When the Detroit Tigers posted their starting lineup for an Aug. 8 matchup against the Los Angeles Angels, something was amiss.
It wasn’t the absence of a star player entirely from the lineup, but rather, the absence of a star player from a specific spot in the lineup.
Outfielder Riley Greene has spent the majority of his four-year MLB career in the top half of the Tigers’ batting order. Sports Illustrated’s Kenneth Teape noted that, of Greene’s 1,890 major-league plate appearances, only 57 of them (across 16 games, including 12 starts) have come when he has batted elsewhere.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch decided before the game, though, that a move down the lineup might break Greene out of a slump that had spanned the previous five contests, during which he went a combined 1-21 at the plate and struck out nine times.
Greene was dropped to the No. 6 spot in the Tigers’ lineup on Friday, marking only the second time in his career he had appeared that low. The only other time, according to the Detroit Free Press’ Evan Petzold, was his major-league debut on June 18, 2022.
Before the game, Greene spoke to reporters about his demotion in the batting order.
“Whatever A.J. wants to do, I trust. We never question him,” Greene said, via Petzold. “Whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it for a reason. It is what it is.”
In the short term, that seemed to do the trick. Greene went 2-4 and scored on a second-inning RBI single by Javier Baéz in what would be a 6-5 win for the Tigers.
Greene is in the midst of a career year in Detroit, hitting .268 with 26 home runs, 84 RBIs and an .816 OPS. He is, however, also the league leader in strikeouts (154).
