Detroit Tigers’ Highly Touted Prospect, Riley Greene, Suffers Fractured Foot

Riley Greene, a consensus top prospect in baseball, is now set to miss opening day and potentially several weeks after fouling a ball off his foot during a Spring Training game. The injury will not require surgery, however, Greene’s absence certainly creates problems for management. He was expected to make the opening day roster.

Despite injuring his foot, Greene proceeded to hit a triple off of Yankees’ ace Gerrit Cole the very next pitch. However, Greene exited the game with the team trainer before the next half-inning began.

“Breaks my heart. As soon as I found out, I gave him a hug,” said teammate and fellow top prospect, Spencer Torkelson. “I wanted to go through this with him. I know how bad he wanted it. He'll be back stronger than ever. This team can't wait to have him. We're a better team with him."

The preliminary timetable for Greene’s absence was expected to be 6-8 weeks after the fracture was diagnosed, however, according to manager AJ Hinch, the team is not sure how long he may be out.

“A timeline at this point would be unnecessary… I don’t know,” said Hinch.

Greene was having a fantastic spring, featuring a slash line of .429/.500/1.048 through 11 games and 21 spring training at-bats. Ranked as the No.5 overall prospect by MLB, there was a lot of hype and anticipation for his major league debut.

"I feel for him," Hinch said. "He was having a great spring, he was trending all in the right direction. He's super energetic, great kid, great attitude.”

Set to replace Greene is veteran outfielder Victor Reyes. Reyes has been with Detroit since 2018 and was expected to fill a platoon role this season. Reyes had a slash line of .258/.284/.416 in 2021.

In addition to Greene, three other Tigers are expected to begin the season on the injured list. Fellow outfielder Derek Hill (hamstring), newly acquired Andrew Chafin (groin) and Kyle Funkhouser (lat) put the Tigers in a tough spot early on.

The opening day outfield for the Detroit Tigers will now likely feature Akil Baddoo, Robbie Grossman and Victor Reyes. Eric Haase and Willi Castro also offer some organizational outfield depth for Detroit.

The injury of Greene could potentially encourage the front office to seek additional outfield help. According to Al Avila, the GM of the Detroit Tigers, he has been weighing his options for outfield solutions.

"We're looking at all possibilities,” said Avila. "We really are. We've been on the phones for a lot of different areas to protect ourselves.”

However, Avila has voiced his confidence in players already within the organization to fill the void of Greene and Hill.

I do believe, most probably, the help will come internally from our own guys. ... I think, internally, we can handle this."

Michael Conforto, a free-agent outfielder, is still on the market. Yet, it is unclear whether the Detroit Tigers are willing to spend additional money to fill a temporary void.