Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
It would qualify as a surprise if Johnny Cueto has thrown his final pitch as a Giant.
Still, that’s a heck of a way to go out if he is indeed traded.
Cueto was excellent Sunday, allowing just a run on three hits in 6 2/3 innings, looking immensely more comfortable with Chadwick Tromp and not Joey Bart behind the plate. Tromp even called for a couple shimmies on the mound (maybe the hand signals had a flourish?) one day before the trade deadline, which arrives Monday at 1 p.m.
“I wasn’t even thinking about it,” Cueto said over Zoom through translator Erwin Higueros after the Giants’ 4-1 win at Chase Field. “I love being here. But if they want to trade me, that’s their decision.”
The decision looks easier after the Giants won nine of their 12 games entering decision day, just two games below .500 and very much in the mix for a wild-card spot. Especially considering Cueto is due to make $21 million next season, which will follow a year in which every franchise has struggled financially, it is difficult to envision the Giants getting an attractive enough offer.
For the 34-year-old who wants to win and said he loves San Francisco, staying would be OK. He’ll be waiting to see if his phone lights up.
“If my phone rings and they told me that I’ve been traded — wherever they send me, I’ll be happy and I’ll just try and do my job,” said Cueto, who threw 106 pitches and lowered his ERA to a deceiving 4.75.
Trevor Cahill has joint inflammation in his hip, the Giants unsure about the severity just yet. While Drew Smyly and Jeff Samardzija build their ways back, neither is close to pitching four or five innings. If Cahill misses a rotation turn or two, the starters who remain become even more important, and thus a Cueto trade becomes less likely.
“He’s so fun to watch,” manager Gabe Kapler said accurately.
And so fun with Tromp, who “knows my sequence, he knows what I like to do,” Cueto said after struggling with Bart in his last outing. “…I will get comfortable with Bart. We will get onto the same page as long as he keeps learning and learning how I like to pitch and know my sequence. But it does help to have a catcher like Tromp that you feel comfortable with, that knows your sequence.”
It certainly seems as if Cueto and Bart will have more time to work together after Monday.