Detroit Tigers Player Preview: Shane Greene

Shane Greene looked like the Detroit Tigers ace last year, heck, with the numbers he put up he may have even won the Cy Young! For his first few starts that is. Shane Greene, however, is not what last year shows. He is absolutely a high-end pitcher and deserves a chance to prove it this year.

Greene started off 2015 at the back-end of the Tigers rotation. After an outstanding start, he quickly fell apart. Unfortunately for him, his major league tenure came up a little short after 6 straight terrible starts. Through 20.1 innings he gave up 39 runs. Obviously not what anyone in the Tigers organization expected or wanted out of him.

He was eventually sent down to Toledo to try to figure out what was going wrong. After seven starts in the minors, Greene was found to have an artery issue in his shoulder called a pseudoaneurysm. This led to season-ending surgery for the pitcher.

Shane Greene was drafted by the New York Yankees out of Daytona Beach Community College in the 15th round of the 2009 amateur draft. He played for the Yankees for 6 years before the Tigers received Greene in a three-team trade that sent former Tigers pitcher Robbie Ray to the Arizona Diamondbacks who sent shortstop Didi Gregorius to the Yankees who then sent Greene to the Tigers. (Is every Detroit Tiger player somehow connected to the Doug Fister trade?)

Greene had a very successful look in the majors in 2014 with the Yankees posting a 3.78 ERA over 78.2 innings. He struck out 81 batters with a highlighted game against the Baltimore Orioles on July 12th, where he retired the first 10 batters he saw and ended up going 7.1 innings while striking out  9 batters including Nelson Cruz 3 times and Chris Davis, J.J. Hardy, and Nick Hundley 2 times each.

Now that the 2016 spring training is in full effect, Shane Greene says that he is feeling much better this year after his surgery. After resuming baseball activities, manager Brad Ausmus told Chris Iott with MLive: “Shane Greene has the ability to be a starter, a long reliever or a short reliever.”

Despite being under the radar, Greene’s future is looking bright. He was praised by the Yankees as a hard-working young man. Despite his rough start and surgery in 2015, it is safe to say Greene will be pitching regularly. He will probably start off in Toledo out of spring training but expect to see him in the majors anchoring the rotation by the All-Star break. 

Next: Player Preview: Justin Wilson

He has some serious competition for the fourth or fifth spot in the rotation, but fans and the decision-makers in Detroit have seen what the young right-handed pitcher can do with a baseball.