Following a second opinion on his ailing right elbow, Cincinnati Reds right-hander Hunter Greene will undergo season-ending surgery, Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall revealed Friday.
It will be his second procedure performed on the same joint this year. Greene underwent an arthroscopic operation March 11 to have bone chips extracted, delaying his season debut until July 4.
He made five starts for the Reds before he was shut down Tuesday because of soreness in a bullpen session. Cincinnati placed him on the 15-day injured list a day later.
Reds orthopedic surgeon Tim Kremchek examined Greene Wednesday, when the pitcher also underwent an MRI. Greene traveled to Los Angeles the next day to have noted orthopedist Neal ElAttrache, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ team physician, weigh in on the injury.
“Both (doctors) said that when you go in there, you’re gonna find out what it is and go from there. It’s going to be some sort – the ligament was failing. It’s going to be some sort of procedure around the ligament,” Krall said of the pending operation. The extent of it is not going to be known until they go in, have the surgery and find out what’s inside.”
Krall added about the lead-up to Greene getting shut down, “He said he was sore off and on for a couple of weeks. At the same time, it wasn’t something he brought to anyone’s attention because he thought it was just, ‘Hey, you’re coming off the bone chip surgery. You’re just going to push through it.'”
Greene, who turned 27 on Thursday, went 2-2 with a 6.83 ERA this season, striking out 33 and walking nine in 27 2/3 innings.
An All-Star in 2024, Greene has spent all five of his major league seasons in Cincinnati. In 96 career games, all starts, he has a 27-31 record with a 3.82 ERA, 650 strikeouts and 188 walks in 523 1/3 innings.
He lost his lone career postseason outing after giving up five runs in three innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the opener of a National League wild-card series last year.
