A few hours before the Cincinnati Reds staved off elimination for one more day with a late comeback Tuesday night, their top pitcher made it clear he considers next season a playoffs-or-bust scenario – and that he believes the Reds have the pitching right now to make that happen whether they add anybody over the winter or not.
“It’s time to win,” All-Star right-hander Hunter Greene said. “I know that’s everybody’s goal. But if we’re not doing that, we’re coming up short. It’s as simple as that.
“It’s my responsibility, it’s the team’s responsibility, for us to be ready in spring and ready for the season and be able to go win. Go into the postseason. And obviously go win the World Series.
“There’s no other reason why we do any of this. So if we’re short of that, in my book it’s a failure. … If we don’t make it to the postseason it is.”
Hunter Greene's 2024 MLB season
Greene, who pitched his way into Cy Young contention this year just in time to go on the injured list with a sore elbow last month, might represent the biggest reason the Reds fell so fast from the fringes of wild-card contention to out of it by September.
But he plans to return from the IL for two starts down this final stretch after feeling “great” following a three-inning game simulation (52 pitches) before Tuesday night’s game.
That likely makes his next trip to the mound a start against the Pirates in the Reds’ home finale of the season Sunday, which would give him enough games left for one more start Friday against the Cubs in Chicago.
“I owe it to the team. I owe it to myself,” Greene said of the importance of getting back in a game before the end of the season, regardless of the long-gone playoff chase.
Cincinnati Reds 2025 MLB playoffs aspirations
That’s where the other important part comes in: setting the example for the next generation of pitchers, he said, and what’s at stake for the 2025 Reds.
“We’ve got to continue to strive for greatness as a team and for the people of Cincinnati,” he said. “Hopefully, we’re going to do that starting next year.”
He might have more to say than anybody else as the top-performing, top-paid pitcher on the staff coming out of an otherwise disappointing season for a team that expected a lot more than opening its final homestand of the season just one loss from elimination.
And finishing healthy this season is step one. Combine that with the presumed returns to full strength of Nick Lodolo and Andrew Abbott by next spring, along with the rising star of high-performing rookie Rhett Lowder and possibly the likes of Graham Ashcraft, Brandon Williamson and Julian Aguiar – and Greene said the starting pitching already is in place for a playoff run in 2025.
“For sure,” he said. “We have a great base – not even a base. Just a great starting rotation moving forward.”
Williamson’s status might be the closest of the bunch to uncertainty given the lengthy shoulder injury he dealt with all year followed by his exit Tuesday with an elbow issue in just his fourth start back.
Beyond that, the starting pitching looks like the clear in-house strength of this team, assuming good health, as it makes plans to fix next year what kept it from playing in October this year.
“I know we don’t like where we sit right now, but I feel like we’re still on a path to get where we’re going,” manager David Bell said. “I feel good about improvements that have been made but also identifying areas of improvement that we can make.
“So with starting pitching, we know how important that is,” added Bell, who saw debuts of Aguiar and Lowder at least slightly ahead of schedule because of last month’s depleted corps. “Opportunity has been created because of some injuries, which isn’t the way you would draw it up. But it happened. Now the only choice is to take really good things from that, and maybe it creates more depth going into next year.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds ace Hunter Greene ready to lead 2025 playoff charge: ‘It’s time to win’
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