Giants right-hander Johnny Cueto has decided not to opt out of the remaining four years and $84MM on his contract, Jon Heyman of FanRag was among those to report (Twitter link).
The Giants included the opt-out clause in Cueto’s deal when they signed the then-free agent to a six-year, $130MM pact after the 2015 season. At the time, Cueto was an established front-line workhorse who was coming off six straight outstanding seasons, most of which were spent with the Reds. Cincinnati traded Cueto to Kansas City in July 2015, and he went on to win a World Series with the Royals that year despite posting somewhat disappointing numbers along the way.
In the first year of his Giants tenure, Cueto lived up to his contract by delivering 219 2/3 innings of 2.79 ERA ball and logging 8.11 K/9, 1.84 BB/9 and a 50.2 percent groundball rate. Similar production in 2017 likely would have led Cueto back to the open market, but he instead endured one of the worst seasons of his career. Cueto threw just 147 2/3 innings, his lowest total since 2011, thanks in part to blister issues and a mild flexor strain. When he was healthy enough to pitch, Cueto looked more like a back-end starter than an ace. All told, the 31-year-old put up the second-worst ERA (4.52), walk rate (3.24 BB/9) and grounder percentage (39.4) of his career, contributing to the downfall of a Giants team that entered 2017 with playoff aspirations but wound up tying the Tigers for the majors’ worst record (64-98).
The Giants had no shortage of issues in 2017, including in their rotation, but most of their starting staff for next year already looks set. Along with Cueto, ace Madison Bumgarner, Jeff Samardzija and Matt Moore remain in the fold, as do fifth starter candidates Ty Blach and Chris Stratton.
Shocker
Literally the first thing I thought of, was gonna post it but saw someone beat me to it.
6 downvotes for an innocent joke. Cubsfan2489 is that you?
Cueto was a lock to opt out all the way until may of this year. Giants better hope it was injuries this season and not a decline
Well there’s no doubt he had some physical issues in 2017. I think his insistence to take the ball every 5th day, once the blister issue arose, hurt the team and his numbers, hence losing his chance to opt out and cash in. . His flexor tendon strain. IIRC that that’s what his other injury was, may also have been initiated by compensating for the blisters. Then again, I could be completely clueless about everything, he is in a premature decline,and he’s a sunk cost for the Giants.
I think you’re take is pretty accurate. I expect Cueto (if healthy) to be back to his old self. But I too could be clueless.
I certainly hope so.
Before the blister issue and strain he was tearing it up, for the first couple of months he was the only pitcher on the Giants logging wins and had a few complete games, if that is what he can put up over the rest of the contract he will be a bargain.
Maybe I’m too much of an optimist, but I think this works in the team’s favor. He’s a reasonable bounce back candidate. If 2018 is like 2016, and not 2017, he’ll be worth every cent he’s paid. The last 2 years of the contract will probably determine how good or bad the contract is.
That’s pretty succinct and well said.
I’m hoping the Orioles trade for Cueto. Rumor has it the Giants want more power in their lineup.
Nope. Opt out is never in the team’s favor. Guarantee if Cueto were a free agent right now the Giants wouldn’t offer him what he’s making.
Disagree. As long as SF plans on contending Cueto’s spot needs to be filled. It’s actually cheaper with Cueto staying, than it would be with Darvish or Arrieta replacing him, and Cueto just might be better than either of those 2. The Giants like Cueto quite a bit, and if his 2017 had been like his 2016, he probably would have opted out, and the Giants would have been one of his suitors.
You’re just dead wrong buddy! Opt out is ALWAYS player friendly. The only way the player doesn’t opt out is if he knows he couldn’t get more on the open market. This means the Giants are paying Cueto above market value. There’s a reason Darvish or Arrieta would be more expensive. Cuz they are BETTER. If that wasn’t the case, Cueto would have opted out.
