Don’t sleep on Hunter Greene. This could be his year.

Hunter Greene, a 23-year-old pitcher, made his Major League Baseball debut back in 2022. Before debuting in April, Hunter Greene was the second-highest-rated prospect in the Cincinnati Reds farm system, ranked 71st on the mlb.com top 100 rated prospects in 2021. Fans around baseball became more aware of Greene’s talent when he ripped a 100 mph fastball against the reigning World Champions at the time, the Atlanta Braves. 

Also, the talented pitcher has an 81 percent tile spin rate on his fastball. I think it’s time to give Greene more recognition. 

Due for yet another fantastic season, Hunter Greene isn’t a new name; he is one of baseball's best young aces in the making. After having his 2022 season cut short, he had only four impressive starts but also started bumpily. After hitting triple digits last season, Greene regressed. He had three months, May through July, with a 5.49 ERA. Which isn’t too bad, but not exactly what the upcoming star was looking for. 

Moving onto the positives of Greene’s 2022 season, he ended off strong. In four starts, including ones against the Reds’ four division enemies, Greene had a 0.78 ERA along with 14.5 K/9. He made progress with his 100 mph fastball and knew how to use it best. He did change his pitching up a bit and worked more toward sliders than fastballs, which worked out in his favor. 

Those were Greene’s decent stats for the 2022 season, but combined with his 4.37 Fip and his amazing percent tile spin rate k% (91%) along with a great xBA (71%), he’s due to improve a lot in 2023. If Greene can improve his BB% (walk percentage) and keep his hard hit and barrel% down, combined with his amazing XBA, he will see improvements. Greene’s stats are impressive for a player who lost two years of development due to Tommy John. So, with those stats telling a different story about his rookie season, what can we expect from Hunter Greene in his sophomore season?