Tigers Slugger Riley Greene Reaches Franchise Home Run Milestone

The Detroit Tigers left-handed slugger has done something that just one other left-handed hitting member of the franchise has ever done.

Detroit Tigers outfielder Riley Greene (31) celebrates in the dugout after scoring during the second inning against the Chicago White Sox at Rate Field. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

Detroit Tigers slugger Riley Greene continues to make himself indispensable to the team as the season prepares to flip the calendar into September.

Entering Saturday’s action, Greene was having the best season of his career. He was slashing .263/.318/.508 with 30 home runs and 94 RBI. He already has career highs in home runs and RBI, and he’s played fewer games this season (126) than a year ago (137) when he set those highs. He also made the American League All-Star team for the second straight year.

With the Tigers pointed toward the playoffs and perhaps the best record in the American League, Greene is a stealthy MVP candidate and certainly the most important offensive player in the order. But he recently did something that a Tigers left-handed hitter hadn’t done in more than a decade and that only one other has done in franchise history.

Riley Greene’s New Franchise Milestone

Riley Greene is the first Tigers left-handed hitter to reach 30 homers in a season since Prince Fielder in 2012.

He also joins Norm Cash (1961 and 1962) as the only left-handed hitters in franchise history to reach 30 homers prior to the start of September. pic.twitter.com/v6kgT2NQgh

— Tigers PR (@DetroitTigersPR) August 23, 2025

Per Tigers PR, Greene is the first left-handed hitter to reach 30 home runs in a season for Detroit since 2012, when Prince Fielder did the honors. He hit 30 that season. Fielder, the son of former Tigers slugger Prince Fielder Sr., hit 55 home runs in his two seasons with the Tigers (2012-13) before he was traded to the Texas Rangers for infielder Ian Kinsler.

In addition, Greene did something that only one other left-handed slugger has done in team history. He became just the second Tigers left-hander to reach 30 home runs in a season before September. The other was Norm Cash, who did it in back-to-back seasons in 1961-62. Cash, the five-time All-Star and 1968 World Series winner, played 15 of his 17 MLB seasons with Detroit and hit 377 of his 379 career home runs with the franchise.  

Riley Greene with the Tigers

Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Greene has been with the organization since the Tigers selected him with the fifth overall pick in the 2019 MLB draft out of Hagerty High School in Oviedo, Fla. Greene opted to pass on college after he signed a $6.18 million signing bonus. He worked his way through the Tigers’ organization over the next few seasons, with a break for the 2020 COVID shutdown of minor league baseball. By the end of the 2022 season, he was considered the fourth best prospect in baseball.

A broken right foot caused him to fail to make the opening day roster in 2022, but he made his Major League debut later that season on June 18. He played in 93 games as he slashed .253/.321/.362 with five home runs and 42 RBI. The following season he played in 99 games, as he slashed .288/.349/.447 with 11 home runs and 37 RBI. But his season was truncated by an elbow injury that led to Tommy John surgery.

Even with the recovery, 2024 became a breakthrough season for him. He slashed .262/.348/.479 with 24 home runs and 74 RBI. He also made the American League All-Star team for the first time. With Greene’s help, the Tigers qualified for the postseason for the first time in a decade.

Now, the budding superstar has the Tigers in position for the AL’s best record and home-field advantage throughout the league playoffs as they try to get to the World Series for the first time since the days of Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Miguel Cabrera.