Three San Francisco Giants Who Need to Have Rebound Seasons in 2018
Cueto, of course, decided to not opt-out of his current deal after a disappointing 2017 season added by injury concern.
Sticking with the Giants and his $84 million, manager Bruce Bochy and company will hope that he can return to the form he had in the first year of his contract when he pitched for over 200 innings with a sub-2.80 ERA and placed sixth in the National League Cy Young voting.
The hallmarks of his game are control and durability, and if he can provide those Bruce Bochy and Giants fans should be satisfied with his performance. But if he adds in the ability to miss bats like he had in 2016 and 2014, he immediately enters the ace conversation, which would make him and Madison Bumgarner a fierce duo no team would want to bat against.
Granted, that’s a huge “if.” Big enough to make him want to avoid the open market and take the security, but Cueto has shown the ability to bounce back before from periods of strife.
All-in-all, Cueto opting in isn’t the worst thing to happen to this Giants organization in recent years. The team needs reasons for optimism and the fans definitely need more entertaining baseball games.
Keep your dingers, every other baseball team. I’ll take the healthy Cueto shimmy and slide any day of the week.