Chase Burns has been a revelation for the Cincinnati Reds this season, the former #2 overall draft pick emerging as a legitimate rotation-carrying ace during the first third of the season. Andrew Abbott, an All Star in 2025, has turned the corner after a rough start and once again looks a more-than-competent mid-rotation arm. Even Nick Lodolo looks potentially back to form after his 6.0 IP of ER ball against the New York Mets to start this week.
Still, this Reds rotation revolves around Hunter Greene,
even though he’s been sidelined all season after needing cleanup surgery in his prized right elbow right before the start of the 2026 season. Ever since going under the knife, it’s been expected that he would return to the Reds at some point in July, and yesterday he took the first huge on-mound step towards making that a reality by firing his first bullpen session.
Greene posted some footage on his Instagram page, which the Reds later relayed on Twitter.
Despite the ‘knowns’ I laid out in the opening paragraph about Cincinnati’s starting rotation, several pertinent caveats need to be added to them.
For one – as the Reds TV crew began to dive into during last night’s start against the Mets – is that Burns is going to run smack into an innings limit at some point this year. He threw just 66.0 IP last year and only topped out at 100 IP during the 2024 season with Wake Forest, and he’s already thrown 64.1 IP so far this season. Finding a way to keep him from throwing 160, 170, 180 IP and still being able to contribute down the stretch for the Reds this year will take some serious rotation juggling at some point, and Greene’s return in July could help throttle that in a way where Burns is still a rotation option in September.
The Reds will also ultimately get to play that game with Rhett Lowder, who is nearing a return soon from his shoulder clicking after missing almost the entire 2025 season with other injury issues, too. How they work him back in, throttle Burns a bit, add Greene back in, and decide what to do with pending free agent Brady Singer amid his struggles will be quite the job for Derek Johnson and Tito Francona, but having too many healthy arms is a problem any management would kill for during the dog days of summer in a baseball season.
Anyway, Greene’s making the right kind of progress, and that’s fantastic given that there’s nary a guarantee when it comes to getting pitchers back from arm surgeries.
