Johnny Cueto is headed to a contender. David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals were quiet at the trading deadline last year and advanced to the World Series.
This year, they made a lot of noise early by acquiring right-hander Johnny Cueto from the Cincinnati Reds for three minor league left-handers — Brandon Finnegan, John Lamb and Cody Reed. Finnegan was the Royals’ 2014 first-round draft pick and was on their playoff roster.
The Royals, however, are in a win now mode and Cueto was a 20-game winner last year. His 2.51 ERA the past five years ranks second in the majors to pitchers with a minimum of 500 innings.
“He was our top priority for us,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said. “We thought he fit us. We felt he was a pitcher that matched up very well with anybody. He’s a top of the rotation starter.”
The Royals lacked a No. 1 starter after right-hander James Shields bolted to sign with the San Diego Padres as a free agent. Cueto fills that vacuum.
Moore had been reluctant to trade blue-chip prospects during the season.
“We’re always motivated to try to make a deal if we think it makes sense,” Moore said. “We felt Johnny Cueto was the very best pitcher for our team, the right acquisition and somebody we could put at the top of the rotation and move forward with. If we’re getting the right player back, we’ve always tried to be very aggressive to win the negotiations. Again we’ve were fortunate to execute this deal.”
Cueto, who threw eight scoreless innings Saturday to beat the Colorado Rockies, will join the Royals on Tuesday in Cleveland.
Manager Ned Yost said Cueto would likely be kept on his normal four-days rest between starts, which means he would probably make his Royals’ debut Thursday in Toronto.
Somebody, however, will be coming out of the rotation. Plus, the Royals will have to remove someone from the 25-man roster when Cueto reports.
Is Moore looking to make more moves before the July 31 trading deadline?
“We’re going to continue to look for ways to improve our team,” he said. “We like our group a great deal and we believe in this group. I don’t feel like we have to go out and add anything at this point and time. There’s a lot of creative people out there in the game that propose ideas and deals that perhaps work for both organizations. We’ll be very opened minded as we move forward in the next four or five days.”
