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Riley Greene had been searching over his first 20 plate appearances of spring training. Riley Greene is fully recovered from Tommy John surgery on his non-throwing arm. It might have clicked on his twenty-first plate appearance.
Greene has been attempting to raise the object.
It’s a persistent weakness in his offensive profile.
“My objective is to try to get the ball in the air,” stated Greene. “I’m sick of slamming the ball into the ground. My goal is to launch the ball into the air with maximum spin and strike it forcefully.”
In the fourth inning of Sunday, March 10, 2024, at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, Florida, right fielder Riley Greene (31) of the Detroit Tigers safely returns after an erroneous pickoff throw by New York Mets pitcher Austin Adams gets past first baseman Pete Alonso (20).
In the fourth inning of Sunday, March 10, 2024, at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, Florida, right fielder Riley Greene (31) of the Detroit Tigers safely returns after an erroneous pickoff throw by New York Mets pitcher Austin Adams gets past first baseman Pete Alonso (20).
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Following a groundout in the first inning, Austin Adams, a right-handed reliever, delivered an up-and-in fastball to Greene that reached the warning track in right field at 94 mph. With a 19-degree launch angle and an exit velocity of 112.4 mph, he struck the ball. Progress, but a home run would have been possible with only one or two more degrees of launch.
Greene appeared on the plate for the 21st time this year.
In the seventh inning, on his 22nd plate appearance, Greene again lifted the ball against right-handed reliever Jorge López, this time for a double to right field. He activated a down-and-in 89 mph changeup, leaving the ball with an 18-degree launch angle and an 87.5 mph exit velocity.
Manager A.J. Hinch stated, “He understands that he needs to put the ball in the air, but you need to get a good pitch to hit.” “I’m not worried about it at all. Instead of attempting to hit every pitch, our hitting guys are attempting to highlight the pitches he can handle.”
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The left-handed hitting Greene pulled 107 of his 266 balls in play to the right side in 2023. However, an excessive number of those 107 balls in play to the right side (59.8%) were ground balls.
Another bit of data: last season, only 28.4% of Greene’s balls in play (to all areas of the field) resulted in a launch angle of at least 20 degrees, well below Kerry Carpenter’s 39.4% and Spencer Torkelson’s 47.3%.
Interestingly, Torkelson and Carpenter hit more home runs than Greene did—31 for Torkelson, 20 for Carpenter, and 11 for Greene.
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Despite being one of the Tigers’ finest hitters, if not the best, Greene has had trouble hitting the ball in the air during his brief career, particularly to right field.
Greene stated, “A lot of it is approach-related.” In order to keep my hands on the correct path and my lower body in a 50-50 position—where I’m not going to get it or I’m stuck—I’m attempting to think home run to center field. I’m merely attempting to consider that.”
