MINNEAPOLIS — In the third inning Wednesday, the Detroit Tigers had two outs and their best hitter at the plate. Riley Greene, the man increasingly making a case to be an All-Star, hit a groundball to the right side.
Minnesota Twins second baseman Willi Castro made a diving stop, gathered and threw to first. Greene beat the throw by a split second, loading the bases, extending the inning and setting up Carson Kelly’s grand slam.
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On a night when Greene slugged his 16th home run, dashed around the bases for a triple and finished only a double shy of the cycle, it was this third-inning single that made the biggest difference. The Tigers won 9-2, and Greene’s 3-for-4 line in the box score reflected another All-Star-worthy performance. His flurry down the first-base line represented the relentless style he plays with every night.
“If he doesn’t bust it out of the box and get an infield single, this game could go an entirely different direction,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said.
On a struggling team, Greene is not only the Tigers’ best position player but also one of their most unyielding. But will the rewards come along with it?
Greene on Wednesday raised his batting average to .260 and his OPS to .851. That OPS now ranks fifth among qualifying American League outfielders. He is tied for fifth among those outfielders with 16 home runs. His .364 on-base percentage also ranks fifth, and his 3.1 bWAR entering Wednesday was tied for 21st among all MLB players.
Greene, though, got woefully little love in All-Star fan voting. He did not even finish in the top 20 among American League outfielders.
“He should be an All-Star,” Hinch said in a recent interview with 97.1 The Ticket. “You look at his performance stacked up against other outfielders, big-name outfielders that everybody recognizes, he’s out-performing them in a lot of areas and keeping up with the Juan Sotos of the world. Guys in the American League who are deemed shoo-ins for the All-Star Game, Riley Greene’s doing it.”
MLB announced starters for the All-Star Game on Wednesday. Pitchers and reserves are announced Sunday, selected via a player vote and the commissioner’s office.
Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Steven Kwan are outfield starters for the American League. The likes of Jarren Duran and Anthony Santander have compelling All-Star resumes, but Greene has as good a case as any remaining outfielder to make the squad.
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With Tarik Skubal a virtual lock and Jack Flaherty a possibility, the Tigers have a chance to have multiple All-Stars (not counting Miguel Cabrera’s honorary selection in 2022) for the first time since Michael Fulmer and Justin Upton in 2017. Upton was also the last Tigers position player to earn an All-Star nod.
After the game Wednesday, Greene stood at his locker and heard the question. His answer was what you might expect from a 23-year-old in the running to be an All-Star for the first time. He has control over how hard he runs down the first-base line. Whether his peers and the league reward his first half with an All-Star selection is out of his hands.
“It’d be cool,” Greene said. “It’d be an awesome thing to be able to do, and if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. Just keep grinding. That’s what I’ll say.”
(Photo: David Berding / Getty Images)