Every time these “type A” pitchers opt INTO their contract makes it even harder and more expensive for the Cubs to sign a top of the rotation starter, which makes it more expensive to sign 2 legitimate starters. Cubs thought they had a dynasty, but they forgot about the most important dynamic. Pitching. Congrats on the one year dynasty! Lol
As a Giant’s fan I know how disappointing it is for your team to follow up a WS title with something less than another championship. But back to back titles is extremely difficult. The Cubs need to add to their rotation, but they have some good pitchers in place already. They have an excellent young core of hitters. And most importantly they have tradeable assets, and an excellent FO. I would not be too discouraged if I were a Cub’s fan.
Typical lowbrow uneducated South side fan. Don’t feed the troll guys…
It’s perfectly fine—-every time he types he is acknowledging that the Cubs won the World Series. And realize he is putting Cueto into the “type A” pitchers—thus ahead of guys like Kershaw and Verlander, who quite honestly, didn’t win either game 5 or game 6 for their teams in this year’s World Series. I’m pretty sure that Jed and Theo did not forget about that “most important” dynamic of pitching. They have been pretty transparent in their time in Chicago that they would get it when they needed it. (and save your words—-uneducated South Side fan is redundant—you can say uneducated OR South Side fan and the other is implied already)
But Verlander won 4 games in the post -season
and Houston wouldn’t even had made it to the WS without him !
Why does everything have to be about YOU and your team? Hehehehe. Just kidding. I do the same with SF.
Wow…calm down dude!! Why do the Cubs need front of the rotation help!
1. Lester
2. Hendricks
3. Quintana
4. ??
5. Montgomery??
I think Theo and Jed know their plan and options they have.
Cubs need 3/4 of the rotation help…
I don’t know how you spun this into a pot shot on the Cubs, but I do know that it is in fact wrong
Glad you got your potshot in at the Cubs and also glad you referenced them winning a World Series. Thanks. However, it’s not going to be any harder to sign a free agent. They already know the market. As for more expensive, who cares? They have the money and I’m guessing it is not coming out of your pocket. Thanks again for caring more about the Cubs than whichever team you cheer for.
It will interesting to see what the Giants do this winter to improve the team. Do they go after Stanton, sign a free agent outfielder or trade for a veteran like Gardner as a short term fix.
Wieters, Tanaka, now Cueto… one domino after another..
Chen announce his opt in yet? What about Ian Kennedy? (I think Ian Kennedy was honest about not opting out but it’s not official yet…)
Who’s opting out? Lol
Don’t forget Upton as well. It’s definitely an odd year concerning opt-outs, but the opt-out clause is still a relatively new aspect of player contracts. Much like no one had ever accepted a QO for several years after it’s inception, and then players started accepting them. It will be interesting to see if this is a real trend, or simply an aberration.
I don’t know Upton counts… Upton was going to opt-out but he successfully leveraged his opt-out as way to tag on more $$$ (which can technically be viewed in the “form of a one-year, $17.5MM extension of his current contract”)
But Upton got more perks, including but not limited to a free upgrade from a limited 20 team No trade clause to Full NTC. Upton’s situation is unique, because he was one of the few who was good enough to make more than the four years $88.5MM he was scheduled to earn on the open market, and his agent successfully (or unsuccessfully for those posters who thought he could’ve earned more) used that to brings total value of the deal to 7 years $150.5MM.
I think If Cueto opted out….
SF would dance. (not re-negotiate)
This applies to most other teams, with players who opt out.
Upton still essentially opted in. He had the option to opt-out, and, could have potentially gotten more on the open market than what he got in the extension.
I disagree about SF dancing, (or the Dodgers dancing, if Kershaw opts out next year). The LAA obviously wanted to keep Upton, and would have gotten him cheaper if he had simply opted in. Hence no dancing.
In the case of Cueto and SF, the Giants are planning to contend in 2017. Had Cueto opted out, it would have freed up some salary, but it would have been necessary to spend on a replacement. Then Darvish might have been a target, would be more expensive, and may not even be as good as Cueto will be in 2018. The same could be said about Arrieta. There is no other reasonable replacement for Cueto out there. SF is perfectly fine with Cueto opting in.
