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Resurgent Tigers dealt brutal blow with Riley Greene injury update

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Motor City Bengals

Cleveland Guardians v Detroit Tigers / Nic Antaya/GettyImages

The Detroit Tigers are in a weird position ahead of the upcoming trade deadline. At 51-53, they aren't completely out of the Wild Card race, but also don't sit close enough to warrant pushing their chips in. One of the biggest reasons why the Tigers have been able to hang around in 2024 despite disappointments elsewhere on the roster (looking hard at you, Javy Baez) is the play of Riley Greene.

Many thought that Greene was primed for a breakout season this year after a strong 2023 campaign, and those people have not been disappointed. Through 101 games this season, Greene has slashed .264/.357/.485 with 17 homers while accumulating 4.0 rWAR in route to his first All-Star appearance of his young career. On both sides of the ball, he has been tremendous.

However, it appears as though an injury is once again going to rob Tigers fans of a full season of Greene, as it was revealed that he is headed for the injured list with a strained right hamstring.

Detroit Tigers News: Riley Greene placed on IL with hamstring strain, Vilade called up

This is obviously devastating news for the Tigers and could make them more willing to sell off some pieces at the trade deadline. No, that does not mean they should trade Tarik Skubal. Stop asking. Unfortunately, Greene has been dealing with leg issues off and on for a while now, and it looks like his issues got serious enough that the Detroit needed to give him some downtime.

What this means for the Tigers is that they are down their best hitter at a time when their playoff hopes were already hanging by a thread. Detroit's front office was already seeing the writing on the wall, and had been rumored to be willing to move guys on short-term deals like Jack Flaherty. With today's news, we can probably expect those conversations to accelerate.

To take Greene's place on the roster, the Tigers are bringing Ryan Vilade back up, which honestly isn't completely terrible news. Vilade has put up an .825 OPS down at Triple-A and, in his limited playing time in the big leagues this year, he put up a more-than-reasonable .296/.345/.407 line in 30 plate appearances. It would obviously be better if Greene were still in the lineup and Vilade was replacing some other trouble spots, but Detroit could be in worse positions than with him on the roster.

More Detroit Tigers News from Motor City Bengals

Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.