Riley Greene's 2024 success should prompt Tigers to open contract extension talks

It doesn't take a lot to be a veteran on this Tigers team. Only four position players were born before 1996 — Javy Báez, Andy Ibáñez, Jake Rogers, and Zach McKinstry — and the youngest of the bunch is, of course, Colt Keith, who just turned 23 last month. That's part of what's made this team so fascinating this season; with the second-youngest roster in baseball, a team with rookies all over the lineup and very little veteran leadership, the Tigers have been able to improve so much that they're gunning for a Wild Card spot.

Last year's rookies — Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene, Kerry Carpenter — have had to move into leadership positions for this team, and Greene is by far the best of them. Torkelson's travails this season are well documented, and Carpenter spent months on the IL. Greene didn't totally evade an IL stint this season, but he was gone for three weeks to Carpenter's nearly three months, and he got his first All-Star nod this season as one of two Tigers representatives.

Of the handful of former first-round draft picks on the Tigers roster, Greene has performed better and more consistently than any of them this season. On Sunday, en route to a Tigers series win against the Orioles, he mashed two home runs in his third multi-homer game of the season.

There's been a lot of talk about a potential extension for Tarik Skubal, Detroit's other All-Star and probable Cy Young winner, but what about Greene?

Riley Greene has earned extension talks with his Tigers performance this season

Greene's performance at the plate been a little up and down this season, but he's only gotten better, with September being his best so far. He's batting .308 with a 1.009 OPS, four homers, and 13 RBI this month. His recent power surge alongside Parker Meadows' and Trey Sweeney's have made this team actually look like something of a home run threat when they're at the plate.

At the beginning of the season, The Athletic predicted eight years and $125 million ($15.63 million AAV) for a Greene extension (subscription required), which still feels about right. He's not arbitration eligible for another year, so the Tigers might just want to pay him as little as possible for as long as they can, but it seems like Greene has more than earned his keep and made his case for the organization to take a leap of faith like they did for Keith.

If the Tigers aren't going to spend much in the offseason, they could at least try to kick their cheapskate reputation a little by making good on their interest in their young players. Scott Harris and the front office have said that they're interested in developing their own players, so why not reward one who could really be a centerpiece of the lineup for the better part of a decade? Now's the time to at least crack open that door.