Riley Greene is only 25 years old, and he has been an important part of this Detroit Tigers offense. This season, he has a .284 batting average with 20 home runs and 73 RBIs, along with three stolen bases on four attempts. His on-base percentage is .370, his slugging percentage is .478 and his OPS is .848, the highest of his MLB career.

In 132 games this season, Greene has cut down on the strikeouts. He has struck out 149 times, after going down on strikes 201 times in 157 games a year ago. Greene hit .258 with 36 home runs and 111 RBIs in 2025. So what is different about his hitting approach?

Riley Greene Reveals a Different Hitting Approach This Season

Plenty of MLB hitters go looking for home runs instead of taking what the pitcher gives them. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic wrote about how Greene found a proper balance at the plate.

Stavenhagen reported, “Now we look up and see Greene hitting .284. He has cut his chase rate from 31.3 percent to 26.2 percent. His walk rate jumped from 7 percent to 11.8 percent. His home-run total has declined from 36 to 20, sure. But his OPS is at .851, the highest in his MLB career so far.”

Greene also added about his hitting approach, “It’s sticking to my approach throughout the whole at-bat and not trying to hit a homer with two strikes. Trusting that I have enough power even on a two-strike approach for balls to go out over the fence.”

The Power Did Not Actually Go Anywhere

The home run column dropped, but the contact quality did not. Greene is averaging 90.3 mph off the bat this season, up from 89.9 mph in 2025, and he is still barreling 15.0 percent of his batted balls, according to Baseball Savant. The same page shows the discipline gains Stavenhagen described: a chase rate down to 26.3 percent and a walk rate up to 11.7 percent.

He has been an American League All-Star in each of the last three seasons, and he is the first Tigers player to make three in a row since Miguel Cabrera. Greene will be a key cornerstone piece for this franchise for years to come.

A.J. Hinch Sees a More Well-Rounded Hitter

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch talked about how hard Greene has worked to change his approach at the plate. Hinch said,

“There was a subtle adjustment. You could tell from the beginning that he was trying to be a more well-rounded hitter. And then another All-Star season, he was asked about not having power, and now we’re staring down 20 homers. I just think Riley is evolving as a hitter, and he’s pretty good in every version of the player that I’ve described in the last few years.”

What Comes Next for Riley Greene

Greene is under team control for the 2027 and 2028 seasons, with two arbitration years left before free agency. The ideal 2027 keeps the plate discipline and adds the home runs back on top of it.

Detroit sits 72-81 with nine games left and is all but out of the playoff race. That leaves Greene an offseason to keep working on his craft.