Riley Greene's Recent Performance is Demoralizing for Tigers Future Goals
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The Detroit Tigers are off to a fairly disastrous start this season, now 4-9 on the year and on a five-game losing streak and struggling both offensively and pitching wise.
Nothing seems to be going right in the early going for Detroit, and now coming off a four-game sweep at the hands of the lowly Minnesota Twins, the panic button is about to be pressed by fans worried about what they are seeing.
When a team with legitimate championship aspirations gets off to such a poor start to the season, it's never on one individual player, and that is not the case here. With that being said, if there's one thing fans should be most concerned about, it's the performance so far from perceived star slugger Riley Greene.
Greene is Struggling Badly for Tigers Right Now
Detroit was hopeful last season that Greene was going to take the next step into superstardom, and while he did have a tremendous first half and ended the year with 36 home runs and 111 RBI, there were major issues present as well.
Leading the American League with 201 strikeouts, the 25-year-old was supposedly changing up his approach this year. Through 13 games, that supposed new approach has produced a slash line of .200/.298/.280, striking out two more times on Thursday to total 13 K's so far.
Greene has yet to hit a home run this year and has had a significant amount of at-bats that just have not been all that competitive. If this team is going to have an offense capable of making a deep playoff run, he is going to have to find something a whole lot sooner than later.
Tigers Need Greene to Click Offensively
When Detroit is at its best, as it was through most of the first half of 2025, a huge part of the reason for that is Greene getting on base and hitting for power at a high rate. He is a massive part of the plan, and if he does not get it going, it's going to be tough for this lineup all year long.
Throughout his young career, Greene has obviously been prone to significant slumps and has always found a way to pull out of them. With the Tigers already five games below .500, they certainly need him to do just that as soon as possible.
If Greene does not click in the next few weeks, Detroit could find itself in a big hole which could be difficult to climb out of.
Michael Brauner is a 2022 graduate of the University of Alabama with a degree in Sports Media. He covers various MLB teams across the On SI network and you can also find his work on Yellowhammer News covering the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers as well as on the radio producing and co-hosting 'The Opening Kickoff' every weekday morning on 105.5 WNSP FM in Mobile, Alabama.