Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Back when the Detroit Tigers acquired Shane Greene in a three-way deal with the New York Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks last December, many fans were intrigued. Greene dazzled in two regular-season starts against the Tigers a season ago, and the fact that he went 3-0 with a 0.39 ERA and a 0.74 WHIP to begin the 2015 campaign only added to the excitement. For a brief second, it appeared that the Doug Fister trade had finally worked out after all.
Over his last 10 starts, however, Greene has gone 1-6 with an 8.60 ERA and a 1.73 WHIP. Overall, he is now 4-6 with a 5.82 ERA, a 1.40 WHIP and a .288 BAA on the year. As a result of his struggles, many are beginning to wonder if Greene might benefit from a stint in the minor leagues. After all, there are clearly a few things that the 26-year-old right-hander could work on down in Triple-A Toledo.
For starters, Greene is having an extremely rough time against left-handed hitters this year, and he needs to find a remedy to that problem. While he has been able to limit righties to a .225/.288/.392 slash line, lefties are slashing a robust .340/.392/.563 against him. According to Brooks Baseball, lefties are hitting .491 with a .825 slugging percentage against Greene’s sinker. While the sinker is essentially his signature pitch, it hasn’t been a very effective tool for him when it comes to getting left-handers out.
Greene does have a changeup which he throws almost exclusively to left-handed hitters, but it could use a little bit of fine tuning. Lefties are currently hitting .281 with a .500 slugging percentage against it.
Obviously, the Tigers’ starting staff is expected to get a bit of a boost over the weekend when Justin Verlander makes his 2015 debut against the Cleveland Indians, so it will indeed be interesting to see if his return impacts Greene. It is also important to note that Kyle Ryan is currently with the big league club, and he appears capable of holding down the No. 5 spot in the rotation for the time being.
Most Tigers fans remember when Max Scherzer was sent down to the minors during the 2010 season after struggling through his first eight starts. While there is certainly no guarantee that Greene would turn it around in the way that Scherzer did upon being sent down, it may be a worthwhile experiment.
Brad Faber is a Senior Writer and Sabermetrics Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Brad_Faber, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on LinkedIn or Google.
