Johnny Cueto | |||
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Cueto with the Kansas City Royals
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San Francisco Giants – No. 47 | |||
Starting pitcher | |||
Born: San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic |
February 15, 1986 |||
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MLB debut | |||
April 3, 2008, for the Cincinnati Reds | |||
MLB statistics (through 2016 season) |
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Win–loss record | 114–75 | ||
Earned run average | 3.23 | ||
Strikeouts | 1,369 | ||
Teams | |||
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Career highlights and awards | |||
Johnny Cueto Ortiz (Spanish: [ˈkweto]; born February 15, 1986) is a Dominican professional baseball pitcher for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Cincinnati Reds from 2008 through 2015 and the Kansas City Royals in 2015. He was traded from the Reds to the Royals during the 2015 season, where he won the 2015 World Series over the New York Mets.
Cueto made his major league debut in 2008, delivering an outstanding performance, but struggling with consistency in his rookie year and 2009. By 2010 though, Cueto began to become a more consistent starting pitcher, and by 2011 he had emerged as the ace of the Reds pitching staff and one of the top pitchers in the National League. He won 19 games and posted a 2.78 ERA in 2012, finishing fourth in the voting for the National League Cy Young Award and helping lead the Reds to the NL Central title. In 2014, he won 20 games with a 2.25 ERA and tied for the NL lead in strikeouts with 242, finishing as the runner up for the Cy Young. In 2016, he won 18 games with the San Francisco Giants while posting a 2.79 ERA, helping lead them to the postseason, where they lost in the NLDS, and achieving another top 10 finish in the Cy Young voting. He was an MLB All-Star in 2014 and 2016, and was chosen as the starting pitcher for the 2016 MLB All-Star Game. Since 2011, Cueto has the second lowest ERA of all pitchers with at least 500 innings pitched (behind Clayton Kershaw), accumulating a 2.73 ERA in over 1,100 innings across the past six seasons.
Cueto was in the Minor Leagues for three seasons, and has excelled at many levels, but really turned heads during the 2007 season. Cueto started his career for the Gulf Coast Reds of the Rookie Gulf Coast League, posting a 5.02 ERA, before being promoted to the High-A Sarasota Reds of the Florida State League, where he finished his 2005 season. Johnny has had progressively better seasons since. In 2006, Cueto was placed in Low A Dayton, blasting out of the gates, and posting a 2.61 ERA, and a 0.88 WHIP. While with Dayton, on May 13, 2006, he threw a rain shortened no-hitter against Wisconsin. He was later promoted back to Sarasota, where he finished his season for the second consecutive year. Poised for a breakout 2007, Cueto was placed, once again, in Sarasota. He pitched 14 games in Sarasota, before going on a hot streak, and advancing through three levels in one season. He burnt through AA Chattanooga, and AAA Louisville throughout the rest of his 2007 campaign. He was named the Reds' Minor League Pitcher of the Year for the second consecutive season.