Detroit Tigers: No, Riley Greene will not start the season in Triple-A

The Detroit Tigers Spring Training is underway and 2019 sixth overall selection Riley Greene has started off on fire, but this does not mean he will be promoted.

The Detroit Tigers Spring Training is underway, and outfielder Riley Greene has come out of the gates swinging. With the sixth overall draft pick in the 2019 First-Year Amateur Player Draft, Tigers General Manager (GM) Al Avila selected Greene out of Hagerty High School in Florida.

Greene joined the organization and spent the summer in rookie-ball and then also would earn a promotion to the Connecticut Tigers (now Norwich Sea Unicorns) and a promotion to the West Michigan Whitecaps. But the real surprise has come in 2020 in Lakeland for Spring Training.

Since Spring Training has kicked off, Greene has come out of the gates on fire. He has played in five total games, logging thirteen plate appearances in the Grapefruit League. He carries a .375/.615/1.125 slash line with two home runs and four RBI so far. He has displayed good plate discipline too, walking five times and only being punched out once.

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Even with this fantastic start, rest assured, he will not start the season in Triple-A with the Toledo Mud Hens. Greene is only nineteen years old and is going to take some time before he is truly big-league ready.

A promotion right now is just too early for the youngster, even with the terrific start he has had to the 2020 spring campaign.

Greene has been swinging it from the left side of the plate alongside outfielder and 2019 teammate Parker Meadows who also has shown some exceptional swings this spring at camp. Greene profiles to end up as a corner outfielder with left field being the most likely of homes for him alongside Meadows, who has the defensive tools and power to counter him in right field.

Being that he has started so strong, he may be poised for a quick rise through the Single-A ranks in the Tigers organization. Even with the hot start, and if this continues, there is just no shot that Greene will be promoted above anything higher than Double-A, and even that is quite the stretch to start the season.

The most likely scenario would place Greene back with the West Michigan Whitecaps, a quick promotion to the Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers. If he continues to tear it up, he could see his first trial run with the Double-A squad. It is highly unlikely that Greene is the next Juan Soto or Mike Trout, who will crack the big leagues at nineteen.

Even being a top ten draft choice, Greene is not heading to Triple-A Toledo or Detroit any time soon. Double-A Erie, maybe. Single-A Lakeland or West Michigan, definitely. But not, Triple-A Toledo or Detroit.