Lakeland, Fla. – Riley Greene, manager AJ Hinch would like to remind folks, hit 36 home runs, drove in 111 runs, made his second straight All-Star game and won a Silver Slugger award last season, at age 24.
“Everybody is circling the strikeouts and the swing-and-miss,” Hinch said, when asked about Greene’s offseason adjustments Saturday. “I think he gets a lot of attention on the things that are imperfect and I don’t want the good that he does to get overlooked.
“He’s been an incredible offensive player with room for improvement.”
There’s some recency bias at work here. Greene hit just .218 after the All-Star break, .195 in September, and his 201 strikeouts led the American League. He went 3 for 22 in the ALDS, 0 for 6 in the 15-inning loss to Seattle in Game 5.
That stretch didn’t define his season, it just left the last lingering image.
“You can psychologically mess a guy up, if you’re not careful, by obsessing over something that people don’t like, or some imperfection in his game,” Hinch said. “We choose to continually nudge him for improvement in those areas. But I wouldn’t overhaul anything if I’m coming off two successful seasons.”
Greene, who reported to camp Saturday, a day ahead of the first full-squad workout, didn’t spend the offseason overhauling anything, except maybe his mindset and approach at the plate.
“There were a few mechanical things that happened last year, but it’s more of a mental thing than anything,” he said. “Me and my hitting guy joke about it all the time. I would call him last season and he’d be like, ‘What’s going on?’ And I said I felt like I can hit anything for a homer. And it looked like it.
“I was swinging at everything trying to hit a homer. We worked on that. The mental side of things, like pick your spots. If I have two strikes with a runner at second, maybe try not to hit a 5,000-foot home run.”
You can get as technical as you want with this stuff. Greene’s 15-degree launch angle was the steepest of his career. Did that make him more susceptible to elevated fast balls? Is that why he had a 32% strikeout rate on fastballs?
Would that number come down if he flattened his swing, or would it come down if he selected better pitches and better situations on which to launch? The latter seems to be the consensus.
“Just take a step back and let the game slow down and recognize situations,” Greene said. “Obviously there are points when you can take your shot and there are points when you need to choke up and do some work in the box.”
It’s easier said than done.
“You feel so good, you feel like you can do anything,” Greene said. “You’ve got to slow the game down and maybe stop trying to hit a homer on every pitch.”
Greene started his offseason hitting program earlier than usual. He also intensified the routine with his personal hitting coach Jered Goodwin. Again, the emphasis was less on swing plane and more on swing decisions. Less on volume of swings and more on having consistently competitive at-bats.
“We made it a very competitive offseason,” he said. “There weren’t as many feel-good days. As in, take some BP right down the middle and hit a bunch of homers and feel good about ourselves.
“It was more like, we’re going to crank the machine up, we’re going to hit banging curveballs, we’re going to change the height so I can take pitches and just make is super competitive.”
Seems like a good place to start.
“The good things last year were good,” he said. “The strikeouts were a big thing and the walks were down. Mechanically we tweaked a few things, but super small. You won’t even notice them. It was more just approach-wise.”
One thing he got absolutely right last year was his fitness and strength training, both in the offseason and throughout the season. He played 157 games and got 655 plate appearances, his first major injury-free season.
“My goal is to stay healthy,” he said. “We stuck to a similar program that we did last year. But it was a little bit different, just prepping for hitting a little earlier.”
Around the horn
… Justin Verlander left camp Friday and isn’t expected to return until Tuesday. “He’s going to be gone a couple of days for a pre-determined commitment,” Hinch said. “I’m glad he came up for the first couple of days. He could’ve waited.” Verlander informed the team of this commitment before he signed his contract.
… Jace Jung was getting some individual tutoring at first base, with Hall of Famer Alan Trammell, infield coach Billy Boyer and Joey Cora running the drills. Jung, a longshot to make the Opening Day roster, has played mostly third base and second base. But the Tigers, organizationally, are thin at first base. Being able to add that to his resume gives Hinch another option should the need for another left-handed hitting infielder arise.
… Casey Mize, Ty Madden and lefty Enmanuel De Jesus threw live bullpens yesterday. Mize looked sharp against lefties Colt Keith and Kerry Carpenter. For Madden, it was his first competitive bullpen since coming back from shoulder surgery in 2024. De Jesus, a non-roster lefty, pitched two innings as he prepares to pitch for Team Venezuela in the WBC.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers’ AJ Hinch cautions against obsessing over Riley Greene’s ‘imperfections’
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
