Right-handed Reds pitching prospect Hunter Greene will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2019 season. The team made the announcement on Monday night and indicated that Greene had recently suffered a setback in Arizona.
Greene, 19, was the No. 2 overall pick of the 2017 draft out of a southern California high school. Greene regularly hit triple digits with his fastball, but he was somewhat disappointing across parts of two minor-league seasons, at least in terms of run prevention (4.95 ERA across 21 starts). Greene had also dealt with elbow issues in recent months, so this end result isn't entirely surprising.
This is indeed a blow, but Greene has big upside -- he was ranked No. 31 overall by MLB.com coming into the season -- and he's still very young.
