On two separate occasions the Cincinnati Reds have turned to Hunter Greene to start for them on Opening Day, first back in 2023 and again in 2025. He’s the undisputed ace of their staff, a former #2 overall draft pick who was long assumed to be a frontline starter for any team that lucked into getting his services, and despite being banged up off and on through the years he’s absolutely begun to live up to the immense hype.
The Reds, presumably, were going to turn to Greene for the start on Opening Day 2026. After finding out this morning that Greene was dealing with stiffness in his right elbow – an issue that dates back to last fall prior to the end of the 2025 season – it’s looking less and less likely he’ll be available to do that.
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As Mark Sheldon of Reds.com relayed, Greene is set for an MRI after experiencing pain in his right elbow after his first start of the spring. Greene remains optimistic that it’s not going to be anything too serious – he goes as far as confirming that his surgically repaired UCL is completely intact – but notes he knows there are bone spurs in there and that he received an injection in it over the winter after it ailed him down the stretch in 2025.
The Cincinnati Reds have a wealth of depth at starting pitcher, for now. They just welcomed back each of Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, and Julian Aguiar after the trio was lost for 2025 with their own arm injuries and surgeries. Still, Greene’s the kind of arm that simply cannot be fully replaced even if the Reds are perhaps better equipped than any team in the game to stomach having him out for a short period of time.
How short that is remains to be seen. That’s why the MRI is going down in the first place. If it’s merely an issue of rest and taking time off, that’s obviously the best-case scenario, but even then that would put him behind the eight-ball to build back up to be ready by Opening Day. If it’s anything beyond that, god forbid, any timeline for when he’ll work his way back onto the 2026 squad gets thrown up in the air.
Greene, who only fired 107 IP last year and has only once reached so much as 150 IP in a season, is going to be managed with the softest of gloves in this instance. The Reds want him to get to that number and be ready to pitch deep in the playoffs, after all, and it now looks like the best route for him to get to that number may include being sidelined for the first week, weeks, month of the season and then ramping it up from there.
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Brady Singer, Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo, Chase Burns, Lowder, Williamson, Aguiar, and Chase Petty buy the Reds the chance to be patient with this, however serious it ends up being. Still, there was immense hope that 2026 might be the year Greene shakes off the injury bug for once and pitches well enough (and often enough) for his typically elite production to put him squarely in the mix for a Cy Young Award – or more – and now that path is already facing a serious hiccup.
Get well soon, Hunter…but also take your time.
