Cincinnati Reds top prospect Hunter Greene is in Cincinnati. The right-handed pitching prospect who is back to hitting 102 MPH after having Tommy John surgery in April of 2019, shared a photo in his instagram stories earlier today from the outside of Great American Ballpark. It could have been an old picture, of course. But just after 9 PM he also posted this on his instagram account, though it has since been deleted:
“Go Time”. While Cincinnati has plenty of things worth checking out, it doesn’t seem likely that Hunter Greene traveled to Cincinnati to take a tour of the Zoo to check out Fiona, or to go on the latest ride at Kings Island. No, it’s almost a certainty that he’s in Cincinnati to play some baseball.
Each team gets a 60-man player pool to work with this year. The Reds current player pool is sitting at 57 players after the team designated Scott Schebler for assignment this afternoon. That leaves them with three spots that they can fill with players if they choose.
When the roster pool was initially announced it seemed a bit confusing that Hunter Greene wasn’t on it given that we had seen him throwing 102 MPH in June, giving us every single reason to believe that he was 100% recovered and healthy after his Tommy John surgery. But the young right-hander wasn’t listed. When asked about players who were missing, Reds General Manager Nick Krall noted, “Just because we didn’t put a guy on doesn’t mean you can’t add him later” – and we have seen many teams do that since the initial rosters came out. Cincinnati, thus far, has only added one player – Derek Dietrich, who couldn’t join the team until he had recovered from COVID-19.
For Hunter Greene and the Reds, it’s easy to see where there’s a strong possibility that he could indeed help the team out at some point this year. While it may not be a good plan to think he’s going to come out and start in the big leagues this season given that he hasn’t been building up his innings – and the plan this year was to ease him back into the role as a starter, slowly building up his innings this season as he progressed – bringing him out of the bullpen in shorter stints while throwing the full arsenal of pitches could be a lethal weapon for the team to go to at some point. In a season where the organization may feel it’s truly a “go for it” situation, 102 MPH with a plus slider – even from a 20-year-old who hasn’t pitched above Low-A ball is something that absolutely needs to be considered.
If Greene is indeed being added to the player pool roster, don’t expect him at Great American Ballpark on opening day. That seems like a bit of a stretch given that he hasn’t been with the team for all of July at this point. He likely heads to the Prasco Park group where he’ll get to work with the developmental staff and be there in order be prepared if and when the call comes that the Reds need reinforcements.
We have to ask the question I guess, was Greene the second player with COVID? We know Dietrich had it and then was added later. If Greene is being added now that seems like a possibility.
I had the same thought. It would explain the questions around why you wouldn’t at least have him in Prasco for further work and development.
I’ll just go ahead and guess that no, that’s not why. Feeling like a real TMZ reporter here – but he’s fairly active on instagram, and I follow him over there, and he’s been out working out with others, with his family members – if he had tested positive I don’t believe we’d have seen that kind of stuff from him.
That’s good to hear
Only a few more days to some baseball and some real sports ! That’s what I’m talking about ! Go reds !
I hope so. This would be great for this development and could be used an RP without any downfalls. Correct me if i’m wrong, but this year doesn’t count with arbitration time. right?
It only counts if you are on the Reds roster.
Does the broken link mean anything? I’m not on Instagram. Did he take it down?
It certainly means it was removed.
But basically, it was just a geotag that said “Cincinnati, Ohio” along with “Go Time” and a baseball emoji.
I’ve updated the article with a screenshot of the post that’s now been deleted.
What happens often is players will post stuff like this before the team wants the announcement to happen, and so they ask them to remove it. It’s honestly a bit silly, particularly in this case given that it’s not as if Greene is taking the roster spot of someone else right now – so they aren’t foreshadowing that someone is about to lose their job. But…. teams get weird with stuff like this.
I mean, if Greene is in town to practice but is not being added to the 60-man, that would be a violation of the rules for this season, right? He can’t practice with the team until he’s added to the 60-man, so they’d be wise to make sure he’s going to be added before he’s posting anything like this, so as to avoid closer scrutiny by the league office, right?
You are right on the rules – but a guy showing up in Cincinnati isn’t an issue. He just can’t get on the field before the roster move is made. He will have to pass a test before the move is announced. That’s probably the “hold up” – just in case he doesn’t pass it, everyone already knowing he is here and then he isn’t added kind of gives away why in almost all cases.
Dietrich released.
Seems like simple logistics to me, meaning the need to keep the roster more fluid while evaluating guys with a 30 man chance. Either way, yes, get Hunter to Prasco and give him development opportunities.
Wonder if Lodolo is another guy they’re keeping a 60-man spot for?
Lodolo is already on the 60-man. I don’t think he has been to GABP yet, but he’s on the list.
My bad – was only looking at 30-man list.
The Reds are in a precarious situation when it comes from roster management regarding service time. I think I read that if a player is on the 26 man roster and the season is called because of covid, then that player is credited with 1 full season. If that’s correct, then using Green, Garcia or Lodolo this year might not be worth the risk.
I swear, if they try to make him a closer…..
LOL, they might make him a reliever this season, but I doubt a closer.
Assuming he is added to the 60 man, we have 2 spots. Teams should be dropping players any time. We’ll see if we pick up anyone else or if we add 2 of our own minor leaguers. I am hopping for Naughton to be added.
The 60-man player pool currently sits at 56 players. Schebler and Dietrich were both removed.