Riley Greene crushes ninth home run in win Monday

Greene’s home run was his sixth of the year. He hit a solo shot off Ian Seymour in the seventh inning. Greene is still hitting .308, though much of that is due to his .434 BABIP. Since May 14, he’s hitting .271 over his last 19 games. Greene has a career .354 BABIP, so his average should continue to come down. The likely trade-off will be that Greene falls back on his power hitting after hitting 36 home runs last season.

Greene kicked off the scoring with a two-run double down the right-field line in the opening frame before clobbering a gargantuan 428-foot moonshot to right-center field a couple innings later. It was his fifth long ball of the season. The 25-year-old fantasy standout isn’t hitting for a ton of over-the-fence pop, but he’s slashing a robust .309/.399/.450 across 253 plate appearances through 61 games.

Greene started the scoring in the first inning as he blasted an RBI double that was a foot away from being a home run. The 25-year-old outfielder made adjustments to his approach this offseason and his average and walk percentage have increased while his power has decreased. Greene’s strikeout percentage of 30 percent last year is only slightly down at 27 percent this year, but his walk percentage has nearly doubled from seven percent last year to 13.6 percent this year. His average is up to .327 after hitting .258 last year, though his ISO has slipped from .235 to .158. Greene’s .450 BABIP this year is the highest among qualified batters and over 100 points higher than his career .353 BABIP. His average is unsustainable unless he significantly cuts into his strikeout rate, but Greene has patience and power in his profile to fall back on.

Greene came through with a two-run knock in the first inning to give the Tigers an early lead. Those stood as their only two runs in an extra inning loss against the Mets. Oddly enough, Greene has foregone power this season in favor of more contact with just four home runs, but a .325 batting average so far this season. His strikeout rate remains relatively high, so expect that average to dip while the home runs likely follow as the weather warms up in Detroit.

Greene now has a four-game hitting streak going and is slashing an impressive .423/.464/.538 this month despite having only one RBI to show for his efforts over that span. Greene doubled in the second inning and later came around to score on a ground ball double play. Hopefully, the homers and RBI start to come for Greene, who has just one homer and two RBI in his last 12 games despite being hot at the dish.

Greene golfed a curveball out to left-center in his first at bat against Brandon Sproat. It was a welcome sight for fantasy managers desperate for some power from Greene, who is now up to two homers and a stolen base in his first 26 games. The .840 OPS tells the story of a good hitter who just hasn’t found the right launch angles and pitches yet, and we mostly believe that story.

Greene is off to a solid start to the season, slashing .263/.372/.388 with one home run and 14 RBI. The 25-year-old is taking a far more cautious approach this season, cutting his swing rate by 10 percent, chasing outside of the zone six percent less, and improving his contact rate by seven percent. As of now, his strikeout rate would be a career low, and his walk rate would be a career high. This approach change could lead to a decrease in home run numbers, but Greene still has a 49 percent hard-hit rate, so he continues to do damage when he does make contact.

Greene singled off of Kris Bubic in the fourth inning, though Dillon Dingler was cut down at the plate attempting to score on the play He then scored on an RBI knock off the bat of Matt Vierling. He also smacked a two-out double in the seventh inning but the Tigers couldn’t cash him in. He got to play the role of hero in the ninth though, lining a two-out, two-strike, two-run double into the right field corner off of Lucas Erceg to tie the game at 9-9. He then raced around to score the game-winning run on Colt Keith’s walk-off single. The 25-year-old outfielder is off to a solid start offensively this season, slashing .257/.350/.386 with one homer, 12 RBI and one stolen base in his first 80 plate appearances.

Greene is now 1-for-2 stealing bases this year after going 2-for-3 in 157 games last year. His exit velocity numbers have been down to start the season, but he’s made nice strides with his strikeout rate while also showing even more bat speed than usual. In spite of the slow start — the homer today was his first of the year — his fantasy stock is up a bit.

After leaving the season-opening series against the Padres with just one hit, Greene has mustered six hits in his last four games, adding four RBI and three runs scored. The ball hasn’t gone over the fence yet, but Greene’s double was the hardest-hit ball of the game (111 mph off the bat) and he added a 409-foot flyout against Gordon Graceffo in the ninth that would have been a homer in 11-of-30 parks. Greene looks just fine to us.