Hunter Greene has reached the top rung of the Minors, and if he keeps pitching the way he has so far this year, he might not be there for long.

The Reds' No. 2 prospect and MLB No. 56, according to MLB Pipeline, made his Triple-A debut for Louisville at Omaha on Thursday. The game airs on MiLB.TV, as will the rest of Greene's starts for the Bats.

Drafted second overall in 2017, the flame-throwing righty was second among Double-A hurlers with 60 strikeouts (tying him for fourth in the Minors) over 41 innings across seven starts for Chattanooga. He was 5-0 with a 1.98 ERA, which is sixth among Double-A (with top Reds prospect Nick Lodolo leading the way with a 0.90 mark for the Lookouts).

The dominant start to the 2021 campaign comes after Greene missed the 2019 season because of Tommy John surgery and spent 2020 at Cincinnati's alternate training site regaining his trademark velocity and developing a cutter, which complements his 80-grade fastball and his changeup and slider.

“In the offseason with putting the work in, having more intent in my bullpen [sessions], I think that’s the biggest thing for me and where I can say my success comes from this year,” Greene told MLB Pipeline following his last outing, in which he outdueled No. 3 Marlins prospect Max Meyer while lighting up the radar gun at 102 mph.

“In Spring Training, in every bullpen [session] I threw, I put a stand-in hitter in just to see a batter in the box and what I wanted to execute in my pitches, I’m trying to bring that into the game.”

It's clearly worked so far. Greene's first Triple-A test comes against an Omaha team that leads the Triple-A East in batting average (.277) and home runs (75 in 37 games) while boasting the circuit's best record (26-11). The Storm Chasers' lineup includes the league's top two home-run hitters (Ryan McBroom, 12; Ryan O'Hearn, 11) and batting average leader (Edward Olivares, .370). Jakob Junis, who has 104 big league games under his belt, is expected to start for Omaha opposite Greene.