Right right-hander Hunter Greene has a grade 1 right groin strain, per Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. He has not yet been placed on the 15-day injured list but manager Terry Francona says that will happen before Greene’s turn in the rotation comes up again. There’s no strict rush to make the move, as IL stints can be backdated by as many as three days. Even if the IL move isn’t officially made for a day or two, he would be eligible to return on the same date.
It’s an unfortunate but not shocking development. Greene departed last night’s contest after just three innings. He came out to warm up for the fourth but called a trainer out to the mound and was removed from the game. The Reds announced it as a right groin injury and that he would be undergoing an MRI.
It’s still not clear how long they expect him to be out of action but it seems the Reds will be without their ace for at least a couple of turns through the rotation. Greene has an excellent 2.36 earned run average through eight starts so far this year. He’s had a bit of help from a .224 batting average on balls in play and a 92.5% strand rate but his 34.7% strikeout rate and 4.5% walk rate are both excellent figures. His 30.1% K-BB% is actually tops among qualified pitchers this year. ERA estimators like his 3.07 FIP and 2.41 SIERA suggest he’d still be having great results even with some regression in the luck department.
Losing that kind of performance would be a blow for any club. The Reds are 19-19 and trying to stay afloat in the National League race. Obviously, subtracting Greene doesn’t help, regardless of who comes up to take his place.
They will be left with Nick Lodolo, Nick Martinez, Brady Singer and Andrew Abbott to start their next four games. The team is off on Monday and could theoretically stick with those four guys on regular rest through next Friday, but they would need to figure something else out by next weekend. That could be giving a rotation spot to someone else, just a spot start or some creative solution such as a bullpen game.
Chase Petty is on the 40-man roster and made his major league debut already this year, so he would be an option to be recalled. Rhett Lowder probably isn’t an immediate option. He’s been on the 15-day IL all year due to a forearm strain. He recently started a rehab assignment, tossing three innings in the Complex League on Tuesday, but he’ll probably need another few weeks to ramp up as a sort of delayed spring training. Randy Wynne was up with the club earlier this year but was outrighted off the 40-man a few weeks back. Veteran Wade Miley is in the system on a minor league deal, working his way back from last year’s Tommy John surgery, though he recently departed his second rehab outing with a groin issue and his timeline is unclear.
Photo courtesy of Brett Davis, Imagn Images
Reds need to start hitting. Their starters are doing a pretty good job, need the offense to kick into gear.
Ugh! This team and its injuries. All teams deal with them, but the Reds always seem to lose players to injury more than almost any other team.
Sure, the Cubs are down the top two starters, Yankees without the top 3, but the Reds have it worse than anyone.
The real problem isn’t the people on the IL, it the fact the the Reds management hasn’t made a priority to have quality depth players.
How much depth do teams not named Dodgers and Yankees have that much depth or can spend on it. Analyze every team and you will see no one has great depth. For that many regular player injuries. Let alone pitching.
Also Cruz and Matt McLain and Steer. They are at best barely average to horrible. Not helping at all. That’s the issue.
They already had Lowder out. You can’t just sign cheap starting pitching depth. The Dodgers don’t even have that.
They have Petty who looks good in AAA but probably just not ready yet. Spiers is ok one start and bad the next.
Who would have you signed for depth just in case CES. Calendario. Marte. Hayes. Stephenson. All got injured. Which they did. No team could sign that much depth to help. And would this great depth sit in AAA just in case they are needed.
The depth they have is Benson. Hinds. Callihan. And then he gets injured.
The Yankees aren’t down their top 3 starters. No one is feeling bad for them.
You’re comparing teams just for this year. I’m going broader than that.
Yes because we are talking about this year where this is not the issue. 2024 sure. Heck I can go to a bunch of other years just this team had with not enough depth. 1978. 1989. 1993. I can tell you stories about those years.
You know what the real issue is becoming. Matt McLain not doing anything. At all. Elly not getting much better or right looking worse than last year.
Judge and Soto carries the Yankees offense last year. As an example. And while you can’t expect them to be Judge and Soto. You can still win if you have at least your players that are healthy and expected to do better.
Throw in Tito continuing to bay Matt 2nd. That does not help.
You’re talking about this year. I was not. Re-read my comment.
Yeah depth is not the issue for the Reds. Particularly with the starting rotation, which also has Lowder ramping up and Petty and Burns rising through the system. In addition to the depth they built by re-signing Martinez and trading for Singer.
What the Reds lack is ceiling, particularly among the position players. Outside of EDLC their talented young core is mostly made up of high floor players. And the players they have brought in are generally all for depth – Candelario, Espinal, Trevino, Lux, Hays.
I don’t need to re-read it. I was talking about this year. Pointless to go over last year. Which I agree they did not do better with depth and counted on Williamson and Acuna and Connor Phillips. Who turned into Steve Blass.
If you can give other teams that are able to buy players just for depth. Just in case of injury. Besides the obvious Dodgers and Yankees. Maybe the Mets?
McLain’s issues are real concerning. Was he just a flash in the pan or is he still recovering from being out a whole year? Steer looks horrible as well.
It is past time he works out his problems at AAA. Especially when you are trying to keep Espinal and Lux bats in the lineup. . Hayes is back (at least until the next injury) and Hinds deserves a chance to see what he can do. The 3 catchers appears to be working into the lineup with a DH / C rotation. Stephenson would DH the most if it were up to me because he too is injury prone…
Plus, Stephenson and Wynns have been playing some at 1B..
You are talking starters instead of where they have really had the injury issues But we see the large market bias so you probably don’t pay much attention otherwise.
Always something injury-wise with this team. He looked outright dominant in his short stint last night.
Red light for Greene on Reds.
Tough break. It’s one thing to lose a starter to the IL, but losing Greene for a while sucks. Not a Reds’ fan, but they were my pick to win the division.
Didn’t Hunter beat the Braves last year too then immediately after was hurt just like this time?
Their bullpen is overused already so a bullpen game would NOT be a good idea.
They might just go with Richardson since he is already there and Petty showing he is far from ready.
Since Richardson isn’t stretched out, how would going with him not be a bullpen game? He hasn’t thrown more than 39 pitches in single appearance this season, majors or minors.
He was a former starter so maybe at least he will go 3 or 4 instead of 8 guys going one or if a quick inning, two. At least it would save a couple guys arms.
Ir us academic anyway as Richardson pitched a couple innings yesterday. I’d rather have a starter myself but they love the cheap option.
They should have let Richardson close the game last night considering Ashcraft is about as reliable as Diaz was.
Toughest pitcher the Giants have faced this year. Fun to watch