The Rangers have reached an agreement with veteran starter Johnny Cueto, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (X link). It’s a minor league deal, tweets Robert Murray of FanSided. Cueto is represented by Primo Sports Group.
Cueto finds a landing spot after lingering in free agency for the entire winter. It was a marked change from the previous offseason, when he found a solid $8.5MM deal from the Marlins. At that point, the right-hander was coming off a 3.35 ERA showing over 25 appearances for the White Sox. His time in Miami wasn’t nearly as productive, as he missed a good portion of the season to injury and was largely ineffective when he was able to take the mound.
The 38-year-old injured his biceps during his first start of the season. He went on the injured list and essentially missed the first half. Cueto returned around the All-Star Break but would subsequently miss another few weeks due to a viral infection. Around the IL stints, he started 10 of 13 appearances. In 52 1/3 frames, Cueto was charged with a career-worst 6.02 ERA. He surrendered 17 home runs, an average of nearly three per nine innings.
Miami paid a $2.5MM buyout in lieu of a $10.5MM option for the 2024 season. Cueto wasn’t substantively linked to any teams over the offseason, yet MLB.com’s Jon Morosi reported in February that he continued to work out in hopes of prolonging his career. It took a few weeks into the regular season, but he’ll get that chance as a depth option for a Texas rotation dealing with a number of injuries.
The Rangers opened the year with each of Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle on the injured list. Left-hander Cody Bradford, who started the season as the #5 starter, recently went on the shelf with a lower back strain. Bradford’s injury isn’t thought to be especially serious. Scherzer could be back within a couple weeks, as he’s set to start a minor league rehab stint tomorrow.
Still, there’s sense for the Rangers in adding another upper minors rotation depth. Texas is currently operating with a starting five of Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning, Michael Lorenzen and Andrew Heaney. The latter has gotten out to a very rough start, pitching to a 6.35 ERA in 17 innings. Texas called on Jack Leiter for a spot start last week, but the former #2 pick was hit hard by the Tigers and subsequently optioned back to Triple-A.
Cueto has 16 years of big league experience. Four of those came when current Texas skipper Bruce Bochy managed him with the Giants between 2016-19. The righty was also teammates with Rangers GM Chris Young as part of the 2015 World Series team in Kansas City. Those connections surely didn’t hurt his chances of getting another opportunity with Texas. While Cueto doesn’t miss many bats at this stage of his career, he still has above-average control and the ability to work multiple innings as a starter or long reliever.
I mean, hey, there have been a few guys whose careers seemed over and after a few seasons of minor league/split deals, they made it back to the majors and got like 1 year/$8M or 2 years/$30M or something, 4-5 years after it seemed like they were gassed. You never know. But it is highly unlikely.
I guess some guys just don’t know what to do with retirement and as long as they can play some version of professional ball, they will.
Cueto never announced his retirement.
I never said he announced his retirement. My point is that he hasn’t retired despite his mega contracts and minor league split deals after his peak seems to have ended years ago.
You are missing my point. My point is a guy like Cueto, coming off that disastrous mega contract with the Giants, getting increasingly smaller deals with middling results and having to settle for minor league deals with only the potential for a call up, vs seeing their dwindling performance and advanced age as a player and their big career defining deal behind them and calling it a career-instead they keep trying to reestablish themselves.
“…trying to reestablish themselves”. Possibly. Looks like he’s earned more than a decent wage over his career. So no financial pressure? Why press on? Maybe he simply loves playing the game?
Every player should retire for their own reasons, not yours. People in every walk of life choose not to retire when they can comfortably. Money and past achievements/performances don’t have to be their only motivating factors to keep working.
High-level athletes are ultra-competitive and generally love their sport. It’s quite easy to understand wanting to compete as long as possible — even if your role or contribution changes. Cueto’s career path is common and logical. Early retirements while still at a relatively high performance level (e.g., Buster Posey) are the rarity that’s far more outside the norm.
If your paid millions to play a game you still enjoy why not continue to play until your burned out or can’t find a job.
Cueto was decent with the White Sox a couple of seasons ago. I guess it doesn’t hurt to see if he has anything left in the tank
The Reds should have tried since their front office loves to dumpster dive anyway.
Scherzer (39), Robertson (39), Cueto (38), Yates (37), deGrom (35), Eovaldi (34)
What could go wrong?
Add to the fact Cueto is a boom boom chubby choom choom, while most of those guys aren’t.
desgrom is 35?? holy…I thought he was like 29-31 man…
There should be a large demand for depth options like Cueto, surprising he was still out there to be had. The way these starting pitcher injuries are decimating rotations, these Quad-A guys should not be on the unemployment line.
Rangers should have brought back Monty after he helped the Rangers win the first championship. It’s not like the Rangers hurting for money after getting a new stadium.
It was the failed Bally Sports TV deal that killed a Jordan Montgomery reunion. Everyone wanted it, it just wasn’t feasible until they had some clarity on their TV arrangements.
IF the Rangers ever get everyone healthy, they are going to have a lot of starting pitching depth.
Big issue with the rangers going be the age of the staff so they may need that depth to skip starts etc to stay healthy
I hope Cueto pitches forever, always been entertaining to watch. I loved seeing some of his prime years on the Reds in the NL Central as a Brewers fan.
Cueto is a heck of a drug…it’s a shame to watch good people do whatever they can to get it!
I like how you don’t let yourself get stifled by the “rules” of the English language when picking your username. Going against the grain of spelling as an expression of your authentic self.
Barvo!
Hey there Professor! There’s a tad bit of humor in that misspelling.
I’ll choose to believe you.
I love your name.
Chris Young & Dayton Moore signed a guy from the 2015 Royals??? You don’t say!?!
He was real good in 22 and stunk in 23. No telling but worth giving him a shot. Injuries have taken their toll.