Reds pitcher Hunter Greene refutes rumors that he intentionally prolonged his injury recovery last season.
Greene affirmed his commitment to the Cincinnati Reds despite trade rumors and declined an invitation to the World Baseball Classic.
He aims to be a role model and increase the number of Black players in Major League Baseball.
Greene is focused on bringing a winning culture back to Cincinnati and making another postseason appearance.
MESA, AZ — Hunter Greene, donning a tan sweatsuit, a baseball cap worn backwards on his head, and flip-flops on his feet, plops down in the chair and is ready to talk.
Well, in reality, vent.
It has been two months since the Cincinnati Reds’ season ended at Dodger Stadium.
Two months since rumors began that Greene could be traded.
Two months before the Reds open spring training camp.
And two months before Greene hopes to take the mound in spring training, silence any critics, and show everyone that he’s not only one of the elite pitchers in the game, but he’s also an ultimate role model who proudly represents the rich tradition of the Reds.
In a 90-minute conversation with USA TODAY Sports, Hunter was adamant that he loves being with the Reds, doesn’t want to be traded to the New York Yankees or anyone else who has expressed interest, rejected repeated invitations from World Baseball Classic officials to remain with his teammates in spring training, and tersely dismissed any notion or narrative that he should have returned earlier from his strained right groin muscle that sidelined him for 2 ½ months last season.
‘There were some people and chatter about questioning my timing of coming back,’ Hunter said. ‘You know, like it took longer than it should have been. The idea that I was milking it, or taking a longer time, or the idea of not wanting to be with the team.
‘That was so disrespectful, so disingenuous to me.’
The idea that Greene actually wanted to be away from the team, and could have returned from the injured list earlier, he says, is ludicrous.
He was 4-2 with a 2.36 ERA in the first eight starts of the season and in the early conversation for the Cy Young Award race. He not only would be hurting his team by staying out longer than necessary, but also his own wallet. In the six-year, $53 million contract extension he signed in April, 2023, Hunter is scheduled to receive a $2 million bonus for winning the Cy Young Award, $1 million for finishing among the top three, and $500,000 for a top-10 finish. He also receives $200,000 for making the All-Star team.
So where does it make sense for him to stay on the injured list longer than necessary?
‘My mind would never let me take a break or remove myself from the team while the rest of my teammates are grinding through the season,’ says Greene, 26, who has been with the Reds since becoming their No. 1 pick in 2017. ‘I mean, let’s just talk about the pure sentiment of me signing the extension, wanting to be a Cincinnati Red, and me wanting to bring winning back to Cincinnati.
‘That was always my intention since the day I signed with the Reds, and as we talk now, I hold that same feeling.’
Besides, as the face of the organization, how in the world could he look at his teammates in the eye and take longer than necessary to return? He tried to return earlier. He originally strained his right groin May 7, returned in 15 days, and then re-injured the groin just three starts later.
Simply, he came back too early from the first soft tissue injury of his career, he says, and it backfired.
‘He thought he was ready, and tried to pitch through it, when he strained it again,’ said Nick Krall, Reds president of baseball operations. ‘Everyone wants to be available, and he did everything he could. He tried to pitch through it.
‘Then he went back on the injured list. Every injury is on its own timetable. There was certainly no frustration on our part.’
Greene, who traveled back to Arizona to work out at the Reds’ spring training facility, heard media rumblings that his return was taking too long. His MRI results were clean, so why wasn’t he back yet? Why did he need to make two additional rehab starts?
When he made his return Aug. 13 against the Philadelphia Phillies, pitching six shutout innings and giving up just three hits, he was asked by a local reporter if he needed to make amends with his teammates.
Make amends?
It wasn’t as if he just served an 80-game suspension for PED use. He wasn’t arrested for DWI. All he did was work out from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. every day, driving 1 ½ hours to and from the workout facility in 110-degree heat, and go back to his suburban home where he’s the youngest homeowner in the community by about 30 years.
‘This thing,’ Krall said, ‘took on a life of its own. It got so overblown. Look, I had shoulder surgery 10 weeks ago. My MRI can be as clean as it can be. But the rehab is slow.’
The truth, Hunter said, is that he checked with the Reds’ medical and training staff to determine the best course of action to receive the proper care without disrupting his teammates’ regiment. He spoke to 10 to 12 of his teammates to explain that he would be leaving for Arizona, and they gave him his blessing.
