The Cincinnati Reds endured brutal news this week: Hunter Greene is injured and set to miss extended time. The 26-year-old big arm is set to be out until July with an elbow injury. This affects the team but regarding our focus, he affects fantasy baseball in a big way. The high-level Greene falls far down the rankings and now is unlikely to even be drafted. Here is how to play this situation.

Fantasy Football Impact

With Greene being out until July, he effectively misses almost 75% of the fantasy baseball regular season. If in a re-draft league, this matters little to you. However, if Greene is owned in a dynasty league, it is a world of hurt. Managers could drop Greene, but that would be ill-advised in the short term. Stash Greene in the IL spot and wait for him to return. If the IL gets too packed, perhaps tough decisions may have to be made, but that is a long-term issue to deal with, if at all.

At one point, Greene had an ADP in the top-20. He is not worth drafting in re-draft. Even if Greene returns in elite form, it will not be until July. The loss is too much to be recouped by a great potential reward that may not even materialize post-injury. Pivot to the ‘next man up.’

The Reds will not field the following pitching depth chart:

Andrew Abbott (2.7 WAR)Brady Singer (2.4 WAR)Nick Lodolo (2.4 WAR)Rhett Lowder (1.1 WAR)Chase Burns (2.5 WAR)

Luckily for Reds fans, they still have an elite rotation outside of Greene. Both Abbott and Burns are tier-three Cy Young candidates and they will certainly be fantasy baseball targets, especially for any Reds fans who desire for biased drafting by targeting their home pitcher(s).

Hunter Greene Out Until July

Greene will undergo arthroscopic surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow. Worse yet, this is his right, throwing arm/elbow. Greene should return to full strength, but risk is risk, and this is that.

Last week, Greene exited Spring Training citing soreness. The former sub-3.00 ERA pitcher found not the worst-case news, but very bad news: now out for some time. That is how the cookie crumbles. The pitching position always carries a high risk of injury. Better to happen now that mid-season, we suppose.

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