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The New York Yankees have been linked to a million and one different starting pitchers this offseason, Tarik Skubal, Sandy Alcantara, Freddy Peralta and MacKenzie Gore among them.
However, the Yankees have now been connected to a pitcher that will make your eyes pop: Cincinnati Reds star Hunter Greene, via Brendan Kuty of The Athletic.
Greene has oddly been floated as a trade candidate all offseason, which doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense considering the Reds just made the playoffs, pushed for Kyle Schwarber and are evidently trying to make other moves to contend.
So why would they trade Greene?
Nevertheless, the Greene trade chatter has been reported by multiple different media sources, so there must be some fire there.
Greene is just 26 years old and is under team control through 2028, so Cincinnati absolutely does not have to move him. However, the Reds can reap quite the haul if they did trade him now.
The right-hander pitched to the tune of a 2.76 ERA while allowing just 75 hits and racking up 132 strikeouts over 107.2 innings of work in 2025. He missed considerable time with a strained groin, but when he was on the mound, he was dynamite.
Now, the one concern regarding Greene is his medical history.
He underwent Tommy John surgery back in 2019, three years before he broke into the big leagues. But he has also experienced shoulder and hip issues, and he missed some time with another elbow injury in 2024.
As a result, Greene has never come close to making 30 starts in a single season, topping out at 26 during the 2024 campaign. He has never appeared in 25 games in any other individual season.
But Greene’s stuff is so tantalizing that the Yankees may be willing to take the gamble regardless of his checkered injury background.
The former No. 2 overall pick owns a lifetime 3.65 ERA, but over the last two years, he was under 3.00. He has also averaged 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings.
New York certainly has the goods to put together a strong package for Greene. The Yanks are loaded with arms in their farm system, and they also have position players like Jasson Dominguez, Spencer Jones and potentially even George Lombard Jr. to include in a deal.
But how far would the Yankees be willing to go for a pitcher who has only thrown 150 innings once in his four-year big-league career?