12:30pm: Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets that Cueto’s timeline to return is actually six to eight weeks.
12:21pm: There’s been no shortage of worry over the status of Johnny Cueto’s elbow following last week’s placement on the DL and visit to multiple specialists, including Dr. James Andrews. FanRag’s Jon Heyman, however, tweets that the Giants received relatively good news on their righty. While Cueto has been diagnosed with a sprain in the elbow, he’s avoided a major tear of the ulnar collateral ligament. Dr. Andrews prescribed rest for Cueto, and he’s expected to miss six weeks of action, per Heyman.
Certainly, a six-week absence for Cueto, who stormed out of the gates hotter than almost any pitcher on the planet, is a critical blow for the Giants. But Cueto has obviously avoided a worst-case scenario by receiving a non-surgical treatment plan. With Cueto and Madison Bumgarner on the shelf for the time being, the Giants will continue to turn to Jeff Samardzija, Chris Stratton, Ty Blach, Derek Holland and Andrew Suarez in the rotation, with Tyler Beede waiting in the wings at Triple-A Sacramento should another need arise in the starting corps.
The 2017 season was one to forget for Cueto, who was limited to 147 2/3 innings by a flexor strain and struggled to a 4.52 ERA in that time. Last year’s struggles prompted Cueto to forgo the opt-out provision in his six-year deal with the Giants, and early on, it looked like a blessing in disguise for San Francisco. Cueto took the NL by storm in April, tossing 32 innings with a 0.84 ERA, 7.3 K/9, 1.7 BB/9 and a 45 percent ground-ball rate. He allowed just one homer in his 32 frames before landing on the DL with what was initially termed inflammation before an MRI and a series of evaluations.
San Francisco has remained afloat in the division with a 19-15 record, four games back from the Diamondbacks for the NL West lead, and just completed a sweep of an exciting young Braves team over the weekend. The loss of Cueto for an extended period will give the club a lengthy look at Suarez, who has admittedly been quite impressive in his first three starts as a big leaguer (3.06 ERA, 18-to-2 K/BB ratio, 53.3 percent ground-ball rate in 17 2/3 innings). The former second-round pick could position himself to seize a long-term starting job for the Giants if he continues at anywhere near that pace.
Wow. So happy about this. I was really starting to think he needed TJS.
Yeah, me too. I can’t believe I’m saying “whew” to a 6-to-8 week DL stint, but considering the alternative I’m smiling ear to ear.
Im so glad this isnt TJ.
Suarez, Stratton, and Blach have all looked like servicable no.3 starter types. Maybe Shark can turn himself around and we stay around .500 for Bum to return?
Suarez actually maybe better. Both of his last two starts have looked really great.
Yea, as of now they are all no.3 starters, but Suarez and Stratton imo can rise to co-ace potential if they have the right experience and coaching.
yeah nothing is “dazzling” but suarez really seems to know how to pitch.
Still sucks but it’s a big relief. He should come back to finish the season off strong with madbum back in the rotation soon. If they keep winning like they have been then I think they’d be a team to be scared of.
Yea, lineup is on fire, but the infield defense without panik has been attrocious. Even though hanson has been hitting, I think they should have kelby play second and at all costs avoid bringing up gomez, who is all bat and no glove. If we have a mediocre staff, we need above average defense to support it.
I don’t disagree about defensive issues however atrocious I’m not so sure, Hanson has corrected his errors with his bat and cmon he just got called up from trip a give him some time, but between un characteristic errors by Longoria and Crawford and using Pablo in place of Longoria the defense took a slide but it’s far from atrocious
Lets be honest, the giants defense sucks without panik.
Thank God. I have both cueto and bumgarner on my fantasy team and I’m glad I wasn’t holding him for nothing. Too bad I also have Eaton, Myers, and robbie ray. I’ve had awful injury luck this year.
Great news. Giants playing really well of late. Suarez Stratton and Blach are performing as well as you could hope. As long as we stay around .500 until bum and cueto are back, looks like we could see some giants magic like years past
Steve Adams – have you been watching Giants of late?? Cueto’s elbow strain is the OPPOSITE of a “critical blow.” It is Great News! Having to see Dr Andrews, everyone feared he had a season and a half ending appt with TJ surgery. 6 weeks! SF can handle that: the offense is clicking, rookie pitchers performing, and Bumgarner back at end of May.
Any time a Teams best performing starter goes down for two months, it’s a critical blow. Not worst case, but bad.
Gotta step back and see what the writer is talking about here.
End of May? That is VERY optimistic.
Um, no. He has already started throwing on flat ground. Hes coming back by the end of May. You obviously haven’t checked your sources lmao.
I’m also happy about the news. However, is a sprain a precursor to a tear? Does anyone know of players who initially had sprains that later turned into a tear? He is obviously putting stress on the ligament. Curious…
A sprain _is_ a partial tear, just not a severe enough tear to require surgery.
“While Cueto has been diagnosed with a sprain in the elbow, he’s avoided a major tear of the ulnar collateral ligament.” (note “major tear”)
I saw a post the other day comparing the Dodgers record this year with the way they started in 16-17. Those were more compete teams and the 17 team had a few players “Taylor” that had overachieving years. This team has no Turner, no Seager, not the same pitching depth, and the D-Backs are better.
Relevance to this post ? I’m just wondering
That the Giants despite losing Cueto can make the playoffs over the Dodgers. Should have started with that.
Baseball in the NL was set up perfectly for the Dodgers last year. Dbacks didn’t have as good of team as they have this year and the Nationals weren’t great. So they had almost no competition until the World Series. I feel like any of the top 4 AL teams could have beat the Dodgers in that World Series. Fans are learning that just because it happened last year doesn’t mean it’s going to happened this year. Giants fans have known that. We miss the playoffs after deep playoffs runs every year almost.
First two weeks of the year everyone on here was bashing the Giants saying the didn’t stand a chance. Crazy how we are competing with a bunch of minor league starters……..
Which position do you play?
Look another tough guy tickled when someone uses ‘our team’. Relax chinwood
Lighten up, Francis.
Lol that was good
And very unoriginal
Position? Well that would be fan kind sir. I sense issues sir, care to talk?
I can’t take anyone seriously when they use themselves in a sentence about a team such as “Crazy how we are competing with a bunch of minor league starters”. They for one are not part of the team, don’t own or actually work for said team, have no influence on the outcome of games. When referencing a team with we would be..we as fans are excited. Since this is a singular person it should be, the Giants or they as Giants. We, our, us, unless you’re talking about the fan base makes zero sense. Unless of course the team you’re talking about is the Green Bay Packers and you’re a stock holder.
Man shut up. We pay their salaries.
Please learn about the economics of the game!
We buy tickets to fund the team. We are part of the team.
Funny stuff.
Are you part of McDonald’s for buying a Big Mac? Are you an honorary scout also?
What position? The position that pays the salaries. You don’t know that the giants slogan is “WE ARE SF WE ARE GIANTS” right