GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Cincinnati Reds ace Hunter Greene was on the stage that he had prepared his whole life for, and he had his worst start of the season. He made it into the playoffs and got to face the vaunted Dodgers — the team that he grew up watching — in Game 1 of the Wild Card round last year. Greene allowed six runs in three innings.
“Other than it being my first playoff start and all of those emotions and being able to silence all of those being back home and all of that stuff — my stuff just wasn’t sharp,” Greene says four and a half months later, on the first day of Reds spring training. “I didn’t execute as best as I wanted to. If I have my best pitches and I’m executing, then it’s probably a different outcome. It’s also the Dodgers. They’ve got a really good team. They perform a lot differently in the playoffs. There are a lot of factors.”
There are two ways to look at a game like that.
You can try to use it as fuel.
Or you can study it, and then put it behind you.
Greene has taken the analytical approach. He has enough of a chip on his shoulder already, and he isn’t looking for any extra motivation.
“If any of us in this clubhouse need fuel in that way or any other way to produce, we’re already in a bad spot and there’s already a problem,” Greene said. “We already have enough fuel within ourselves. We’ve dedicated our lives to this game since we were six years old. That’s enough fuel to want to produce and be the best you can be.”
Pitchers and catchers reported in Goodyear on Monday. Expectations are higher for the Reds in 2026. This year isn’t about just sneaking into the playoffs with 83 wins.
For Greene, this year is all about using that experience to be ready for the next time he’s on that postseason stage.
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Since the start of the 2024 season, among starting pitchers who have made at least 30 starts, Greene has the sixth-best ERA (2.76) in MLB. He’s among elite company, and the guys ahead of him are Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal, Chris Sale, Zack Wheeler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Because of the 12 starts that Greene missed due to a groin injury last year, what’s flown under the radar was how good he was during the regular season when he was healthy.
“Everything clicked,” pitching coach Derek Johnson said. “He was very, very good. He was more consistent than he ever has been. He should build on that just as much as the fuel of not finishing it on a good note (in the playoffs).”
When he was healthy in 2025, Greene took a step forward in his career by increasing his strikeout, rate, significantly lowering his walk rate and maximizing his third pitch for the first time in his career. He fully embraced his splitter, which finally gave Greene a useful pitch that was designed to mitigate the impact of left-handed hitters.
Heading into 2025, Greene posted a photo of his whiteboard in his home gym. The whiteboard listed his goals for the season: 180+ innings, a sub-3.00 ERA, 200+ strikeouts, an All-Star appearance and a Cy Young award. The words Cy Young were underlined.
“I set the same goals (this year),” Greene said. “My approach is different. My mindset is different than the prior years. I have different ways to execute that and get to that accolade. I’ve been doing the white board since middle school. I’ve always been a visual learner and a visual person. To have that in my gym and look at it is important. It keeps the main thing the main thing.”
The next step for Greene isn’t about a new pitch, or his command. Every conversation that you have about Greene entering 2026 goes back to the same point. He has to stay healthy.
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Last May, Greene pulled his groin during a start in Atlanta. He returned a couple of weeks later, but when he returned, he only made four abbreviated starts before he landed back on the IL with the same injury. He then went between June 3 and Aug. 13 without making a big league start, all due to the same Grade 1 groin strain.
“He’s very highly attuned to his body,” Johnson said. “He has to be able to figure out what stiff, sore and hurt is. Sometimes, there are things you can pitch through. Sometimes there aren’t. He has learned how to do that more and more. He has pitched through some aches and pains. He needs to continue to figure out what’s possible.”
His career high for starts is 26, and his career high for innings is 150. The multi-million dollar question for a pitcher who could end up making 100+ million in MLB is what Greene can do to stay on the mound for an entire season.
“Continuing to try to bulletproof my body, that’s all I can do,” Greene said. “Bodies move differently. No one is really producing the output that I put out. (Tarik) Skubal and some other guys throw hard. Nobody has really done what the numbers have shown. Everyone is different. All I can do is control what I can control, continue to work hard and put my best foot forward.”
In 2023, Greene missed two months due to a hip issue. In 2024, he missed over a month due to elbow soreness. Last year, he had the groin injury that took three months to really put behind him.
