This story was excerpted from Jason Beck's Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SARASOTA, Fla. -- Riley Greene has a tradition with his hitting instructor, Jered Goodwin, once he arrives home in Oviedo, Fla., at the end of every season.
“We have, like, a reflection day,” Greene said. “We'll go to a sports bar and watch football and talk about things we can work on this offseason. It's like a two-hour conversation. It's great.”
Once the heartache from last October’s American League Division Series loss to Seattle subsided, they sat down and reflected on his season. They had plenty to like, from the first full, healthy season of Greene’s career to a 50% jump on his career-high home run total (36) to 111 RBIs to a second consecutive All-Star selection.
Greene had every reason to be proud of what he accomplished. And yet, he couldn’t help but feel like he left something on the table -- not the check, but the production.
“We both agreed: ‘Hey, we’ve still got more. We’ve got a lot more,’" Greene said.
That was the motivation that pushed Greene through his offseason work with Goodwin and fellow Major Leaguers and friends Vaughn Grissom and Ryan Mountcastle, among others, in their hometown of Oviedo.
“We just sort of ramped it up a little earlier this year,” said Mountcastle, who graduated Hagerty High School four years ahead of Greene, “whether that be off the machine or [Goodwin] throwing different breaking pitches. Just trying to make BP a little harder, get our eyes adjusted to faster speeds.
“I wouldn't say we were competing against each other, per se, more competing against the machine, trying to get good swings off on pitches that are coming in really fast, sliders, fastballs, arm stuff; just trying to make good swing decisions, not swing at balls and swing at strikes.”
And as Greene works his way into Spring Training action, he’s pushing himself to stick with it.
Greene saw 25 pitches across three plate appearances against three relievers in Wednesday’s 4-4 tie with the Blue Jays at Joker Marchant Stadium. He did not swing and miss at any of them. Greene did not chase a pitch out of the strike zone until pitch 18, when he had a full count and was in battle mode against Blue Jays Minor Leaguer Pat Gallagher, fighting off breaking balls to continue his at-bat.
Greene fouled off seven consecutive pitches across five pitch types from Gallagher: curveball, cutter, slider, fastball, slider, curveball, changeup. On the 13th pitch of the at-bat, Greene saw a 90.9 mph fastball that dove in on his feet for ball four, sending Greene to first base with his third walk of the game. It started a four-run inning that culminated in Thayron Liranzo’s three-run homer.
“When you have a long at-bat like that, and you foul off a bunch of pitches in a row, you get into swing mode a little bit,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “So to be able to draw the walk at the end for Riley after fouling off so many pitches is a good sign.”
Officially, Greene went 0-for-0 in the game. Unofficially, it was a win, especially after former teammate Miguel Cabrera talked with him a day earlier about trying to get his strikeout-to-walk ratio closer to even with consistently good at-bats, something Cabrera learned at a similar stage in his career after joining the Tigers and being challenged by then-manager Jim Leyland.
“Obviously, we can cut down on strikeouts. We can get more walks,” Greene said. “And not even numbers-wise; a lot of the moments and plays I left out there because mentally I wasn't really focused on the situation. So like, a one-out, runner-on-second, I'm not trying to do it, but the game takes over and your body takes over and you want to hit that big homer instead of, 'Hey, let's choke up and let's get a base hit here and score a run.' I'm well aware of that now. ...
“I had a lot of conversations about the situations and the moments and slowing the game down and not letting the game speed up on you. Mentally, I really want to focus on that and just take what the game gives me.”
Greene had the same approach in Thursday afternoon’s 6-5 walk-off loss to the Orioles, but different results, going 0-for-3. He chased one pitch out of the zone and hit it hard for a well-struck lineout to right. He did not swing and miss at a pitch; his only wave was a hello to Mountcastle across the dugouts.
“Friendly banter,” Mountcastle said.
So what does the next level look like for Greene?
“The sky’s the limit for the kid,” Mountcastle said. “Unbelievable player, unbelievable human. He’s got all the tools, all the talent in the world, so anything’s possible for him. ... He's so good, just naturally so talented. He works really hard. I wouldn't even say it shocks me at this point, but it's unbelievable to watch and keep up with, for sure.”