Hunter Greene earned the confidence that was on full display in San Francisco

A secret about Hunter Greene is that when he made his big league debut in 2022, he wasn't all that confident in his fastball. All these years later, Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson now admits that Greene knew then how much better that pitch needed to be for Greene to reach his ceiling.

The guy who had already been on the cover of Sports Illustrated could throw his fastball harder than just about anyone in the sport. But the pitch was straight. He didn’t command it well, and he couldn’t always locate the pitch on both sides of the plate. The velocity would come and go.

Back in 2022, Greene could have benefited from some more time in the minor leagues. But the Reds needed him in the big leagues. More importantly, they were confident that he had the demeanor to handle the growing pains and learn from his bad days.

Over the last four years, Greene has grown up before everyone’s eyes. This is why we watch sports.

Greene delivered the best start of his still young career on Monday. In a 2-0 win over the Giants, Greene threw 8 ⅔ shutout innings. He was a pitch (and a pitching change from Terry Francona) away from delivering a complete game shutout.

Mixed in with the lows of Greene’s three-plus year big league career have been some terrific games that ended up being near misses. He has flirted with no-hitters now and then. He’d be on pace for deep start for the majority of the night before fading away in the seventh inning. After all of those starts, he spoke about looking forward to the moment where it all completely clicks and he gets a tangible milestone to celebrate.

Greene didn’t end up getting the complete game shutout on Monday, and that’s a goal that he has been talking about for years. But in a way, it doesn’t really matter that Greene only went 8 ⅔ innings. What really matters it what the Reds have in their 25-year-old ace and what he’s capable of right now.

He’s ready to contend for a Cy Young Award.

What I’ll remember about this start from Greene was the look in eyes. He knew that the Giants couldn’t hit him. He challenged hitters like they were Double-A guys. He absolutely overwhelmed them.

There are reasons why Greene wasn’t capable of a start like this in 2022, 2023 or 2024. He spent the last few years fixing those problems, and it was all on display in San Francisco.

For a while, Greene was a two-pitch pitcher who could only rely on his fastball and his slider. He dabbled with and later abandoned a changeup. He didn’t have a tool to keep left-handed hitters off-balanced. When his slider wasn’t clicking, hitters could tee off on his fastball.

So Greene developed a splitter heading into the 2024 season. He then came into 2025 with the plan to throw it significantly more than he did last year. Greene’s 12 splitters were a key part of his game plan on Monday.

Greene’s slider may be one of the best in the game. Batters seemingly can’t hit it. It’s always been a good swing and miss pitch, but its shape has improved this year. So has Greene’s command with it.

The Giants whiffed on 11 of their 18 swings against Greene’s slider on Monday. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Then, there’s that fastball that’s living up to all of its potential. Greene’s signature pitch has come a long way over the last few years.

“He had always been told that he had work to do with his fastball,” Derek Johnson said recently. “He got to the big leagues, and he had that in his mind. It needed to be a better pitch. For me, it was (him) needing to locate it better and understanding how to use it better. A part of that was just him believing in the pitch being good.”

Greene’s velocity used to tail off later in starts. In one of his starts as a rookie, he found himself throwing 93 mph. Making his velocity more consistent has been a years-long work in progress. He made big strides in 2024, and it’s gotten even better this year.

According to MLB researcher Sarah Langs, Greene threw a 100.7 mph pitch in the ninth inning and became the third pitcher in the pitch tracking era (since 2008) to throw that hard in the ninth.

His most obvious improvement entering 2025 was the way that he looked. Greene did a lot of running during the offseason and was noticeably slimmer entering spring training. The idea was that by improving his endurance, he’d have more gas in the tank for the biggest moments of his season.

He had everything that he needed against the Giants. Put all of that together, and you can’t have any more confidence than Greene had on Monday.

Greene is a star. He’s only 25, but he knows exactly what he’s trying to do and has improved every season. He’s living up to his goals to be more aggressive, consistently pitch deep into games and live up to his billing as the Reds’ ace.

With what he showed on Monday, Greene might be able to set the bar for himself even higher than it already was.