As the San Francisco Giants continue making their push for a Wild Card spot, one of their past pitchers is reportedly going to make his Major League return after he wasn’t picked up in free agency before the start of this season.
Former Giants All-Star Johnny Cueto is expected to have his contract selected by the Los Angeles Angels according to MLB insider Hector Gomez of Z101 Digital. Nothing has been formally announced by the team, but the thought is he’s going to replace injured Jose Soriano in the rotation after he was placed on the 15-day IL.
16-year veteran last pitched in the MLB with the Miami Marlins in 2023, posting a 6.02 ERA across 13 appearances and 10 starts with the majority of those outings coming in the second half of the year.
Cueto hit free agency and signed a minor league deal with the defending champion Texas Rangers but wasn’t ever called up to The Show before he exercised his opt-out clause on July 2.
San Francisco fans will best remember the right-hander from his time with the franchise when the front office handed him a six-year, $130 million contract after he helped the Kansas City Royals win the World Series in 2015.
His tenure started out great, earning his second career All-Star Game selection in 2016 when he posted a 2.79 ERA and led the league in complete games with five. He held an 18-5 record across 32 starts with an ERA+ of 144 that earned him a sixth place finish in the NL Cy Young voting.
Unfortunately, that was the highlight of his time with the Giants.
Cueto struggled to close out the following season as San Francisco crumbled, and when it looked like he had figured things out in 2018 after having the lowest ERA in Major League Baseball through his first four starts, he was diagnosed with an elbow sprain that eventually resulted in a need for Tommy John surgery after it was first announced that wouldn’t be required.
The veteran wasn’t the same pitcher following that injury, and eventually his time with the franchise ended after the 2021 campaign.
Now, the former Giant is hoping he can show something with the Angels that could earn him another contract going forward despite being 38 years old.
