The Cincinnati Reds got bad news Friday when they found out their top pitching prospect would miss the rest of the season.
After taking the risk of drafting fire-balling right-hander Hunter Greene #2 overall in 2017, the Cincinnati Reds were beginning to see some big growth from their young hurler this season. Then, news came out Friday that Hunter Greene will be out for the rest of the season due to a sprained UCL.
Before the 2017 draft, many felt that Hunter Greene was the best overall player in the 2017 draft, with a chance to be a first-round prospect as a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher or a power-hitting shortstop. The Cincinnati Reds let him explore both after he was drafted, and while his hitting was not great (.233/.233/.367), he was hit hard on the mound, allowing 7 runs (6 earned) over 4 1/3 innings.
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The Cincinnati Reds saw Greene struggle out of the gate this year as they pushed him all the way to full-season ball in the Midwest League. Through his first 5 starts on the season, he had shown strikeout stuff, but was also walking over a batter per inning, with a 13.97 ERA and 3.21 WHIP.
His next start out was May 12th against Peoria, going 4 scoreless innings, allowing just 2 hits with no walks and 5 strikeouts. He was able to show much better control after that, finishing the year with a 2.91 ERA over 58 2/3 innings, posting a 0.99 WHIP, 5.6% BB, and 30.5% K.
As most know, a strain or a sprain is a tear in the muscle to some level. Right now, Greene intends to rest and rehabilitate the elbow and hope that it can heal the tear on its own and be fine to go in 2019. That said, a recent example from the position side of first-round pick Alex Kirilloff doing the same in his draft year, resting it for the season, and he still needed Tommy John surgery when he got back to full-scale baseball activities in spring of 2017.
Hopefully, Hunter Greene can get back on the mound soon because for the Cincinnati Reds, and for baseball fans everywhere, that incredible level of velocity is something special that is fun to watch in the game!