The Chicago White Sox are bringing in Mike Clevinger to be their new fifth starter. It is a strange decision when Johnny Cueto was as good as he was in 2022 but they went with Clevinger instead. The White Sox could have still brought Cueto back and figured it out but they chose not to.
Now, after months of waiting to see where Cueto was going to end up, he finally has signed with a new home. Very early on Tuesday morning (Monday night for some people), Cueto signed with the Miami Marlins. He is going to be a nice little piece of depth for them going into 2023.
Sandy Alcantara is one of the best pitchers in baseball right now so Cueto will slot in somewhere behind him when it comes to forming their rotation. That is not a bad duo for the team to start off with as they head into this 2023 season.
The Marlins have the fourth-best roster in the National League East Division, even with Cueto. The Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves are the two most recent National League Champions (The Braves won the World Series) and the New York Mets might have the best roster on paper.
Johnny Cueto agrees to deal with Marlins
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 10, 2023
The Chicago White Sox will certainly not have Johnny Cueto back in 2023.
It isn't an ideal situation for the Marlins right now as they simply don't have the roster to compete with those three teams but they can certainly make it hard on them. Who knows? Maybe a player like Cueto can spark them enough to have a good year and surprise some people.
The White Sox, as mentioned before, might be making a mistake by letting Cueto get away. They probably didn't want t pay him what he is worth but he earned it by pitching the way that he did in 2022.
Besides Dylan Cease (who came in second place for the American League Cy Young in 2022), Cueto was their best pitcher. He is now hoping that he can replicate some of that with his new Marlins team. You can count on it because he puts in the work needed to be an elite athlete.