Greene has improved upon his strong 2024 in basically every way with a monster June showing
News broke yesterday evening that Riley Greene would be starting the All Star Game in left field for the American League. Greene was the 2nd most voted outfielder in the American League behind Aaron Judge. After a truly dominant month of June at the plate, it’s safe to say he earned that distinction.
In 2024, Greene had a perfectly typical year for a great player. A 135 wRC+, 4.0 WAR and 24 home runs in only 137 games made him easily the best position player on the Detroit Tigers , and he even earned his first All Star Game selection. He was roughly as valuable as players like Jose Altuve or Rafael Devers and was the centerpiece of the surprise playoff surge. Repeating that type of season would’ve been huge for the Tigers as the rest of the lineup grew around him, and through the end of May, it looked like he would. On May 31, he had a 129 wRC+ and was on pace for about 35 home runs. Then, June happened.
Since June started, Greene has slashed an absurd .355/.397/.644, good for a 1.060 OPS and a 196 wRC+, both top-5 in the sport. Over the last month, Greene has kept pace with a resurgent Juan Soto and outperformed AL MVP-frontrunner Aaron Judge. A pair of multi homer games against the Tampa Bay Rays and Washington Nationals punctuated this torrid stretch. Here’s those two blasts against Tampa Bay, for your enjoyment.
The main change that’s fueled his power outburst this year has also been the main source of frustration for fans – a 30.1% strikeout rate spurred by a career-high swing rate. This year, Greene’s swinging 51% of the time after never crossing 47% before, which has led to a lot more whiffs and fewer walks. It’s also led to a lot more damage when he does connect. In a perfect world, Greene learns to balance his newly aggressive approach with the discerning eye he showed last year. If the last month is any indication, he might be figuring it out.
Coming into June, Greene was striking out 31.4% of the time, 11th worst among qualified hitters. A strikeout is never a good outcome, even if his other at-bats are crushed for extra base hits. Since the calendar flipped, however, his strikeout rate is all the way down to 27.6%, more in line with last year’s rate and only 36th in the game. Most importantly, he’s still punishing the baseball when he does swing, as his slugging percentage was 4th highest over that stretch.
Ultimately, Greene has pulled off a very difficult set of adjustments, all during the season. First, he decided to swing more, and harder, to give himself more chances for extra base damage, even if he struck out more. Then, he started to strike out less without sacrificing any power. And he did all of that while leading the best team in the American League to a 12.5 game lead in the division.
With a month like this, Greene has thrust himself into the top tier of MLB hitters. If he keeps this up, he’s likely earned himself some down-ballot MVP love at the end of the season. From there, after already making some immensely difficult changes, anything is possible. Right now, though, Greene is the best he’s ever been.