This was originally published in The Athletic. 

I can’t make you feel any better about the way Hunter Greene’s season has come to a premature end, mainly because I’d be lying if I told you that I didn’t feel the same punch to the gut you did when you saw that he’d suffered a UCL sprain in his elbow.

I can’t tell you that my mind didn’t instantly drift to maybe three most dreaded words in baseball: Tommy. John. Surgery.

And I’ll admit that a lot of the good vibes and positive energy that we enjoyed so much while watching the Reds play competent ball for much of the summer have been undone by the sobering reality that three cornerstones of their rebuild – Nick Senzel, Jesse Winker and now, Greene – will end their respective seasons as inactive players.

But as much as I can’t ease the frustration of this latest setback, I also can’t lend my voice to the chorus of fans who can’t just accept what’s happened with Greene at face value: As something that, well, merely happened. Something that was almost as unavoidable as it was impossible to predict.

To read the entire piece, go to The Athletic.