AJ Hinch's Riley Greene update hints a return will come when it's already too late

The Tigers' offense has been the best-performing part of their roster as of late, but Riley Greene's absence has still been felt. After a host of injuries shortened all of his first three seasons by some degree, he stayed fully healthy in 2025 and played in 157 games. He wasn't so lucky this season, and he went onto the 10-day IL with a hamstring strain on Aug. 12.

He's currently in Lakeland for recovery. AJ Hinch offered an optimistic update at first, then hit us with the bad news.

He said Greene has "been able to get on his feet a tick faster than the Tigers had anticipated," but confirmed that he wouldn't be back when his 10 days are up and might need a rehab stint. Even then, "he has a lot of tests to pass before we get to that point."

There's no fear he'll be back at some point this season, but whenever it does happen, it might already be too late. The Tigers lost a series to the Pirates and have two against the Rays and Dodgers when they get home following a three-game series against the Royals. If they drop even four of six in Detroit, that might be the death knell for their season.

Riley Greene is progressing well, but his return might come too late to help the Tigers

If the Tigers have a chance at coming out of this stretch even close to .500, the offense needs to turn it up even without Greene. The pitching staff has become a problem, and Tigers hitters need to give them a wide berth in late innings. As we saw during the Pirates series, Detroit's bullpen struggles with even an 8-1 lead going into the sixth.

Of course, that's going to be a tall task against the Rays and Dodgers. Tampa Bay's rotation is somewhat injured, but Drew Rasmussen and Freddy Peralta are lined up to pitch in Detroit. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, and Blake Snell are in line for the Dodgers series.

The key against both teams will be putting up a good enough fight against those starters to drive up pitch counts and get to their bullpens as early as possible. The Rays have a few ringers, but the Dodgers' is running on fumes.

Even though Greene can be an incredibly inconsistent hitter, it would be far more reassuring to have his powerful bat through this stretch. The Tigers will just have to pull it together without him.

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