From the moment he started chasing down balls at Comerica Park, Riley Greene wound up in highlights. He caught everything hit his way as a 19-year-old at the Tigers' COVID camp in 2020, laying his body on the line two years before he'd make his MLB debut. He even caught the eye of Mike Trout.
Greene has always played without fear. Tigers legend Lance Parrish, Greene's manager in A-ball the year prior, said he hadn't "seen a guy that can go get 'em like he can for quite some time. He makes diving, layout catches like you'd see a wide receiver make in the end zone."
But those catches have caught up to Greene in Detroit, where the Tigers' best player missed the final month of last season after injuring his right elbow on a diving grab in center field. He would need Tommy John. Greene also missed more than a month earlier in the year when he made a more routine play in center and injured his left leg, which may have stemmed from his collision with the center field wall on a leaping catch a few days prior.
Greene, 23, is too valuable to the Tigers to spend so much time on the shelf. They need his bat in the lineup, his speed on the bases and his glove in the field, in that order. They're shifting him to a corner outfield spot this season to make way for Parker Meadows' terrific defense in center, a move that started with Meadows' promotion last summer. That should mitigate some of the risk -- and inherent recklessness -- in Greene's game.
Greene is good with it, especially because Meadows "is like a baby deer, he's like the fastest person I've ever seen in my life," he said Monday on 97.1 The Ticket. "He gets really good jumps. ... He's a really, really good center fielder, so it's going to be awesome playing next to him. And knowing that we have history between us playing in the outfield just makes us more comfortable out there together."
"It doesn't bother me at all," Greene said of moving off center. "I'm here to do whatever A.J. (Hinch) and Scott (Harris) want me to do, so I'll play whatever position and I'm pretty comfortable in all those (outfield) positions. I played them all coming up through the minor leagues. So wherever they put me, I'm going to play my hardest and play the best I can."
That statement will come with a caveat this season: Play my hardest, while also playing smart. Greene said "there's been a little bit of discussion" about scaling back his aggressiveness in the outfield, with an eye toward staying healthy.
"I just feel like (it's) just trying to get better at diving, to be honest," he said. "Diving in the right situations and not diving 25 feet in the air after a ball. It's just trying to be smart about it. Maybe diving closer to the ground and not vertical in the air. It's just small things mentally that we've talked about to make sure that I don't get injured when I dive."
Asked after Greene's second injury last season if he would encourage him to play the outfield with a little more caution, Hinch said, "It's in his DNA to play hard."
"I know what's in his heart, what's in his gut, and how he's going to continue to try to make plays, but he's been on the unlucky side of these injuries. We'll continue to try to figure out the best way to keep him healthy over the long term. It's not an effort thing. It's not a mentality thing. He's not reckless. He's been unlucky," said Hinch.
The hope is that with a little more judgement, Greene will spend a lot more time on the field.
He remains on track to return on Opening Day after a dedicated offseason of rehab. He was in Lakeland three to four times a week working with Tigers physical therapist Duncan Evans and said that "Duncan was awesome -- he got me through a lot of different things."
Greene also hired a new personal trainer this offseason, Ben De La Cruz, who he called "one of the smartest guys I've ever been with when it comes to working out and how the body moves." He said De La Cruz helped him answer a challenge from Harris to "clean up my running form," namely by getting more flexible. Meanwhile, he's up to 60 to 70 swings a day in his progression at the plate.
And while it's a cliche to the point of satire at this time of year, Greene did say that his "body's in the best shape that I've been in coming into spring training. This is the best I've felt coming into the spring."
"Just working on the small things that make the biggest difference," he said.
Greene can make a huge difference for the Tigers this season, so long as he keeps his name in the lineup.
Other highlights from Greene's interview on 97.1 The Ticket:
On living with Meadows and Spencer Torkelson in Lakeland: "Same house as last year, all the guys joke around and call this the Frat House. I don't know why they do, but they do … I can tell you the vibes are high, the boys are here, they're ready to go and we're already having a lot of fun."
On his offensive growth last season: "A big thing for me was just being calm and relaxed in the box, not being too aggressive. A.J. always preaches to me, get a good pitch to hit. I'm really working hard, and I still am, at that … Not trying to do too much and just trusting myself, really."
On his natural power: "You're not really trying to hit home runs. Home runs will come. You're trying to hit doubles and balls in the gaps, but sometimes you connect with it more than normal and they go. It just comes with trying to be a good hitter and just hitting doubles, really. ... Maybe in a plus count I'll go for it, but I am 0-for 117-on that, so it hasn't really worked so well when I've tried to hit homers."
On Torkelson's power surge last season: "That was awesome. I feel like whenever he would hit a homer in the first or second inning, he was definitely going to hit another one. Being able to witness that, 31 homers, he got hot and he rode the train and he just kept hitting them. It's just awesome to see because he works so hard, so that was pretty special."
On the connectedness of Tigers' young core: "I feel like with every winning team, they have a really good culture and really good chemistry. And without that, winning is not a thing, to be honest. Having a good culture is everything. If you go down the list all the teams that have won, they have made that culture and ridden it throughout the year. I think it is the most important thing to have on a winning team, and we have established that here and I feel like it's getting better and better every single day."
