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.
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