“If he can somehow stay healthy throughout the course of the year and make his starts, you’ll continue to see this climb that we’ve seen incrementally each year,” Johnson said. “The No. 1 goal is health. Unfortunately, you can’t always stop things that happen in the game. You can’t put them in a glass case. He has to be able to go and do his thing.”
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Greene returned from the IL last year on Aug. 13 for a big game against a Phillies team that was a World Series contender in 2025. Facing a great lineup, Greene pitched six shutout innings. Tyler Stephenson said that night, “When he’s healthy and he’s going, he’s one of the best pitchers in the league.”
There were moments down the stretch last year where Greene picked up the torch and helped lead the Reds into the playoffs. It didn’t even matter how talented the opposing lineup was at times. He shut down the Blue Jays to start September (one run, 6 ⅓ innings), picked the Reds up off the mat when their season was on the brink against the Mets (one run, seven innings, 12 strikeouts) and threw a complete game shutout on Sept. 18 against the Cubs.
While he had one off night during that stretch, Greene was one of the best pitchers in baseball during his final eight starts of the regular season.
Then, he took the mound for Game 1 against the Dodgers.
“He was pretty amped,” Johnson said. “It was back home. Dodger Stadium. Playoffs. It was a lot of things. Pitching in the playoffs is different. Now that he has a taste of that, he’ll be able to handle it a whole lot better and easier, as can a lot of those guys who were first timers.”
Even though the statline looked bad (six runs, three innings), the margins were thinner than you remember. He allowed a leadoff homer to Shohei Ohtani — it happens — but then Greene got out of a tough jam in the first inning. He responded with a good second inning, looking like he had settled in as the Reds trailed by a run.
Then, the game got away from Greene really quickly.
He got Freedie Freeman into a two-strike count, but Greene narrowly missed with his location as he went for the strikeout. Freeman drew a walk.
He was in a 2-1 count against Max Muncy, but then Greene spiked a splitter into the dirt that set up a walk for Muncy.
Then, a slider over the plate followed by a slider that wasn’t even in the strike zone resulted in back-to-back homers. All of a sudden, the Reds were down 6-0, and Greene’s pitch count was rising quickly.
The third inning went on to be Greene’s last. The Reds lost, 10-5.
“It’s playoff baseball,” Johnson said. “There’s a trick to it. Teams that have been in the playoffs and players who have been in the playoffs, they have a sense of what that control is. The dial has to be high, but it can’t be too high. They’re able to moderate and monitor themselves way better once they’ve been there.”
When the season ended, Greene reflected on the outing. He took notes. He analyzed his performance. Then, he put it behind him.
“It’s a new season,” Greene said. “My mind isn’t on that game. I’ve already analyzed that game enough and have figured those things out. I’m looking to turn the page.”
He hopes to learn from it and put himself in a better position the next time that he’s on that stage.
“(Baseball) is a failing game,” Greene said. “You can still approach it the right way and work 10 times harder and execute better. It doesn’t mean it’ll always come out on your side with the results. I wouldn’t say (the game) is fuel. It’s learning. Continuing to make those adjustments.”
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When the Reds signed Eugenio Suárez last week, Greene thought back to when their last conversation was. It had to have been, he says, when Greene was a young prospect hoping to make an impression in big league camp in 2021 or 2022 (before Suárez got traded), and when Suárez was one of the most established players on the team.
Signing an established power threat capped off a successful offseason for a Reds team that made the playoffs in 2025 and is looking to take the next step.
“I’m not big on talking about it — I want to go do it,” Greene said. “I want the actions to show for it. Everyone has a great relationship within this clubhouse. Our new additions to the team have been great so far. Those guys have good track records. They seem like great dudes. All of that coming together will show its value.”
On the mound, he feels like more of a pure pitcher than he has ever been. The 26-year-old who was rushed to the big leagues back in 2022 feels like his experiences of the last four years have turned him into a sharper pitcher.
The Reds are counting on him. While the plan didn’t work out in 2025, the Reds’ best shot in a postseason series against a blueblood team like the Dodgers would be the Reds’ rotation carrying the team to a series victory. Greene is the face of that group, and he’s the guy who his teammates in the rotation call the unit’s “No. 1.”
There’s pressure that comes with that. Greene has more experience handling that level of pressure than he did a year ago.
“I’m just hungry,” Greene said. “I want to build off of last year and continue to stay out there on the field and compete at my best ability. Then you let the cards fall where they may.”
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