Tigers could have blueprint for Riley Greene contract after Brent Rooker extension

Emma Lingan

Division Series - Detroit Tigers v Cleveland Guardians - Game 5 / Nick Cammett/GettyImages

The Detroit Tigers have made a pair of external additions to their Major League roster this offseason, signing starting pitcher Alex Cobb and second baseman Gleyber Torres to identical one-year, $15 million contracts. But as they look to build upon last year's surprise run to the ALDS, they may begin to shift their focus inward and start locking up some of their young talent.

One of the first names that come to mind is All-Star outfielder Riley Greene, who has long been viewed as a cornerstone of Detroit's rebuilding efforts. The No. 5 overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, Greene is coming off the best season of his career in which he hit .262/.348/.479 with 25 home runs over 584 plate appearances. His return from the injured list in August helped spark the late-season surge that propelled the Tigers into a Wild Card berth in a matter of weeks.

The 24-year-old has easily been Detroit's most consistent hitter, and while he is not slated to hit free agency until his age-28 season, the Tigers may want to start thinking about signing him to a long-term extension. There's no rush, as Detroit still has four full years of team control over Greene. He won’t be eligible for arbitration until the 2025-26 offseason and will therefore remain a bargain on a pre-arb salary in 2025. However, he might be open to locking up some guaranteed money sooner than later given his already lengthy injury history.

Tigers could have blueprint for Riley Greene contract after A's-Brent Rooker extension

How the Tigers would approach a possible extension for Greene remains a bit of a mystery at this point, but the Oakland A's may have just given them a solid blueprint with their extension of designated hitter/OF Brent Rooker.

Rooker's deal is worth $60 million over five years and includes a vesting option for a sixth season that could push the value to $90 million, including escalators. The option’s base value is $22 million and Rooker will make $30 million over the deal’s first three seasons, which would have been his arbitration years. In other words, the extension covers his arbitration window and buys out at least two of his free agent seasons.

Greene is six years Rooker's junior, so he might be looking for more term (and more guaranteed money) but the basic framework of Rooker's extension could be appealing. Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris also signed Colt Keith to a six-year extension last year before he even made his MLB debut, indicating that he will be proactive in his efforts to keep players he views as central to the Tigers’ long-term plans.

Greene is undoubtedly one of those players, and locking him up for his prime would officially make him one of the faces of a new era in Tigers baseball. It probably won't be as cheap as Rooker's deal, but there's at least now a ballpark price to work with given the similarities in production.

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Emma Lingan

Emma Lingan is an MLB Staff Writer for FanSided primarily covering the Pittsburgh Pirates. She has been covering baseball for more than a decade dating back to her time as a student at Wake Forest University, and she has won two gold medals as a member of the U.S. National Team delegation (2016 Pan-American Championships & 2017 World Baseball Classic). A native of Washington, D.C. and current resident of Nashville, Tenn., she is also entering her seventh season as a credentialed NHL media member and currently covers the NHL’s Nashville Predators for The Hockey News. When she's not watching hockey, baseball or football, she enjoys podcasting, reading, going to the gym, consuming large amounts of coffee and taking long walks with her dog, Minkah. You can follow her @Emma_lingan on Twitter and Instagram.