Fair enough, and I agree on all points. I actually do think Cueto is one of the best bounce back candidates of 2018, that’s my opinion, I could be wrong.
And in all fairness, we’re talking about the 2017 “opt-out class”
Clayton Kershaw is in a league of his own.
I agree, and could also, very easily be wrong.
I was thinking about opt-out candidates in general.
I couldn’t resist throwing Kershaw in there. He is unique, and the Dodgers would dance if he simply opted in.
Tanaka is the only suprising name not to opt out imo.
I agree with this.
I think NYY made it well-known they were not interested in a re-negotiation, let alone re-signing him (if he opted out of the remaining 3 years $ 67MM) and made it abundantly clear.
However knowing all that, it still surprised me (and many others)
But still….I think Tanaka can stay healthy. and prove his critics wrong. As I said in the original “Tanaka opts in” thread. 2017 he had the Highest GB% (49.2%) and SO/9 (9.8) rate of his career, and FIP (4.34) and xFIP (3.44) were a lot kinder to him than his 4.76 ERA.
We’ll see what happens. HR rate… is what you need to pay attn to
You want a scouting report of Tanaka’s season? Look at his last 2 Regular season starts. It’ll you more about 2017, than any stat can.
4.74* ERA not 4.76 lol, Sorry about that….
It’ll tell* you more about 2017.
Alright back to studying!
In the open market it is obvious tanaka can get over 67 million. But you just dont know who its from and that risk and him being comfortable in NY made it an easy decision to say with the yanks
Cueto figured out it was easier to collect the guaranteed money he’ll never be offered again and go down with the ship. It’s just too bad San Fransisco has to be the ones to pay him. Something about that bay air that blows in and takes the edge out of promising large contract pitchers. I’d like to call it the curse of Rob Nenn. RIP Rob Nenn
Subtract an ‘N’ and add a ‘B’ in Robb Nen. Respect the best reliever in Giants’ history and owner of the “Nenth Inning”.
Tough call between Beck and Nen. Beck had a longer tenure with the Giants, but Nen was simply lights out. I’d also take Nen myself. Smoke on the water!
Robb Nen is alive, and currently works in the Giants front office. His right rotator cuff might need your wishes to rest in peace, though.
Maybe I am clueless to, but I think the times are changing for teams signing up long term contracts. Seems that the teams and fans suffer in the end for failed/non producing signings.
As a Jays fan I can think of a couple we are stuck with…..then there’s Stanton. I suppose there is a deal to be made somewhere for him, but if I owned a team I wouldn’t touch that, anything can go wrong anytime!
I don’t think that’s going to happen. It’s always been, and so far, still is a seller’s market. It’s a choice of competing or not being saddled with bad contracts when the player declines. I think most will choose to compete and live with the bitter tail end of long-term contracts.
Yeah I mean it isn’t often you get a team like the 2010 giants that got a whole bunch of guys that were considered marginal or throw away that out produce expectations and end up taking a ring home, more often there are all stars in the post season and the pitching.. are usually the same guys on different teams- especially the bullpens. Not saying that outspending equals winning but if you spend nothing you most likely will have nothing.
It is a team sport. Sometimes the personalities, management style, and chemistry doesn’t quite work and give the on field performance expected based on the assembled talent. Sometimes it all comes together and a team performs far better than the sum of it’s parts. That is magical.
It’s baseball; there are no set parameters to define winning. Yes, a lot of all-stars play for the title. Good teams have good players. But there are also scores of all-stars that never get a ring, never even get to the WS.
Suggesting that the 2010 Giants were a WS winning team without all-stars is just not correct. They had Posey, 3-time AS Sanchez, and 5-time AS Rentaria, and others. More importantly though they won it on pitching. And in that respect they had Cain, Lincecum, Bumgarner, and that year, an effective Jonathan Sanchez. 3-time AS Brian Wilson closing for an effective pen was also an important component.
