Right-hander Johnny Cueto has exercised the opt-out in his minor league deal with the Rangers, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post on X. The veteran is now a free agent, per Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 on X.
Cueto, 38, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers back in April. By the end of May, he had made four minor league starts, allowing five earned runs in 18 innings for a tidy ERA of 2.50. It seemed the Rangers had some interest in adding him to the roster down the line but couldn’t find space right away, so the two sides agreed to kick his opt-outs down the road to June 14 and July 1.
Since then, his results have dropped off. He’s made five starts since the start of June, with two of them being seven-run clunkers. Overall, he’s allowed 21 earned runs in 23 innings over those five most recent outings, giving him a 5.71 ERA in the minors this year.
While Cueto has struggled, the rotation in Texas has gotten more crowded. Nathan Eovaldi was reinstated from the injured list at the end of May, with Jon Gray and Max Scherzer following in the month of June, taking spots alongside Andrew Heaney and Michael Lorenzen. Those reinstatements bumped Dane Dunning and José Ureña into long relief roles despite having some decent numbers on the year.
With the combination of Cueto’s numbers and the rotation picture in Arlington, it’s understandable that the club didn’t want to add him to the roster, making this opt-out a logical next step for the righty. He’ll head to the open market and look for a better path back to the big leagues elsewhere.
Though the numbers in Triple-A haven’t been great, Cueto has a lengthy track record in the majors. He has a 3.50 ERA in over 2,000 innings dating back to his 2008 debut. The results have been shakier lately, as he’s finished three of the past five MLB seasons with an ERA above 5.00. That includes last year, when injuries limited him to 52 1/3 innings with the Marlins with a 6.02 ERA. But as recently as 2022, he tossed 158 1/3 with the White Sox while keeping his ERA down to 3.35.