© Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
Johnny Cueto showed up to Spring Training, along with his fellow pitchers and catchers on Tuesday. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Wednesday that the Giants pushed his work on the mound back to at least next Monday because the 31-year-old got sick just before traveling to Arizona.
Cueto being held back from throwing a few days. Got the flu just before he arrived and was pretty "washed out," Bochy said. He couldn't throw while sick. Staff didn't want to push him. #sfgiants
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) February 14, 2018
“He was pretty cooked,” manager Bruce Bochy said, “so we decided to push him back a little bit, because when he was sick he couldn’t throw. The last thing we want to do is put somebody in a rush mode.”
Cueto participated in the team’s first formal workout on Wednesday, which included conditioning and drills, but Schulman reported he will be limited to playing long-toss for the next four days and his first appearance this spring will likely be delayed.
This will be Cueto’s third Spring Training since signing with the Giants in December 2015 and each one has come with a different obstacle.
In 2015, Cueto’s Spring Training workload was pushed back after winning the World Series with the Kansas City Royals the year before. Nonetheless, Cueto went 18-5 with a 2.79 ERA and five complete games in his first year with the Giants.
The following year, Cueto stayed in the Dominican Republic to tend to his ill father and proceeded to finish last season 8-8 with a 4.52 ERA.