Opt out clauses are a cancer on the game. We justify these things as a matter of achievement for the player, but who benefits? The organization never does nor do the fans. Players who pass on the opt out are always overpaid and underperforming. All that wasted money is passed onto the fans who dutifully overpay for beer, food, tickets, merchandise, etc., and we justify all of it with circular logic and blind allegiance.
Baseball contracts have literally nothing whatsoever to do with concession prices. Almost all of that money never even leaves the stadium.
Adding in an opt out could be the difference between signing and not-signing a player. When a player opts out, it means he justified the contract he signed, and the team should at least be happy about that
Also means they’d prefer to keep him at whatever he’s opting out of (or if they’re trying to cut costs, he would turn into a trade chip if he didn’t opt out)
If opt-out can work for the player, then why not write them for the team as well. If a player is signed to a hefty multi-year contract and that player’s performance does not live up to expectations, the club opts out and cuts the player loose. Or what about a dual path contract ? Player performance over the first 2-3 years of the contract will trigger the level of the financial reward over the remaining years of the contract. To make it more palatable to the players association, an accelerated third tier of performance and financial reward could be added for the signee that vastly exceeds the expected level of performance. Teams deserve protection too.
Isn’t that just a team option?
Once a player reaches free-agency it’s a free-market system. The only way the team can opt out of a contract early is exactly how a player can; they negotiate it into the contract. Or at least they can try, but no player is going to sign with a team granting them that kind power over his financial future. It’s a sellers market for top-flight talent, and that’s who gets opt-out clauses.
Teams may get stuck with bad contracts, but I doubt that it’s really affecting the bottom line. The Giants got stuck with Zito’s contract but still managed 2 WS titles while under that burden.
No player would EVER sign a contract that had a team opt-out.
Matt Cain did, and the Giants duly opted out.
That’s a club option on the very last year of a long-term deal. Not an option that allows them to void 50 or more percent of the contract.
Bad signing from the start. Then he surprised for year 1. Then year 2 followed his trend of getting worse each year.
It’s a no brainer for guys who had poor seasons not to opt out. Hope no one was surprised at this decision
It’s a big contract but the Giants have money. I’m optimistic since Cueto bounced back before. When he was traded to KC, he was not good until the playoffs and WS. I saw the Orioles beat him up twice. Cueto knows how to pitch so even if his physical skills diminish a bit, he can be effective.
Has Cueto ever had blister issues before? Maybe bring up the debate of the balls being different this year. Ask Stroman and Sanchez in Toronto about that. Sanchez missed most of the season because of blister and fingernail issues that he has never had before.
I’d take Cueto at 21M a year over Tanaka at 22.3M per year. People are shocked that Tanaka didn’t opt out, but laughing at Cueto doing the same. Cueto is the better pitcher and he is cheaper per year.
Dream on Death. No one is shocked at Tanaka and no one is laughing at Cueto. They are laughing at the Giants for giving that contract!
Then why is no one laughing at NY? More expensive per year and an inferior pitcher.
it was a dumb signing then, even more dumb now. giants to rebuild
Both Cueto and Tanaka are damaged goods no way they were going to get out of their currents contracts pure and simple. Smart moves on their parts…
Blisters mean damaged goods? Luckily for the Dodgers they didn’t view Rich Hill’s blister problem in 2016 as an indication of him being damaged goods, and pass on their re-signing him.
What I have not seen mentioned is that Cueto lost someone close to him before spring training. Cueto is an emotional pitcher and he seemed to be not into baseball early this year. I see him and Crawford both bouncing back this year. I am a Dodgers fan but live near SF. I just watch and here about the team on radio on a daily basis.
His father was ill during spring training, but I was not aware of him passing away or not.
Crawford tragically lost his sister in law during the season as well.