He was gone for 1 ½ months, but watched their games, kept in constant contact, and vowed to return as soon as he felt that he could be back to being Hunter Greene again. The MRI may have come back clean, but he still felt tenderness and knew he wasn’t ready.
‘I knew after I came back and my groin grabbed again,’ Greene said, ‘I had to be careful and make sure I didn’t re-injure myself or I’d be out the rest of the year. The team realized that, ‘Hey, maybe we probably rushed this a little bit too much. We need to rehab it the right way.’
‘So, the training staff, Tito (manager Terry Francona), the front office, everybody came together and communicated that we need to approach this the right way, give myself enough time to really be able to rehab it and make sure it doesn’t rear its head again.’
Could he have come back and pitched at less than 100%? Sure.
Would he have been the same dominant Hunter Greene? No.
‘Maybe people would argue that it’s better than nothing,’ Greene says, ‘but is it really? What value is that for the team? It’s like what they tell you on the airplane, if you don’t put the mask on first, how are you going to help the next person?
‘I knew the expectation was to be dominant, and I didn’t want to deliver anything less than that. I wanted to execute at the highest level. And I think was able to do that.’
Greene went 3-1 with a 2.81 ERA in eight starts after returning from the injured list, including a one-hit shutout against the Chicago Cubs. The Reds won five of his starts, and needed every single one of them, earning a playoff berth on the final day of the regular season.
The Reds’ postseason lasted just 48 hours with the Dodgers blitzing Greene and the Reds 10-5 in Game 1 and 8-4 in Game 2 of the wild-card series, but the Reds finally ended their 12-year playoff drought. Now, they believe they can take the next step, vying for their first World Series appearance since 1990. They were a finalist in the Kyle Schwarber free agent sweepstakes and remain in talks with the Chicago White Sox for center fielder Luis Robert in hopes of another postseason run.
And to go where they want to go, the Reds realize they need Greene, and are simply doing their due diligence by listening to trade offers but have no intention of actually moving him.
‘Trade rumors are part of the game,’ Hunter said. ‘I can’t control any of that, especially with how social media is now with so many people having voices. People can say whatever they want now.
‘My thing is that I’m a Cincinnati Red. I love the city. I love the team, I love the potential. I’ve bought a home there. I’ve done so much philanthropy and community service in Cincinnati. I’m deeply embedded in that city.’
This commitment to the organization, Greene says, is the primary reason he declined the numerous attempts by Team USA officials to pitch in the WBC. He has represented Team USA three times as an amateur and loved the experience. Still, he believed it was important to be with his team during the entire spring. He certainly would like to pitch in the WBC, and he would be honored to pitch in the Olympics in 2028 if MLB permits big-league players to participate. But, for now, he’s got a team that needs him for a postseason sequel.
‘My priority is having a great season for the Reds,’ Greene said. ‘We got a taste of the playoffs, and I want to do it again. My mind is to be able to get back to the postseason with the Reds in 2026, and beyond. I like to see things through.
‘I would like to be able to look back one day and see the impact that I was able to have with the organization.’
Greene not only wants to make a difference in the Reds’ organization, but also for young Black players. He’s a staple in the MLB community for his volunteer work with youth programs and academies, charitable foundations, and provides two annual college scholarships from his Notre Dame High School in Los Angeles.
The Black population among Major League Baseball players has shrunk to just 6% with only one Black GM and one Black manager, with Greene hoping that his own success could open doors for young athletes to turn to baseball.
‘My ‘why’ is being able to grow the numbers of African-American players within our sport,’ Greene says, ‘or at least give the opportunity to the Black community. It’s up to the kids to want to continue to pursue baseball. But it’s clear as day. I’m 10 toes down in my ‘why.’ I think with a lot of the trials and tribulations of being a professional athlete, my ‘why’ doesn’t waver from continuing to work and make the strides that I want to make within the sport.
‘I’ve seen my impact in real time. I’ve been able to. I’ve had multiple kids come up to me and tell me, ‘I’m continuing to play this game because of the interaction that we had. Now I love the sport.’
‘This is not for show. This isn’t for an article or for the cameras. This is something that means everything to me.’
Just like winning in Cincinnati, making it one of the game’s elite franchises, once again.
‘I want to look back and know we helped create a lasting winning culture,’ Greene says. ‘Not just for the success of the franchise, but also for the city. This is the oldest team in baseball. This is where they had the Big Red Machine. This is the home of all of those Hall of Fame players.
‘This is such a great baseball town.
‘I want everybody to be able to see that again.’
Follow Bob Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale