Report: Royals’ deal for Reds starter Johnny Cueto was almost a go
A deal in which the Royals were set to acquire Reds right-hander Johnny Cueto for prospects fell through Saturday night, according to Fox’s Ken Rosenthal.
Rosenthal reported that one of the Royals’ prospects in the proposed deal wasn’t cleared medically, which sidetracked the potential acquisition by the Royals of a front-end starter and certain upgrade to the rotation.
#Royals were close to acquiring Cueto from #Reds earlier tonight, sources tell me and @jonmorosi. Deal fell through.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 26, 2015Sources 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, 2015Before the game, another Reds starter, Michael Lorenzen, went to warm up and told Cueto he was being traded, according to MLB.com Reds beat writer Mark Sheldon.
Cueto reportedly wasn’t thrilled with the way he found out about the near trade, but he didn’t let that affect his performance.
Cueto said he was upset to learn about it that way. But was able to put it out of his head and pitch well. More to come in story. #reds
— Mark Sheldon (@m_sheldon) July 26, 2015Instead, Cueto went out and tossed eight shutout innings at Colorado on Saturday night. Cueto scatteredg four hits and a walk with five strikeouts at Colorado. He is 7-6 with a 2.62 ERA in 19 starts this season.
It’s unclear what Royals prospects might have been involved in the deal.
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This story was originally published July 25, 2015 at 11:51 PM with the headline "Report: Royals’ deal for Reds starter Johnny Cueto was almost a go."