Kansas City Royals reliever Jose Cuas relishes experience of pitching in New York City

By the time the Kansas City Royals finish their four-game series against the New York Yankees in the Bronx, Royals relief pitcher and former New York City prep star Jose Cuas will have had an estimated 300 friends and family come through Yankee Stadium.

Cuas, a 28-year-old infielder-turned-pitcher who made his major-league debut this season, grew up in New York City (Brooklyn) as a big fan of the Yankees who idolized their superstar shortstop Derek Jeter. Since he was 6, he’d regularly gone to games at the previous Yankee Stadium with his father.

He attended several games at the current edition of Yankee Stadium, but less frequently as his summer schedule had already begun to get dominated by summer ball.

So it was a benchmark moment in the journey of the right-hander with a side-arm delivery who began his career in professional baseball as an infielder, converted to a pitcher, got released and worked his way to the majors through the independent leagues while working at FedEx to support his family before catching on with a major-league organization.

“It didn’t hit me until after the game when I saw my family,” Cuas said. “In the bullpen when I was warming up, I just kept telling myself, ‘Breathe. Relax. It’s okay. It’s the same game. Just go out there and do what you’ve been doing.’ But when I got on the mound, everything just changed, hearing my family yell from their seats. It was just surreal.”

Cuas, who pitched for the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League prior to signing with the Royals, tossed a scoreless seventh inning in relief of Kris Bubic on Friday night.

He gave up one hit and stranded that runner to preserve a 5-3 Royals lead at the time.

More than 100 friends and family members were in attendance, and he greeted them after the game.

“When I was on the mound, I heard them yelling, ‘Let’s go Chelo.’ That’s my nickname,” Cuas said. “When I heard that, I was like, ‘Wow. That’s a lot of people.’ After the game, they came down and said hi. It was just a gang of people in the corner by the wall. It was just unreal.”

Cuas said friends and family had the Yankees series in mind at the start of the season. Having not ever been on the major-league roster, he gave little mind to the idea that he might actually pitch against his childhood team. At that time, he described that thought as “far-fetched.”

It still wasn’t even a realistic notion after his initial promotion to the majors. He came up at the end of May right after the Royals placed several players on the COVID-related IL. He never went back to the minors.

“Obviously, I didn’t know how long I was going to be up here after I got called up for COVID,” Cuas said. “Last week after the All-Star break, that’s when, ‘Wow, we go to New York in a week.’ That’s when it started hitting me and getting all these phone calls from people telling me they bought tickets already and they’re going to be here. That’s when it started hitting me, you’re really about to pitch in Yankee Stadium.”

In 26 appearances through Friday night, Cuas has recorded a 2.45 ERA with 18 strikeouts, a .253 opponent’s batting average and a 1.50 WHIP in 22 innings.

He has often been called upon by Royals manager Mike Matheny and dropped into high-pressure situations with runners on base. He has allowed just 25% of inherited runners to score.

“Yesterday when he came off the field, I wanted to make sure that he knew how proud we all were because that’s dwarfed by the pride felt by 120 people, literally, in the stands that were here to see him,” Matheny said. “That’s just so amazing.

“To go back and see his story, and think about the kid that came and watched so many games here and how many times the game told him to go away. Whether it was by his own drive or by the push of some of his family that led to him sticking with it, to be able to be out on this field like he did yesterday and thrive in a situation where we needed him. All of that is like storybook stuff.”

Cuas has allowed just one run in his last seven appearances (seven innings), and he has seven strikeouts and two walks during that stretch.

“I’ll never forget last night, watching what he did and knowing how much that meant to everybody,” Matheny said.