It's hard enough to pitch when you're involved in trade rumors. Johnny Cueto took it one step further Saturday.
Before his start against the Rockies, Cueto said, he was told by teammate Michael Lorenzen that he had been traded. Lorenzen was warming up to start in his place. There was only one problem: Cueto wasn't traded.
MORE: Best possible destinations for Cueto | Rumors: Dodgers in mix to land Cincinnati ace
Some good stuff postgame from Cueto. Lorenzen was getting ready to pitch. Told Cueto he was getting traded. But deal didn't happen. #reds
— Mark Sheldon (@m_sheldon) July 26, 2015 Ken Rosenthal reported late Saturday that the Royals and Reds were close on a deal that would have sent Cueto to Kansas City, but that one Royals player did not meet the medical standard expected of him.
Sources indicate that the problem was that one of the players going from the #Royals to the #Reds for Cueto did not check out medically.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 26, 2015 Cueto said in his postgame news conference, via Mark Sheldon of MLB.com, that he was not pleased to hear about a potential trade that way, and understandably so. Who would want to hear they were no longer a part of an organization from their would-be replacement?
And in response, all Cueto did was throw eight scoreless innings in a 5-2 win for the Reds.
Maybe teams should tell their aces they've been traded more often.