WASHINGTON — A big part of the present and a big part of the future.
That is Riley Greene in a nutshell.
When Greene is playing at his best, the Detroit Tigers typically find themselves with a win. His performance has guided the Tigers to a steady 10-7 record through 17 games in May, and his performance could help guide the franchise to championships in the future.
“He’s one of our best players, and he’s talented, he’s young, he’s learning,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He plays with energy. He’s kind of a magnet to the rest of his teammates. There’s just so much that he brings.”
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Greene is hitting .365 with six doubles, two home runs, five walks and 15 strikeouts through 16 games in May. His 186 wRC+ ranked 10th among 187 qualified players in May, entering Sunday, trailing only Nolan Gorman, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Luis Robert Jr., Yandy Díaz, Anthony Santander, Ronald Acuña Jr., Freddie Freeman, Marcell Ozuna and Juan Soto.
“It’s special,” said Spencer Torkelson, who’s also playing well this month (.284 with two homers). “It seems like you just can’t get him out.”
Fly balls to the pull side had been almost non-existent for Greene in his 136-game career (spanning 602 plate appearances), but that has changed over the past three weeks.
While Greene’s left-handed swing is the same, there appears to be a difference in both his setup and his stance at the plate. The subtle tweaks have helped him tap into the optimal attack angle, avoid an abundance of ground balls and, for the first time in his career, unlock his pull-side power.
But Greene says he hasn’t changed anything about his mechanics.
“Confidence level is a little higher,” Greene said. “That’s about it.”
Regardless, Greene is playing his best baseball with the Tigers after a rough start to his sophomore season in the big leagues. The 2019 No. 5 overall pick hit .234 with zero doubles, two homers, nine walks and 37 strikeouts through his first 27 games.
He shaved his beard — keeping his mustache intact — in late April.
Then, he started heating up.
“The mustache got me above water,” Greene said, “and then we went to work.”
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An example of Greene’s power to the pull side occurred in the sixth inning of Friday’s 8-6 win over the Washington Nationals, when he hammered a down-and-in sweeper from right-handed reliever Thaddeus Ward for a towering 393-foot home run to right-center field.
The ball was hit with a 110.7 mph exit velocity at a height of 162 feet — tied for the third-highest homer in MLB this season.
His swing produced a 40-degree launch angle.
“I’m not trying to hit the ball on the ground, obviously,” said Greene, whose career average launch angle is 3.1 degrees. “It really comes down to the pitches I swing at, and if I notice fastball or breaking ball.”
Comparing April and May, Greene’s ground-ball rate has decreased from 61.4% to 46.7% while his line-drive rate has increased from 20.0% to 35.6%. His ground-ball rate to the pull side has decreased from 76.9% to 47.6%.
Essentially, Greene is finally getting the ball in the air to right field. (On May 4, he launched a down-and-in curveball from New York Mets right-hander Justin Verlander, a future Hall of Famer, for a home run to right field at Comerica Park.)
“You’re naturally going to pull the ball,” Greene said. “I’m not really trying to pull the ball. I’m trying to hit the ball the other way (to left-center field) because it helps me stay on the offspeed (pitches). I’m just going to naturally pull it when it happens, but I’m really trying to go the other way.”
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Here’s another key data point: Greene hit .254 with a 13.2% swing-and-miss rate on pitches inside the strike zone in April, but he’s hitting .415 with a 9.8% swing-and-miss rate on pitches inside the strike zone in May. His contact, as a result of his timing, has improved significantly.
His confidence has improved, too.
“When balls start falling (for hits), you feel like you’re above the world,” said Greene, hitting .282 with four homers in 43 games this season. “Once you start feeling like that, that’s when you’re like, ‘I’m going to sit fastball and let it eat here and see if I can connect with one.’ That’s what you strive for every day, to feel above the world. Once you feel like that, that’s when it gets dangerous.”
Hitting balls in the air to the pull side should unlock an elite version of Greene and allow him to become an All-Star-caliber player — maybe even an MVP-caliber player — but from an all-around consistency standpoint, nothing is more important than making contact on hittable pitches inside the strike zone.
Right now, Greene is doing both of those things.
And he’s carrying the Tigers.
“When he’s playing like this, our offense is better — period,” Hinch said. “When he’s not, we have to find other ways to surround him with support, and we’ve done that relatively well.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.