Hunter Greene Fires Back at People That Doubted His Injury

After weeks of offseason speculation and rumors, Cincinnati Reds ace Hunter Greene addressed the chatter in a conversation with Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

When Greene injured his groin for the second time last season, he was rehabbing to get back, but on July 7, he reported symptoms and canceled his rehab assignment.

Greene's rehab was paused. Around the All-Star break, Reds beat writer Mark Sheldon had a paragraph about the young starter that raised some eyebrows.

"Despite a clean MRI exam on July 7, Greene reported symptoms and canceled a rehab assignment," Sheldon wrote. "It's being left up to Greene to determine when he can resume pitching. But for a guy with a long-term contract who says he wants to be a leader, Greene needs to start showing it and get back on the field. When he is, he can be one of the best starters in baseball."

Greene strongly disagreed with this sentiment.

"There were some people and chatter about questioning my timing of coming back," Greene told Nightengale. "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."

Greene returned on August 13 and made eight starts to end the season and was his normal, dominant self. During that stretch, the 26-year-old had a 2.81 ERA with 59 strikeouts in 48 innings.

"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."

It never felt like the Reds were going to seriously consider trading their 26-year-old ace, who is on a team-friendly contract and still under team control through the 2029 season.

Reds manager Terry Francona came out and said as much in early November.

"I don't think those things are going to happen,"Francona said. "Pitching is too hard for us to acquire through free agency and we are fortunate that we have developed some pretty good starting pitching. Nick Lodolo and Andrew Abbott took big steps forward. We got to keep Hunter on the mound because when he is, he's about as good as anybody."

Now that Greene has addressed the speculation publicly, he can turn his full attention to the 2026 season and helping lead the Reds back to the postseason for a second straight year.

You can read Nightengale's full article with more quotes from Greene here.

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