Hunter Greene could join the Reds by the end of the month

Don’t get overly excited by the headline here just yet. While Hunter Greene could join the Cincinnati Reds by the end of May that does not mean that he will be ready to pitch by then. Greene has been working his way back from elbow surgery in March when he had loose bodies/bone spurs removed after they were causing too much discomfort for him to pitch through. That rehab work has been taking place in Arizona at the Reds spring training complex. Charlie Goldsmith of Fox 19 reported that Greene is set to throw his first bullpen session since the surgery on May 26th. Assuming that goes well he will join the Reds on the 29th to continue his rehab in Cincinnati.

Greene’s initial timetable for a return was said to be 14-16 weeks from the surgery. That put his return at some point in mid-to-late June/early July. July seems more likely if he’s going to be throwing his first bullpen session on the 26th. He’s going to need to throw a few of those before he’ll be ready to go out on a rehab stint, which you would think will last multiple weeks as he will have to build up his workload to throw 80 pitches before he’s ready to join the Reds and be asked to join the rotation.

Rhett Lowder to throw today

On Wednesday the Reds officially made the move to add Rhett Lowder to the 15-day injured list despite knowing that he was going to be placed there for several days. Manager Terry Francona noted the other day that while Lowder was going to the injured list that he would continue to throw on the side. Today he’s expected to throw on the side.

Lowder did get an MRI on his shoulder after he had to exit his last start and everything came back as structurally sound. He did get a cortisone shot in his AC joint, though, as he was feeling some “clicking” going on when he was throwing. While his continued throwing is a good sign of things there has not been much of a timetable talked about as far as a potential return date as of now.