Make no mistake, Detroit Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris has been thinking about center fielder Riley Greene — a budding star and arguably the future of the franchise — this offseason.
Harris had Greene, the 2019 No. 5 overall pick, on his mind throughout the evaluation process for changes to the outfield dimensions at Comerica Park, specifically when conversations about the height of the walls were taking place.
One of the goals is to create more exciting defensive plays for fans (and for Greene).
“The wall height and Riley Greene are related,” Harris said Jan. 11. “He’s pretty good at robbing home runs, and I think a 7-foot wall is going to give him more opportunity to rob home runs and help our pitchers out.”
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Before the 2023 season, the Tigers will move in the center-field fence 10 feet, from 422 feet to 412 feet, and drop the height of that wall from 8½ feet to 7 feet. The wall in right-center field will lower from 13 feet to 7 feet, and the wall in right field will lower from 8½ feet to 7 feet.
The height of the fences will measure 7 feet around the entire ballpark.
“I feel like it’s a good thing that the fences were lowered,” Greene said Monday on WXYT-FM (97.1). “There’s still going to be a lot of room out there, so I’ll definitely still have a lot of time to get to the ball. I just feel like I have a way better shot (of robbing home runs) with a 7-foot fence. It’s definitely going to be a little easier to get up there on a 7-foot wall.”
Greene robbed his first (and only) home run at Comerica Park on July 13, 2020, in an intrasquad game before the COVID-shortened season. A ridiculous catch in left field, where the height of the wall has always been 7 feet, took a homer away from slugger C.J. Cron.
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Less than two years later, Greene made his MLB debut June 18, 2022 at Comerica Park.
Three months after that, on Sept. 25, Greene hustled to the warning track and completed a leaping catch to rob White Sox first baseman Andrew Vaughn of a home run in the fourth inning at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago.
The ball traveled 405 feet to left-center field and had a .810 expected batting average. At Guaranteed Rate Field, the height of the outfield wall is 8 feet.
“Robbing a home run is one of the most electric plays in baseball,” Harris said. “The lower wall heights are going to allow our fans to see more of that. The new padding and the new construction of some of the walls are hopefully going to reduce injury rates. Walls are high-impact areas, and we feel like we can do a better job of improving player safety.”
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As a rookie last season, Greene — who turned 22 in late September — collected several diving catches to take away doubles and triples in the gaps. He ranked in the 75th percentile for outfielder jump, 71st percentile for outs above average, 67th percentile for arm strength and 59th percentile for sprint speed.
(For comparison, new Tigers outfielder Matt Vierling ranked in the fifth percentile for outfielder jump, 47th percentile for outs above average, 80th percentile for arm strength and 97th percentile for spring speed.)
Many of Greene’s epic diving catches, a product of his pre-pitch preparation and outfield jump, occurred in Comerica Park’s spacious outfield. (Before each game, he would work on his outfield jumps during batting practice.)
“It’s a good thing and a bad thing in my opinion because you can definitely get hurt diving,” Greene said. “But I’m just playing as hard as I can. I’m working for that guy on the mound. He’s working his butt off, and the least I can do is get a little dirty and make a play for him. That’s what I think about out there.”
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At the plate, Greene hit .253 with five home runs, 36 walks and 120 strikeouts over 93 games. A broken foot in spring training delayed his MLB debut more than two months. Both Greene and the Tigers expect better in 2023.
After all, he hit .301 with 24 homers across 124 games between Double-A Erie (84 games) and Triple-A Toledo (40 games) in the minor leagues in 2021. He continued his tear by hitting .429 with two homers across 11 games in last year’s spring training before the injury.
“I was feeling pretty good in spring training,” Greene said. “I was ready to go. It’s hard to feel good, and then you’re not playing. It was tough, but mentally, it was good for me. It made me a better baseball player now. Whatever happened, happened, but I’m ready for this season. I’m ready to go.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.