Detroit Tigers: Riley Greene promoted to West Michigan

The Detroit Tigers put a lot of faith in 18-year-old Riley Greene when they selected him with the fifth overall pick in this year’s draft, and so far he has not disappointed.

When the Detroit Tigers drafted OF prospect Riley Greene out of high school in the top five of this year’s draft, Tigers fans were hoping the team made the right choice in drafting a player who could potentially be the organization’s biggest bat in the future. Greene has put on quite a performance since coming into the organization and has impressed enough to receive another promotion, this time to the Class-A West Michigan Whitecaps.

The Detroit Tigers organization announced the promotion on Wednesday night, and it was a move that some fans were definitely expecting given Greene’s performance so far in both the Rookie Gulf Coast League and the New York-Penn League.

In total, Greene has played 33 minor league games since being drafted. In his short professional career, the lefty hitter is batting .312 with three home runs, 15 RBI, and a .847 OPS.

Greene was praised for being probably the best high school hitting prospect in this year’s draft class and was the obvious choice for the Detroit Tigers at fifth overall with college players like Andrew Vaughn and JJ Bleday being off the board by the time Detroit got to pick. Even though they missed out on a couple of strong college bats, Greene is showing he is anything but a consolation prize for the Tigers.

At this pace, Greene is moving up the Detroit Tigers’ farm system ranks at an impressive rate. They drafted the youngster with high hopes that he can develop into the premiere bat of the future for an organization that desperately needs young hitting talent, and so far he has lived up to and maybe even exceeded expectations.