The Reds¡¯ postseason chances were dealt a blow on Saturday when All-Star pitcher Hunter Greene went on the injured list with right elbow soreness, but the flamethrowing 25-year-old appears to have avoided a major injury.

¡°We had a doctor see him, had [an] MRI, it¡¯s not as bad as we thought,¡± Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall said Sunday in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM. ¡°He¡¯s going to get checked out again, a second opinion, and we¡¯re working through that right now. At this point, it¡¯s minimal. He¡¯s going to miss some time, obviously, because it is an injury to his elbow and we just want to be precautious on that. But overall it¡¯s the best-case scenario and hopefully he¡¯ll miss a minimal amount of time and be back soon.¡±

This isn¡¯t the first time Greene has dealt with an elbow issue. While coming up through Cincinnati¡¯s Minor League system, he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019. He didn¡¯t end up making his MLB debut until 2022, nearly five years after the Reds took him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft.

Greene showed promise over his first two seasons with the Reds, but he battled more injury problems and inconsistency en route to a 4.62 ERA with a 3.6 BB/9 and a 1.6 HR/9 in 46 starts.

This year, though, Greene has looked like a different pitcher, earning his first All-Star selection and posting a 2.83 ERA with 162 K¡¯s over 143 1/3 innings. He had a sparkling 0.98 ERA over 46 innings in seven starts leading up to his latest IL stint, issuing just 12 walks and yielding two homers in that span.

¡°He¡¯s learning how to be a big league pitcher,¡± Krall said. ¡°I think we take that for granted sometimes when you¡¯ve got a 22- [or] 23-year-old trying to work their way into this game. And then once they become 24, 25, 26, they start getting into their prime and they become elite players. He¡¯s always been an elite talent, but now he¡¯s really worked hard, he¡¯s worked his butt off to develop into the pitcher he¡¯s become this year.¡±

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