It is Always Greener on The Other Side!: Riley Greene is Developing as the Tigers Centerpiece in 2025

Credit: Instagram.com (@tigers)

The Detroit Tigers are the seventh youngest team in Major League Baseball, with an average age of 27.8 and have the best record in the American League (54-33). The Tigers became the first team to eclipse the 50 win mark this season. A huge part of Detroit’s success is their offensive firepower. The engine of their lineup is Outfielder Riley Greene, who was announced as an American League starting outfielder for the first time in his career Wednesday evening. Let’s take a look at the 24-year-old’s impressive first half of 2025.

The Tigers have the best offense in baseball right now, and Greene is the core of their thriving offense. He is slashing .296/.346/.552 with 21 home runs. On Wednesday, the Tigers played nearly six hours of baseball, where they scored 15 runs. Greene was heavily involved in the run producing in their offense explosion, driving in a season-high six RBI and drilling two home runs in an 11-2 victory over the Washington Nationals in game one of their day-night doubleheader.

Greene now has four multi-homer games this season. That ties him for third in the MLB in that category, with Juan Soto, Corbin Carroll, Seiya Suzuki, and Tyler Soderstrom. 

To start 2025, Greene had trouble finding consistency at the plate, but recently he has been one of the most productive hitters during his All-Star surge. Since June 1, Greene has slashed .355/.397/.664 with eight home runs. In this stretch, Greene has also slightly decreased his strikeout rate, from 1.3 strikeouts per game pre-June to 1.1 strikeouts per game post-June.

Greene is top 10 in multiple MLB statistical categories this season, including RBI (69, 4th), hits (97, 6th), SLG (.552, 7th), and OPS (.898, 10th). Greene leads the charge for a Tigers club that is off to their best first half of the season since 2006 (21 games over .500). The Tigers look to take the rubber match of their three game series against the Washington Nationals tonight. First pitch is at 6:45.

Thank you for reading!

Elias Meredith (@EAM_55)