The adjustment behind Greene's strong stretch

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.

DETROIT -- The words came from Riley Greene like a mantra.

“Walks are awesome. I love walks,” the Tigers outfielder said last month during Detroit's series at Minnesota.

It shows in his totals. For a stretch, Greene led the American League in walks; he entered Friday with 23 bases on balls, third only to Yankees sluggers Juan Soto (26) and Aaron Judge (24).

At the same time, walks are not Greene’s end goal. They’re a vehicle toward the goal that has been his mantra during his brief Major League career: Get a good pitch to hit.

But it takes patience to turn one into the other. And that was something Greene has had to learn to cultivate.

In the first three games of the Tigers’ four-game series against the Rangers last month at Comerica Park, Greene -- batting leadoff for the entire series -- put two balls in play. He drew five walks, struck out six times, grounded out to second and hit an infield single.

“It was either a walk or a strikeout,” Greene said. “And I was going nuts.”

The series finale looked like it could be more of the same when Greene took Jack Leiter’s first three big league pitches for called strikes. Then he struck back, hitting a 3-2 fastball off the wall in right-center field for an RBI triple in the second inning, and a 2-2 fastball for a double to left in the fourth.

“The way the Rangers pitched me, just as a whole, it was nibble, nibble, nibble,” Greene said, “and it was pretty much try to get me to chase. And I chased, just because I would walk a lot and I would be like, ‘OK, I’m trying to [force something].’ It was a good learning experience in a way. …

“Next time that happens, next time we face a staff that’s just trying to nibble, trying to get you to chase, let it come to you, don’t try to make things happen.”

Greene has been on a relative tear, batting .304 (14-for-46) with four homers, three doubles, a triple, eight RBIs, eight walks, 12 strikeouts and a 1.074 OPS over his last 13 games, including that matchup with Texas. He has been the most dangerous hitter in the Tigers lineup, even with rookie Wenceel Pérez on a tear.

He has adjusted to the way he’s being pitched, and he has turned it into a strength.

The difference can be seen in the metrics. Greene entered Friday having seen offspeed pitches 22.8 percent of the time, according to Statcast, up from 13.9 percent last season. He’s batting just .167 (5-for-30) on those, with a 44.1 percent whiff rate.

Not surprisingly, those extra offspeed pitches have come at the expense of fastballs. Greene has seen those for just over half his pitches, 50.9 percent, down from 55.9 percent last year. But he’s attacking them and doing damage. His .345 average off fastballs (19-for-55) is up from .289 last year. His average exit velocity off fastballs has risen from 90.5 to 93.6, and his whiff rate has dropped from 22.2 to 15.1.

“Really just sticking to your approach and looking for that one pitch to hit, really,” Greene said. “I mean, it’s hard to hit in general. It’s hard to cover four or five of that guy’s pitches, so you just try to simplify it with the scouting reports that we have.”

His discipline is paying off. Greene is seeing fewer pitches in the zone, 47.7 percent compared to 48.7 last season, but he has also dropped his chase rate from 26.5 to 20.3 percent -- well below the Major League average of 28.4. His contact rate in the zone has ticked up from 79.6 to 81.4 percent.

Much of that damage has come from the leadoff spot, but Greene batted cleanup for the second game of Detroit’s doubleheader Tuesday against the Cardinals. He hit a first-pitch RBI double in his first at-bat and a home run on a 3-2 pitch in the seventh before a single in his last at-bat.

“I don’t see a batting order spot with Riley Greene,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I see a well-rounded, exceptional Major League player. And wherever we deploy that is how we feel like we can win that day.”