On Saturday night, the Kansas City Royals nearly made a blockbuster acquisition – starting pitcher Johnny Cueto of the Cincinnati Reds.
However, the deal was quashed (for now, at least) because of some iffy medicals from one of the particulars going back to Cincinnati in the deal.
#Royals were close to acquiring Cueto from #Reds earlier tonight, sources tell me and @jonmorosi. Deal fell through.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 26, 2015
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
How close was the deal to going through? Well, Cueto’s Reds teammate Michael Lorenzen was actually warming up before Cueto’s start against the Rockies, and Lorenzen told Cueto it was because he was getting dealt. From MLB.com…
While Cueto was warming up, he found teammate and rookie Michael Lorenzen also preparing to pitch. Lorenzen is Cincinnati’s scheduled starter for Sunday.
“I was warming up and he was there in the bullpen and I told him, ‘What are you doing here?’ He told me, ‘I’m going to pitch because you’re going to get traded.’ That happened 10 minutes before the game,” Cueto said through translator Tomas Vera.
[…]
“I don’t want to use a bad word in this location, but it was really bad how I found out what happened,” Cueto said. “My head went around the whole way. My thoughts were all over the place. I didn’t know what to do.”
Cueto’s start in Colorado on Saturday seemingly dampened some of the fears that scouts had about him following a pair of clunkers to start the second half – he allowed four hits over eight shutout innings, walking one and striking out five.
But Cueto wasn’t the only starter on the trade market to make waves on Saturday – Cole Hamels of the Phillies ended up no-hitting the Cubs, one of his biggest suitors, at Wrigley Field.
