Just four days before going on the injured list with elbow soreness, Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Hunter Greene declared himself an ace. Greene looked more confident than ever. He was an All-Star entering the Cy Young conversation. He was the hardest pitcher to hit in the National League. For the past two months, he’s been basically untouchable.
After the game, Greene was asked if he was an ace. “I’ve already decided I’m one,” he said.
The Reds are pinning their playoff hopes on Greene winning important games for them, but his next steps and timeline for his return have yet to be determined.
“We’ve put him on the injured list as a precautionary measure,” said Nick Krall, president of baseball operations for the Reds. “We’ll do the MRI in the next few days and then see what happens next.”
In a Reds season marked by inconsistency, one of the only things the team could rely on was Greene’s strong starts every fifth day. He showed no signs of fatigue in his last start.
In that win over the St. Louis Cardinals, Greene saved his fastest pitchers for the most important moments, reaching 100 mph in the seventh inning.
Later that night, Greene complained of pain. He felt better the next day, tried to play catch on Saturday, and then felt pain in his elbow again.
Elbow injuries are always scary, especially at a time when most of the hardest-throwing starting pitchers are on the injured list.
“Hopefully this is just a little setback and he continues to grow,” Krall said. “He’s been great this year. When I talked to him, it was difficult to have that conversation with him. He understood it too. That was the best way we could do it.”
Losing Greene for any period of time is a major blow to the Reds’ playoff hopes. They were four games out of a wild-card spot entering Saturday and had very little margin for error with 40 games left in the season.
Despite some of the Reds’ best players missing long stretches of the season due to injury and several key players taking a big step back from their career years in 2023, the starting lineup has kept the Reds’ playoff ambitions alive.
There were already signs that this rotation was beginning to crumble, and the fact that Greene was out for a period of time only adds to that concern.
Andrew Abbott has a 5.40 ERA in his last six starts, has struggled through games where he hasn’t had his best control, and his pitch count has gone up in some of his recent appearances starting games. Nick Lodolo is having a solid season, but he’s already thrown more innings than in any other season of his career.
Neither pitcher has reached an innings limit and the Reds expect both to take a step forward in the final phase.
Nick Martinez has performed excellently since being reinstated into the Reds’ rotation in early August and now moves up a spot in the rotation.
Carson Spiers was technically the No. 5 starter on Saturday, but manager David Bell said the Reds might continue to use the opening night strategy when Spiers makes rotations. Spiers threw just 2 ⅔ innings in his last appearance and has a 6.43 ERA in his last six appearances.
The Reds acquired veteran pitcher Jakob Junis as part of the trade to the Milwaukee Brewers because they valued his ability to throw long innings as a relief pitcher or step into the rotation in a pinch. But Junis’ role did not pan out as expected.
Junis, who missed some time earlier this season with a shoulder injury, has not thrown more than 2 ⅓ innings in any of his five appearances with the Reds.
Since Junis does not have the necessary starting eleven, the Reds have to bring in replacements from the minor leagues.
Entering the season, the Reds expected their starting pitchers to be a strength overall in the minor leagues. But promising pitcher Connor Phillips pitched poorly and had to move to rookie ball to re-evaluate. Lyon Richardson and Christian Roa moved to the bullpen, and Brandon Williamson missed the first five months of the season with a shoulder injury.
The favorite to replace Greene in the rotation appears to be Julian Aguiar, the Reds’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2023. Aguiar, a former 12th-round pick, shares many similarities with Spiers. Aguiar has an outstanding slider, has good control, and posted a 3.79 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A.
The Reds’ other options in Triple-A include Casey Kelly, Brandon Leibrandt and Justus Sheffield, who were out of the organization to start the season — Connor Overton — who has been a long-term reliever in Triple-A since returning from Tommy John surgery — or building Richardson back up as a starter in the MLB on the fly. Rhett Lowder, who is currently in Double-A, is not expected to be called up.
This article originally appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer: Hunter Greene lands on injured list due to elbow pain
