Riley Greene is Having a Historic Season

Riley Greene won the Detroit Tigers a game on Sunday. His two-run home run in the 3rd inning put the Tigers up, and his solo homer in the 8th gave the team some much-needed cushion.

Now, obviously, no one player can win a baseball game by himself. The Tigers also got another solid pitching performance from Keider Montero, and Colt Keith came through with a huge two-out RBI hit. But Riley Greene put the Tigers on his back and carried them to victory.

With his two home runs and three RBIs today, Riley Greene is the @FamilyCooling Player of the Game in the Tigers’ 4-2 series-clinching victory over the Baltimore Orioles.#RepDetroit pic.twitter.com/qGcEXmJfq3

— Bally Sports Detroit (@BallySportsDET) September 15, 2024

Detroit Tigers fans are well acquainted with Greene’s heroics this year. And his peers certainly recognize his ability. But it still seems like Greene isn’t getting quite enough credit for how good he has been.

Maybe he’s been overshadowed by Tarik Skubal’s spectacular performance. Or perhaps Detroit’s mid-season lull turned fans’ attention elsewhere. But we think fans have just forgotten how young Riley Greene still is.

There’s a kind of temporal trompe l’oeil happening here. Greene has been a regular on the Tigers for three full seasons now (injuries notwithstanding). He plays with the composure of a ten-year veteran. His beard is lush and wondrous. All factors that make it easy to forget he doesn’t turn 24 until the end of September.

Riley Greene is the third youngest player on the Tigers. He’s young than Parker Meadows and Trey Sweeney. Younger than Ty Madden, and Brant Hurter, and Montero. Only Keith (46 weeks) and Jace Jung (6 days) can claim to be younger.

So let’s take a closer look at just how spectacular and rare Riley Greene’s 2024 season has been.

Riley Greene’s Value

According to Baseball Reference, Riley Greene has compiled 5.2 Wins Above Replacement this year. That’s the highest WAR for any Detroit Tigers position player since Justin Upton in 2017. That’s impressive on its own, but things get historic when we start to factor in age.

Riley Greene is just the 10th position player in Detroit Tigers history to post 5+ WAR in his age-23 season or earlier. And he’s just the 5th player to do so in the integration era (post 1947).

That’s some pretty good company. And things only get more impressive the more we dig.

Riley Greene’s Offense

Riley Greene has 23 home runs this year. He’s just the 8th Detroit Tigers hitter to go deep that many times at 23 or younger. Greenberg, Kaline, and Thompson make this group, too, along with Rudy York, Willie Horton, Matt Nokes, and Spencer Torkelson.

And what about total offensive contribution? Riley Greene currently boasts a 138 OPS+, which is 10th best in the American League. He’s just the 7th Detroit Tigers hitter to post an OPS+ of 135 or better at 23 or younger, and the first since Al Kaline in 1956! It’s been 68 years since the Detroit Tigers have had a hitter who was this good at this age.

And he’s not just a great hitter.

Riley Greene’s Defense

Advanced defensive stats can get a little funky at times, but most of them agree Riley Greene is a well above-average defender in left field. He’s closer to average in center field, and he was forced into duty there for 20+ games this year, which drags down his value a little.

But he currently ranks 3rd among all MLB left fielders with four Outs Above Average (OAA). And Fielding Bible has him as the best left fielder by their Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) metric, with 13. Greene is having one of the ten best DRS seasons for a Tigers player, regardless of position, since 2004.

What It Means

All of these numbers are fun. And we have others that are silly. Riley Greene is the 5th Tigers player ever to hit 20+ home runs in a season while also grounding into two or fewer double plays.

But we wrote this to get across one point in particular: Riley Greene is even better than you think. And baseball history strongly suggests he’s only going to improve.

Detroit Tigers fans should enjoy every second of this surprising late-season push for the playoffs. But they should also take a second or two to appreciate the dawn of a potential all-time great Tigers player.