Photo: Redleg Nation Staff
For the most part this spring the Cincinnati Reds have been healthy. Christian Encarnacion-Strand missed a few days with a hamstring issue, and two non-roster invites were injured but that was it. Wednesday morning things seemed to go the other way, and in a big way. Manager Terry Francona and president of baseball operations Nick Krall told the media that Hunter Greene is dealing with something going on in his elbow and is going to get an MRI. Charlie Goldsmith of Fox19 is reporting that Greene will not throw until at least Tuesday.
Greene, speaking to the media this morning, said that he had no UCL damage. That’s about as good of news as could be given the initial report that contained no information beyond he needed to get an MRI. He’s been dealing with some bone spurs and hopes that’s all that it is.
This isn’t the first time that Hunter Greene has had elbow issues. The right-handed starter underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019 and missed the entire season. According to Goldsmith’s reporting, he’s expected to see both Dr. Kremchek as well as Dr. El Attrache (who performed his Tommy John surgery).
Without the MRI being done yet everyone is just in wait-and-see mode. With the statement that Greene won’t pitch again until at least Tuesday, it seems we’ll have some information by then about what’s going on and how the team and Greene plan to move forward with whatever is shown by the scan.
If Hunter Greene is not ready to begin the season because of this, Cincinnati does have some depth to help out in the rotation. Currently the 5th spot in the rotation is up for grabs with Chase Burns, Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, Julian Aguiar, and perhaps Jose Franco vying for the spot. The first two guys probably have a big advantage over the others, but the team has plenty of options to look at over the next three weeks for two pitchers if they need to fill the role left open by Greene if he does have to miss some time with whatever exactly it is that’s going on with his elbow.
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