clear indication that Greene was on an exciting upward trajectory.
As it turned out, so too were the Tigers.
Greene took another leap last summer, earning his first invite to the All-Star Game at age 23 and anchoring Detroit’s lineup throughout their stunning second-half surge to the franchise’s first postseason appearance in a decade. And this season, Greene has elevated his game even further en route to another Midsummer Classic appearance, this time as the starting left fielder for the AL.
"He's always had this hype around him of like, ‘When's he gonna get here?’” said catcher Jake Rogers, the longest-tenured Tiger. Rogers has watched Detroit’s roster turn over a substantial amount since he arrived in 2017 in the Justin Verlander trade, and it’s been satisfying to see Greene’s ascent coincide seamlessly with the franchise’s collective turnaround.
“Just to see him evolve into the player he is, play the level of defense he does and also be able to absolutely rake … He's truly an awesome kid, and to see him have the success everybody thought that he was gonna have is really cool.”
Category: General Sports
