{"id":504002,"date":"2026-03-04T22:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T22:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/504002\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T22:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T22:13:07","slug":"hunter-greene-to-undergo-mri-on-right-elbow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/504002\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Greene To Undergo MRI On Right Elbow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reds ace Hunter Greene<\/a> is heading for an MRI after experiencing stiffness in his right elbow, manager Terry Francona tells reporters at Reds camp this morning. Greene himself says the injury dates back to late last season (link via Charlie Goldsmith<\/a>). He was recommended for an injection and had a normal offseason but tells the Reds beat that the discomfort has crept back up recently. Greene will be examined by longtime team physician Timothy Kremchek and have a second opinion from Dr. Neal ElAttrache. He says his ulnar collateral ligament was intact at a recent check, but news of a new round of imaging will inherently lead to some concern until the results are known.<\/p>\n

Greene acknowledged in his comments that, like many big league pitchers, he\u2019s aware of some bone spurs in his elbow. He\u2019s navigated that issue in the past, it seems, and surgery has not been recommended as an option to this point. The right-hander wouldn\u2019t commit to whether he\u2019ll be able to make his first start of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf something has to be done, it\u2019s early and we\u2019ll get it out of the way quick and can have the big chunk of the season,\u201d Greene said this morning. \u201cIf we have a playoff push, I\u2019ll be ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even a brief absence for Greene is a bitter pill for the Reds to swallow. The former No. 2 overall draft pick has been one of the game\u2019s best pitchers on a rate basis over the past two seasons but has missed considerable time due to a pair of groin strains in 2025 and some elbow discomfort in 2024. He\u2019s started 45 games across the past two seasons and worked to a 2.76 ERA with a 29.2% strikeout rate, 8.1% walk rate and 33.5% ground-ball rate. Last season\u2019s 15.4% swinging-strike rate was fourth-best in MLB (min. 100 innings pitched), trailing only Tarik Skubal<\/a>, Dylan Cease<\/a> and Logan Gilbert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Greene is entering the fourth season of a six-year, $53MM extension. The 26-year-old is being paid $8MM this season before making $15MM and $16MM in 2027-28. The Reds hold a $21MM club option (with a $2MM buyout) over his 2029 season.<\/p>\n

With Greene\u2019s status up in the air, one of the stronger-looking rotations in the sport takes a big hit. Cincinnati can still trot out Andrew Abbott<\/a>, Nick Lodolo<\/a>, Brady Singer<\/a> and top prospects Chase Burns<\/a> (the No. 2 pick in 2024) and Rhett Lowder<\/a> (the No. 7 pick in 2023), but neither Burns nor Lowder has fully established himself in the majors yet. Lowder pitched only 9 1\/3 minor league frames last year due to forearm, oblique and shoulder issues.<\/p>\n

Depth options on Cincinnati\u2019s 40-man roster include another former first-rounder, Chase Petty<\/a>, and a pair of formerly touted prospects returning from injury: righty Julian Aguiar<\/a> and lefty Brandon Williamson<\/a>. The Reds also selected righty Jose Franco<\/a> to the 40-man roster this past November to protect him from the 2025 Rule 5 Draft; he tossed 110 innings of 3.11 ERA ball between Double-A (2.76 ERA) and Triple-A (3.51 ERA) last season.<\/p>\n

There are, of course, some notable starters remaining in free agency. Lucas Giolito<\/a> and fellow righty Zack Littell<\/a> \u2014 the latter of whom finished the 2026 season with Cincinnati \u2014 remain unsigned. Veterans like Tyler Anderson<\/a>, Patrick Corbin<\/a> and old friend Anthony DeSclafani<\/a> would be more affordable depth pursuits.<\/p>\n

However, president of baseball operations Nick Krall told Goldsmith<\/a> that even if Greene misses time, he doesn\u2019t anticipate engaging with any free agents to fill that void. That perhaps leaves the door cracked for waiver and trade activity to replenish some depth, but the Reds\u2019 2026 payroll is already expected to be higher than in 2025, so the team may not have much budget space with which to tinker after spending more than $47MM in free agency already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reds ace Hunter Greene is heading for an MRI after experiencing stiffness in his right elbow, manager Terry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[99198,99],"class_list":["post-504002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-hunter-greene","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}