GOODYEAR, Ariz. (AP) — The Cincinnati Reds like their chances when Hunter Greene is on the mound. The 6-foot-5 right-hander has one of baseball's best fastballs, to go along with a nasty slider and an improving split-finger fastball.
It's just keeping him on the mound has been a challenge.
Going into his fifth year in the majors, Greene added more lower-half strengthening exercises to his offseason routine. The end result of his durability pursuit could go a long way to determining the course of the Reds' season.
“Definitely set personal goals,” Greene said Sunday. “You know for me it’s being able to get to a high amount of innings, obviously strikeouts, all that good stuff, but it’s being able to go out there and stay out there as long as I can and be healthy and make all my starts.”
Greene went 7-4 with a 2.76 ERA last year, helping Cincinnati earn an NL wild card for its first playoff appearance since 2020. But he was limited to a career-low 19 starts and 107 2/3 innings.
He was placed on the 15-day injured list on May 9 with a right groin strain. He returned on May 23 and made three starts before going back on the IL with the same injury. This time, he was sidelined until Aug. 13.
The Reds have a deep rotation that also includes All-Star left-hander Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo and Brady Singer. Rhett Lowder and Chase Burns — two former first-round picks out of Wake Forest University — are in the mix for the fifth spot.
But a healthy Greene takes the group to another level.
“He looks good, he’s in good shape,” Cincinnati manager Terry Francona said. “These guys, they work really hard, they get after it pretty good.”
Greene, 26, was selected by Cincinnati with the No. 2 pick in the 2017 amateur draft. After undergoing Tommy John surgery while he was in the minors, he earned a spot in Cincinnati's rotation in spring training in 2022.
Greene had his best season in 2024, making the NL All-Star team for the first time while going 9-5 with a 2.75 ERA in 26 starts. He also had 169 strikeouts in 150 1/3 innings. But he also spent time on the IL that year with elbow soreness.
“I’m 6-5, 230 pounds. I got a lot of body that’s coming down the hill, a lot of force, a lot of output,” Greene said. “So I got to make sure that all the boxes are checked when it comes to, you know, health and output. So it’s a long process, but it’s my job and I embrace it.”
Greene described the potential of Cincinnati's rotation as “through the roof,” and he thinks they feed off each other.
“Our relationships are strong and there’s an accountability factor too with all of us,” he said. “I think that helps with the production on the team.”
Greene got a taste of the postseason last year when Cincinnati was swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in an NL Wild Card Series. He surrendered five runs and six hits in three innings in Game 1 in his first career playoff start.
Greene, who signed a $53 million, six-year contract with the Reds in April 2023, has been around Cincinnati long enough to have an idea of what a long October run would mean for the city. The franchise hasn't won a playoff game since 2012, and it hasn't advanced in the postseason since 1995.
“I think it’d be very special,” he said. "I mean, the rich history of Cincinnati and the World Series that they’ve been able to bring to the city, and they deserve it. It’s a baseball city. Their heart is with baseball.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
FILE Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Hunter Greene throws to a Los Angeles Dodgers batter during the first inning in Game 1 of the National League Wild Card baseball playoff series, Sept. 30, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, file)
VERONA, Italy (AP) — The Milan Cortina Olympics ended Sunday with a closing ceremony paying tribute to Italian dance and music inside the ancient Verona Arena, roughly mid-distance between the far-flung mountain, valley and city venues that made these the most spread-out Winter Games in Olympic history.
Some 1,500 Olympians filed into the arena waving small national flags to a rousing medley of Italian pop hits from the 20th century as the crowd sang along, taking their seats in the stone arena in places marked by green, red and white lights for the Italian flag.
The 2½-hour ceremony opened with a whimsical tribute to Italian lyric opera, with the stage director rousing not only the closing ceremony cast, including Italian singer Achille Lauro, but also long-dormant opera characters tucked away in crates within the amphitheater's tunnels.
On stage, Madama Butterfly in a bright pink and green costume and Aida in golden tiers were unpacked from mirrored crates while 17th century musicians played the joyous “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” from La Traviata, a nod to the Arena's long history as the venue for a summer opera festival.
The opera characters, led by the jester Rigoletto, spilled out into the piazza outside, mixing with the bemused athletes who were flag-bearers for their countries, some ofwhom pulled out their phones to film.
In a key moment, the Olympic flame encased in a Venetian glass vessel was carried into the Arena by Italian gold medalists from the 1994 Lillehammer Games. The Olympic rings illuminated in white appeared high on the stone stairs behind the stage, flanked by national flags, when one raised the flame in the center of the stage.
This is the first Games for the International Olympic Committee president, Kirsty Coventry, a two-time Olympic champion in swimming, who watched the ceremony alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Some 12,000 spectators joined the athletes and officials for the closing ceremony, which was much more intimate affair than the opening ceremony starring Mariah Carey and Andrea Bocelli inside Milan’s San Siro soccer stadium, attended by more than 60,000 people.
One of the key moments of the ceremony is when the Olympic flag is handed over to the next Winter Games host nation, France, and its flag is raised next to Italy’s and Greece’s.
The Milan Cortina Games spanned an area of 22,000 square kilometers (8,500 square miles), from ice sports in Milan to biathlon in Anterselva on the Austrian border, snowboarding and men’s downhill in Valtellina on the Swiss border, cross-country skiing in the Val di Fiemme north of Verona and women’s downhill, curling and sliding sports in co-host Cortina d’Ampezzo.
It’s a model that will remain for future Games, to avoid the expense of building new facilities. The 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps will stage events in the Alps and Nice, on the Mediterranean Sea, while speedskating will be held abroad in a venue to be decided.
The closing ceremony will conclude with the Olympic flames being extinguished at the unprecedented two caldrons in Milan and Cortina, to be viewed via video link. A light show will substitute fireworks, which are not allowed in Verona, to protect animals from being disturbed.
A total of 116 medal events have been held in eight Olympic sports across 16 disciplines, including the debut of ski mountaineering this year, over the course of 17 days of competition.
The Milan Cortina Paralympics' opening ceremony will also take place in the Verona Arena, on March 6, and the Games will run until March 15.
AP Winter Olympics coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
A view of the Arena ahead of the closing ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Volunteers stand close to the Arena ahead of the closing ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A view of the Arena ahead of the closing ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Verona, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
