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LAKELAND, Fla. -- The practice fields at the Tigertown complex were abuzz Monday morning with pitchers and catchers getting in their final informal workouts before Spring Training officially begins for them Wednesday. Most of the Tigers' pitchers were there.

So was outfielder Riley Greene. Never mind that Spring Training doesn’t begin for the full squad until Monday; he’s ready to go to work.

“The boys are back,” he said.

Really, Greene has been around for a while, navigating Interstate 4 while he rehabbed from Tommy John surgery. He was making the hour-plus commute between here and his home northeast of Orlando a few times a week to work with Tigers Major League physical therapist Duncan Evans, then he began swing work once he was medically cleared to begin a hitting progression in January. Other days, he stayed closer to home to work out at a nearby facility.

All the work is about to pay off.

“They told me I was going to be ready by spring, and I’m feeling pretty good,” said Greene, who said his swing feels about normal.

The goal isn’t just to be ready and healthy for the start of the season, but to stay healthy throughout the season. The Tigers’ fortunes depend on it.

Greene’s 2023 season ended on Sept. 1 with a diving catch and an injured elbow in his non-throwing arm. He missed just more than a month earlier in the season with a stress reaction in his left fibula. He played in just 99 games for the season, yet his 2.3 fWAR still led Tigers position players. His 117 OPS+ ranked second to Carpenter, as did his 119 wRC+ and 5.9 runs created per 27 outs.

A year earlier, when a broken right foot delayed Greene’s Major League debut until June and limited him to 93 games, he still ranked third on the team in bWAR behind Javier Báez and Eric Haase.

The Tigers have seen enough to know what Greene can do. They just need more of it.

“We have to make sure that he comes to camp in really, really good shape,” president of baseball operations Scott Harris said at baseball’s Winter Meetings in December. “We have to add some strength to his frame that will insulate him against future injury.”

Greene looks the part. He worked in Orlando on his running and his hips, and he worked on nutrition -- yes, the same young man who notably would hit Taco Bell last season to help break out of a hitting skid.

He estimates he has added 10 pounds of muscle to his frame.

“I feel a lot faster and more explosive at 220 [pounds] now than I did at 210 [last year],” he said.

There’s another component to helping Greene stay on the field.

“We also have to find ways to take a load off of his body,” Harris said in December. “We have the DH spot available now, so it’s an opportunity for him and other players to keep their bat in the lineup but get them off their feet a little bit more regularly than we were able to last year. We’re going to look at all of those areas, because we have to keep him on the field.”

That has been a big reason why the Tigers haven’t hit the market for a DH type to replace the retired Miguel Cabrera. While much of the discussion for the slot has centered on Kerry Carpenter for defensive purposes, Greene’s durability could benefit the team just as much, if not more.

Greene still has some final steps in his hitting progression, but he’s upbeat.

“I’m still not feeling a single thing,” Greene said. “It really feels normal now. … I’m still kind of going through it a little bit, but I’m feeling really good.”