Reds Drawing Significant Trade Interest in Starting Pitcher Ahead of Deadline

After dropping the series to the Cleveland Guardians, the Reds are currently 50-57 and not a position to make the postseason.

They are almost certainly going to be sellers at the deadline, which is now less than a week away.

According to a report by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic on Thursday morning, the Reds are drawing significant interest in starting pitcher Hunter Greene.

"The Reds are drawing significant interest in Greene, according to a person briefed on their discussions who spoke anonymously so they could speak freely," Rosenthal wrote. "They aren’t particularly motivated to trade him, but barring a trade of De La Cruz, a move involving Greene might be their best chance to make an impact at the deadline."

Greene not only is one of the best pitchers in the league when he's healthy, but he's on a team-friendly deal and under team control through 2029.

"Greene — under contract for $15 million next season, $16 million in 2028 with a $21 million club option for ’29 — is the type of controllable starting pitcher teams covet. He has been inconsistent in four starts since returning from arthroscopic elbow surgery. Despite injury troubles, a pitcher whose fastball is again averaging 98.4 mph is valuable to other teams."

I can understand why the Reds are at least listening to offers. Their current roster has a ton of holes in it and if they want to compete in 2027, they have a lot of work to do. Trading a pitcher like Greene could give you multiple assets in return.

However, it would be a big risk. The Reds swung and missed on the Johnny Cueto trade in 2015 and their trade of Luis Castillo to the Mariners continues to look worse and worse by the day.

If they trade Greene, Nick Krall and the front office cannot afford to whiff.

Greene spoke about trade rumors in the offseason.

"I don't care about trade rumors, because that's part of the game and I can't control it," Greene told C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. That's never bothered me. I've loved my time (in Cincinnati), and I want to continue to have a great time with the team and organization, and hopefully it's able to transpire into something longer."

The Reds are scheduled to start a four-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday night and Greene is scheduled to pitch on Friday.

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