Veteran Angels pitcher’s woeful start highlights questionable choice not to retire

The Los Angeles Angels are no stranger to seeing guys playing on well past their actual shelf life. Watching the last few years of Albert Pujols' time with the Angels was largely sad as his body failed him. Unfortunately, Father Time and/or injuries do not care about a player's desire to keep playing the game that they love.

Another such player that seems to fall into that group is Johnny Cueto. From 2008 to 2016 or so, Cueto was one of the better pitchers in all of baseball. However, the injuries started to pile up for him and after his tenure with the Giants ended in 2021, he has been bouncing around the league trying to hang on.

That bouncing ultimately had him land with the Angels on a minor league deal during the 2024 season. LA was in need someone to cover innings and decided to give him a shot. Unfortunately, his start against the Tigers spiraled out of control in a hurry and highlighted that his time in MLB probably needs to come to an end.

Johnny Cueto's MLB return with Angels was more sad that triumphant

The first few innings of Cueto's return to the big leagues was vintage Cueto. He controlled the inside part of the plate and kept the ball from drifting too far over. However, that faded pretty quickly and Detroit starting teeing off on Cueto in the fifth and sixth as he wasn't able to locate his diminished stuff and got punished for it.

For the Angels, gambling a little on Cueto made all the sense in the world. Their season has been over in terms of playoff aspirations for a while now and their roster needs work this offseason before they can compete realistically. With Jose Soriano on the IL, using Cueto to cover innings instead of blowing a prospect promotion early and starting their service clock has a lot of merit.

Unfortunately for Cueto, his return to MLB did very little to show that he is going to be capable of continue his career for much longer. He could prove us wrong, but hopefully he doesn't keep trying fruitlessly until no one will let him anymore so he can leave baseball on his own terms.

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