The debut of the prospect Hunter Greene in Triple A had a bit of everything: triple-digit fastball speed, a bunch of strikeouts, a handful of mistakes, and another glimpse into the future of the Cincinnati Reds. That’s what debuts are for.
In the first electric inning of a bumpy start, the No. 56 overall prospect in baseball touched 104 miles per hour, according to the team. He also gave up four solo home runs and one walk and struck out eight in four innings in his first outing for Triple-A Louisville, a 6-5 slate loss at Omaha:
Greene started his night in a modern-game fashion with nothing but strikeouts and home runs in the first inning. The right-hander fanned Alcides Escobar to start his start before allowing a solo homer to Kyle Isbel’s left steppe. After bouncing off a strikeout to Emmanuel Rivera, Greene gave up home runs to center meadows and to center-left Ryan O’Hearn and Ryan McBroom. The 21-year-old finished the bombardment with a strikeout from Meibrys Vilora on his 29th pitch of the inning.
Hitting 104 miles per hour with his fastball on first, Greene went into rarefied air. Since 2008, only five major league pitchers have reached that speed, and three of them (Neftali Feliz, Tayron Guerrero and Mauricio Cabrera) have only matched it on a single pitch. Aroldis Chapman (67 times) and Jordan Hicks (12) are the only pitchers to do it more than once.
From there, Greene settled down. The No. 2 Cincinnati prospect retired the team in order in the second and minimized damage in the third, allowing a two-out home run to center by Rivera and following him with a walk to O’Hearn but fanning McBroom to wrap the frame. .
Greene finished on a strong note by striking out all three batters in order in the fourth. In all, the second overall pick of 2017 threw 73 pitches, 46 strikes.
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Opening the year with Double-A Chattanooga, Greene was dominant. In 41 innings spanning seven starts, he allowed just nine runs on 27 hits and struck out 60 on 14 walks, all for a 5-0 record with a 1.98 ERA. Those outings were Greene’s first since 2018 after he missed the 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery and the 2020 season due to the pandemic.
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