Johnny Cueto Signs Giant Contract

Johnny Cueto signed a six-year, $130 million dollar deal with the San Francisco Giants on Monday.

Cueto went 11-13 with a 3.44 earned-run average splitting time between Cincinnati and Kansas City in 2015. Value Add Baseball rated Cueto the best pitcher in baseball at the All-Star break. But the righty struggled in the second half of the season after coming to Kansas City in a trade. He redeemed himself by winning a playoff game and earning a complete-game victory in the World Series that helped the Royals become champions.

Cueto joins a revamped San Francisco staff that includes free-agent acquisition Jeff Samardzija and Giant stud Madison Bumgarner. The team struck out in attempting to sign David Price and Zack Greinke. Landing Cueto became necessary to keep up in a continuing NL West arms race that witnessed Greinke move from Los Angeles to Arizona and Hisashi Iwakuma agree to terms with the Dodgers.

“With these two significant additions we made,” general manager Bobby Evans explained, “it gives us a balance of five guys who can give us the starts and innings we need to protect our bullpen and give us the best chance to compete for the division.”